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86
Training School and Centres
We continued to experience staff shortages, but in spite of this
the staff have enthusiastically embarked on many new projects.
Arrangements were made this year for regular outings of trainees
on a Council minibus. The School has a weekly outing and each of
the Adult Centres a fortnightly outing. Excursions are made to
places such as museums, the heliport, a telephone exchange,
nature walks in parks and alongside the river, and are followed by
discussions and projects which afford a good learning experience
to the trainees.
Wandsworth Training School
This year all the children from Lambeth who had been attending
our School were transferred to a school in Lambeth. This meant
that we were able to bring into our School our own children who
had been attending Fulham Training Centre, and now all children
attending Wandsworth Training School are Wandsworth residents.
At our invitation, two School Inspectors from the Inner London
Education Authority visited the School and were most helpful in
discussing with the staff the latest teaching theories and arranging
for them to visit an exhibition on Teaching of Infants at County
Hall.
Progressive teaching methods are being followed at the School.
The teaching is based on free activity, with the emphasis on creative
work. Painting, needlework, carpentry and leather work, cooking
and simple laundry are all subjects which the children enjoy along
with reading, writing and figure work.
A lending library has been started in the School with the help
of the Council's Children's Librarian.
University College, London, has included the School in a research
programme. This is a pilot scheme whereby children are taught to
read words and form sentences with apparatus without having to
write words. Several London schools are participating in this
research scheme, but Wandsworth School is the only Training
School included in the project.
A special programme for prospective school leavers was initiated
as a project, with these young people spending part of the week
travelling by public transport with a teacher to adult centres
where they participated in the adult activities, and to Chellow Dene
hostel where they received simple domestic training. It is hoped
to develop this scheme in the future.
Balham and Newlands Training Centres
The annual outings this year—Balham to Hampton Court and
Newlands on a riverboat to the Tower of London—were, as usual,
a great success.