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95
Pre-school playgroups
We continue to receive the utmost co-operation from the Wandsworth
Pre-School Playgroups Association in placing mentally
handicapped and disturbed children in their playgroups. The
special playgroup for mentally handicapped children under five,
open five mornings a week and catering for ten children, continues
to give a most valuable service to the mentally handicapped
children in the community.
Junior Training School, Adult Training Centres and Hostel
Wandsworth Junior Training School
This school has continued to delight the authority and parents
with the high standards of education offered to the children. Special
attention has been given this year to ensuring that the liaison with
the services for mentally handicapped adults are properly formalised
to prepare for the handover of this establishment to the Inner
London Education Authority in 1971. They are very proud of
the standards achieved at this school, largely due to the efforts of
the devoted staff.
Adult Training Centres
With the opening of Roehampton Adult Training Centre in
August, there are now three adult training centres in the Borough,
and the waiting list has consequently been eliminated. The new
Centre (see photograph in centre pages—Plate C) is on the ground
floor of a building which incorporates a 30-place hostel upstairs.
Downstairs there are places for fifteen of these residents and 35
places for mentally handicapped people living at home, providing
up-to-date facilities for industrial training, social education and
further education in the classroom. In this Centre, as well as in
Balham and Battersea, there have been advances in increasing the
variety of experiences offered to the trainees. With the co-operation
of the Divisional Education Officer, Mr. Kingdom, the interest
of three Adult Education Institutes has been engaged and a
variety of different programmes now take place at the Centres,
some educational, some recreational. It has also been possible to
find open spaces near each Centre where the trainees are able to
go for regular sessions for exercise and organised games. Transport
has also been available on a regular basis for outings to places
of interest and the occupational therapist has continued to assist
in organising realistic outings into the local community to help
the trainees with the practical problems of daily living.
Meetings between the staff of all three training centres have
promoted a great deal of useful discussion and combined thinking
on the shared problems of the service.