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second week in the term. At this first attendance of new cases, the parents are invited
and interviewed by the therapist to ascertain the child's history. The medical officer
in charge of this work visits all centres from time to time to see the children (and, if
necessary, the parents) and gives advice and help where necessary.
A senior speech therapist began duty on 1st September, 1949, acting as leader of
the team of therapists. She advises on general matters relating to speech therapy and is
available for consultation by teachers and others in addition to performing clinical
duties.
The clinics in the day schools for educationally sub-normal children, referred to
above, were established in 1951, and those in day schools for physically handicapped
children in 1952, after the senior speech therapist had made a survey of speech therapy
needs in boarding schools and in day schools for educationally sub-normal children,
and had also ascertained the requirements of the day schools for physically handicapped
children from the head teachers.
Delicate
children
The term open-air school' or 'class' is often applied to the type of school
organisation which provides for the education of delicate children.
The first such school to be established was an open-air recovery school at Charlottenburg,
a suburb of Berlin. It was opened in 1904 for schoolchildren who had ' lung
trouble, heart disease, anaemia and scrofula Sanatoria for children had been established
in Germany before this time, and they may be regarded as the parents of the first openair
school because they provided a little schooling.
The Council's open-air school at Bostall Wood, Plumstead, for 100 anaemic or
otherwise unhealthy children was the first school of this type organised by a local
education authority in this country. The school was opened in 1907, and was attended
by children from Woolwich, Greenwich and Deptford. The lines of the Charlottenburg
school were closely followed; organised rest was included in the curriculum.
Other schools of the same type followed, but until 1912 the schools were open only
from April to October. In that year they were continued throughout the winter months,
and the results upon the health of the children were reported as ' uniformly good
Tuberculosis and the concept of the 'pre-tuberculosis' child led in London to the
creation of separate schools for these and for non-tuberculous children which persisted
until 1939.
Several of the day open-air schools were destroyed by bombs during the war, and the
drawing up of the London School Plan and its subsequent revision have led to critical
reassessments of the functions of these schools. The kind of child referred by hospital
and school physicians has changed. For the first years, the children referred suffered
from ' debility', which figured so largely in the care of children of that period. (The
number of children suffering from debility has increased somewhat recently, but these
children arc now usually admitted to boarding open-air schools.) Today, as many
as 50 per cent. in some of the day open-air schools have asthma or chronic bronchitis.
A permanent wall has been provided for each of the old open-to-the-elements
classrooms and a completely new method of construction for new buildings has been
adopted. Sufficient numbers of children are still recommended for admission to these
schools to provide substantial waiting lists, though these are composed of younger
children than used to be the case.
The Council's special schools for the delicate cater chiefly for the needs of those
suffering from asthma, bronchitis, debility, malnutrition, primary tuberculosis, anaemia
and chronic catarrh. A careful check is kept upon the health of the children who are
examined by the school doctor each term. The day schools are for those whose handicap
is not so severe as to necessitate boarding education. A school nursing sister is in attendance
at each school.
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