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(m) Future developments— During 1959 plans were formulated for the opening of
another boarding school, two more day schools and a further tutorial class; together
with the first directly administered hostel, from which children would attend local schools.
At the same time plans were being made, under the provisions of the Mental Health
Act, 1959, for ensuring that school-leavers from maladjusted schools received any necessary
community care, including residential accommodation, if required.
IV.—School psychological service
(a) Early history—In 1913 the London County Council "took the unprecedented step
of appointing a (half-time) psychologist, Mr. (later Sir) Cyril Burt". The initial appointment
was for a period of three years, and after a subsequent extension was made
permanent in 1919. According to the reports of the Underwood Committee it was not
until 1932 that another school psychologist was appointed, by Leicester. By an odd
coincidence it was also in 1932 that Burt resigned his Council appointment.
In the preface to the second edition of his 'Mental and Scholastic Tests', dated 1946,
Sir Cyril has given the following account of the early days:
"The appointment in 1913 of a psychologist to work in the Education Department of the L.C.C. was
the first of its kind; and the duties had therefore largely to be defined by the psychologist himself in the
light of his own growing experience. My formal instructions were to 'assist teachers by developing
means both for the examination or ascertainment, and for the education or training, of various types of
children needing special provision or attention.' This referred primarily to the study of sub-normal
pupils (the mentally deficient, the dull and backward, the delinquent, and the nervous), but was also
intended to cover the super-normal (i.e. children suitable for transfer to secondary schools, trade schools,
art schools, central schools, and the like, on the ground of higher or specialized ability) and particularly
the junior county scholarship examination. In the case of both sub-normal and super-normal the problem
was envisaged as one of detection and training rather than of diagnosis and treatment; that is, it was
expressly considered to be a task for an educational psychologist rather than for a school medical officer
or psychiatrist. That view, indeed, was shared in those days by the majority of medical officers themselves,
who were still a little sceptical about the feasibility of introducing what would nowadays be called child
guidance. The social aspects of the work proved to be of great importance; the medical aspect, though
not to be neglected, of less significance. For inquiries in these directions the Council's psychologist was
able to rely on the generous aid of the school doctors and social workers (care committee visitors) as
well as on that of teachers and voluntary assistants. His office thus developed into the earliest official
child guidance centre in this country; and a special tribute of thanks is due to the Education Officer,
Sir Robert Blair, and to the Chief Inspector, Dr. C. W. Kimmins, for their early and effective support
of such a scheme."
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