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from the Gale Street premises on 6th August 1965 and the amenities of the new
building are much appreciated by staff and children alike. As the nursery is
situated in a central position in the western half of the borough, it was found
possible to discontinue the coach service that previously had conveyed children
to the Gale Street premises.
The increasing recognition of the benefit of group life for the 3-5 yearolds
is manifest in the opening of numerous play-groups and child-minder groups
throughout the borough. These do not always answer the problems of the working
mother or the socially distressed family. At least half the parents of our
nursery children are receiving assistance with the fees.
There are many children placed in day nurseries because of minor handicaps
and behaviour problems. This fact is recognised by the training colleges who
have increased the amount of time devoted to the care and observation of handicapped
children in their student training syllabus. These children are not
sufficiently handicapped to consider them for the Day Centre at Kingsley Hall,
but nevertheless they would greatly benefit to be in the care of trained staffeven
for a few weeks. I am thinking particularly of children with little or no
speech by the age of 3-4 years, or children with extremely poor social
development. These children are lost in their first years at school and rarely
catch up with their age groups.
The nurseries continue to be recognised as training centres by the Ministry
of Health. I would like to mention here the formation of an Advisory Committee
for Nursery Nursing at the Hornchurch College of Further Education, Ardleigh
Green. I believe the College intend to run advanced training courses for
qualified nursery nurses, and I hope some of our staff will be able to attend
them.