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381
The classes for low-grade mentally defective children and
adolescents were continued throughout the year at the Occupation
Centre in Grangewood Park. The Occupation Centre deals with
children under school age; children of school age, but unsuitable
for a special school; and patients over school age, whether or not
they have been at a special school. The children under 16, of
whom there are 24 on the register, attend for both morning and
afternoon sessions on five days a week, and receive the same midday
meal as the children attending the special school for the
mentally defective, held on the first floor of the same building;
those aged over 16 attend for three sessions per week. The latter
group during the year have comprised 11 girls. The Occupation
Centre has been of the greatest value, not only in itself, but as an
adjunct to the work of the Education Committee, in that it
provides facilities for children who would otherwise receive no
form of systematic instruction.
Classes for Dull and Backward Children.
Special Classes for dull and backward children are established
in the following schools:—
Beulah Boys'.
West Thornton Infants'.
Davidson Boys'.
Ecclesbourne Boys' and Girls'.
Ingram Boys.'
Rectory Manor Infants'.
North Park Girls'.
Portland Infants'.
Svdenham Boys'.
Tavistock Girls'.
Whitehorse Manor Boys' and Girls'.
Winterbourne Infants'.
Woodside Girls'.
South Norwood Girls'.
Norbury Manor Senior Mixed.
I should like to emphasise the great value of such classes, and
to express a hope that they may be extended to a great many other
schools in the Borough. These special classes, especially where
a child can revert to the ordinary class for his stronger subjects,
help the dull and backward child to recover his self-confidence—
so readily lost when he compares himself with the normal child—
and in so doing assist him to use and develop powers which are
often left lying dormant through sheer lack of encouragement.
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