View report page

who, though socially and intellectually well adjusted to their defects within the sheltered
atmosphere of the school, cannot compete on the open market of employment. It is
regrettable that these children have no special vocational training to offer prospective
employers— in many cases not even as much as those children leaving secondary schools
who have been doing woodwork and typing, and have been learning other manual skills
in the school curriculum.
In the past year or two, 5 children have left school with serious congenital heart
defects, who might have got sedentry jobs if they had had an extra pull over their healthy
competitors. In all these cases sheltered employment at Remploy or unpaid occupational
work in a Welfare Centre has been the only solution.
To help in this problem of bridging the gap between school and employment, visits
to the medical inspection sessions have been paid by Dr. Bourne, the medical officer at
Barking and Chadwell Heath Remploy factories and Mr. Larter of the County Welfare
Department, and this closer co-operation between the school doctor, the headmaster and
the sheltered employment and welfare agencies has been most successful.
The school nurse has continued to make visits to the homes of all children in the
school, regardless of the area in which they live. This arrangement with the divisional
school medical officers of the authorities concerned has made possible very much closer
co-operation between the school health department and the homes, expecially in cases
where the mother has not been able to attend at school medical inspections.
Hospital liaison has been good throughout the year and we now have complete
records of all hospital attendances of all the children seen during the past years.
Towards the end of the year some of the physically handicapped children were
supplied with specially modified cutlery from the Ministry of Labour Handicapped Aids
Department, and this has helped them to learn to use both hands at meals instead of
needing to have their food prepared for them; the co-operation and help of the staff in
teaching these children to be as independent as possible is invaluable.
No report would be complete without stressing the interest Mr. Hurton and his
staff show in the children, and their constant care has its reward in the social maturity
and independence of these children.
It has been a pleasure for the medical staff to go to the Open Day, Sports Day and
Christmas festivities and to be able to share in the achievements of these children, handicapped
by physical and educational defect.
Physiotherapy
The physiotherapist who attends for two sessions a week only, reports that during
1958 an average of 34 children were treated weekly. The total number of treatments
66