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A close liaison at all levels has been maintained during the year with the
School Health Service. This is well illustrated in the " School Leavers " conferences,
concerning the educationally sub-normal boys and girls leaving school. Many of
these young persons need help and guidance in respect of job selection, and benefit
considerably from the service provided for them. In order to find them work that
is within their limited capabilities, the co-operation of the Youth Employment
Officer and the Disablement Resettlement Officer of the Ministry of Labour is
sought. A co-operative attitude of employers is of considerable importance in
developing an understanding of the problems of the subnormal and in this field
the mental welfare officers play an important part. A wider scope of activity can
be achieved in a work situation with an enlightened approach to the matter.
Four trainees left the supervision of the Adult Training Centre to enter ordinary
employment.
Junior Training Schools
These schools are provided for those children who under Section 57 of the
Education Act, 1944, are deemed to be suffering from a disability of mind of such
a nature or to such an extent as to make them incapable of receiving education at
a school provided by the Local Education Authority.
The Enfield Junior Training School provides facilities for the training of such
children. There is provision for 144 children of both sexes at the school, which
includes 24 places in a special care unit. All the children in the special care unit
have a dual handicap such as spasticity or other physical defects, as well as
subnormality.
The school normally accepts children from about four years up to 16 years of
age. It is open during ordinary school terms and the children are conveyed to and
from the school by coaches provided by the Council.
The work scheme provided by the staff is adaptable and imaginative. Casework
with families is carried out by the mental welfare officers, who help in maintaining
a bridge between the home and the school.
At the routine medical and dental examinations carried out on all the children
the parents are invited to attend. Those children in whom defects are found, or
where there are matters requiring further investigation, are referred to the school
health services or to their general practitioner.
The number on the roll at the end of the year was 115, plus 36 in the special
care unit, and there were eight on the waiting list.
A number of places at the school are reserved for children from the London
Borough of Haringey. A few Enfield children are placed at the Friern Barnet
Junior Training School in the London Borough of Barnet to facilitate transport
arrangements.
As in previous years a number of visits were paid on various occasions to the
school by representatives of other local authorities and voluntary organisations.
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