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Junior Training Schools
These schools are provided for children who, under Section 57 of the Education
Act, 1944, are found 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.
At the Junior Training School there is provision for 144 children of both sexes,
including a small nursery group and 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 four to sixteen years of age, but a
number of young persons over the age of sixteen years continue in attendance and
special provision is made for them. The majority of those reaching sixteen years
of age transfer to the Adult Training Centre. The school is open during ordinary
school terms and the children are conveyed to and from the school by coaches
provided or hired 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.
Parents are invited to attend the routine medical and dental inspections.
Those children in whom defects are found, or where there are matters requiring
further investigation, are dealt with by the school health service or are referred to
their general medical practitioner.
The number on the roll at the end of the year was 94, plus 33 in the special
care unit; and there were five awaiting admission to the special care unit.
Some children from the London Borough of Haringey are admitted to the
school and five 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, visits were paid on various occasions to the school by
representatives of other local authorities, professional bodies and voluntary
organisations.
Enfield Society for Mentally Handicapped Children
Throughout the year close contact was maintained between the Council and
the Society, and opportunity was taken at meetings between members and officers
of the Council and the Society to exchange information, particularly in regard to
the development of services through the Ten-Year Plan.
Informatory items were submitted by the Health Department for inclusion in
the Society's monthly bulletin.
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