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Special School Provision
(a) Day Special Schools
There are two day special schools in the Borough - Vale Road School for Physically Handicapped
Children, and the Blanche Nevile School for the Deaf. Units for partially hearing children at Devonshire
Hill Infants, Risley Avenue Junior and Drayton Comprehensive Schools are attached to the Blanche
Nevile School. The children at these units need special teaching because of their hearing difficulty
but are otherwise fully integrated with ordinary school life.
Of the 88 children on the roll at Vale Road Special School 54 were Haringey children and 34
children from other boroughs. Of the 129 children on the roll at Blanche Nevile School (including the
partially hearing units), 40 were Haringey children and 89 from other boroughs.
Day special school facilities for children in other categories have to be sought outside the Borough.
It is a matter of some concern that places must be sought for educationally subnormal children at either
Durants School or Oaktree School in Enfield or Oak Lodge School, Finchley. At present there are 42
Haringey children at Durants, 41 at Oaktree and 80 at Oak Lodge. There are 36 Haringey children at
present on the waiting list for admission to these schools. There is thus an acute shortage of places
available for children ascertained as educationally subnormal and an urgent need for educational provision
for these children within the Borough.
The other categories of handicapped pupils requiring day special schooling are placed mainly in
the following schools outside the Borough:-
Partially sighted Joseph Clarke School, Walthamstow or
New River School, Islington
Delicate Hazelbury Open Air School, Edmonton
(b) Residential Special Schools
The one residential special school belonging to the Borough is Suntrap Open Air School at Hayling
Island, Hants. This school accepts delicate and physically handicapped children, most of whom are
cases of asthma, rheumatic heart, minor degrees of emotional disturbance, and varying degrees of
nervous and physical disability. There is a resident staff including a night nurse. A medical practitioner
attends twice a week and a dental officer once a week.
The school accepts boys at primary school age, i.e. 5 to 11 years and girls of all ages. The number
of children placed at Suntrap at the end of 1967 was 91, of whom 18 were Haringey children and 73 from
other boroughs.
The following were the defects for which the Haringey children required placement:Asthma
9; Bronchitis 3; physical and nervous debility 3;
Recurrent respiratory infections 2; Cystitis 1.
Blindchildren areplaced at special residential schools, mainly at Dorton House School, Sevenoaks,
or Linden Lodge School, Wimbledon.
Children in other handicapped categories who require residential schooling are placed in schools
administered by other local authorities or independent bodies, apart from epileptic children who are
placed in hospital special schools. The only category involving a large number of children is that of
maladjusted pupils.
Hospital Classes
I am indebted to the Chief Education Officer for the following report:-
"Tuition is provided for children who are in-patients at St. Ann's and Prince of Wales's General
Hospitals under Section 56 of the Education Act 1944. At St. Ann's Hospital a classroom is established
in one of the children's wards, and individual teaching takes place in other wards and at the Prince of
Wales's Hospital. The average number of children receiving tuition at any one time is 36".
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