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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 Risley
Avenue Junior and Infants 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 95 children on the roll at Vale Road Special School, 61 were Haringey children and 34 children
from other boroughs. Of the 137 children on the roll at Blanche Nevile School(including the partially
hearing units), 39 were Haringey children and 98 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 for educationally subnormal children must be sought at
either Durants School or Oaktree School in Enfield or Oak Lodge School, Finchley. At present
there are 29 Haringey children at Durants, 28 at Oaktree and 85 at Oak Lodge. There are 59
Haringey children 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:-
PartiaIly 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
Islana, Hants. This school accepts delicate and physically handicapped children—boys of primary
school age, i.e. 5 to 11 years, and girls of all ages. There is a resident staff including a night
nurse. A medical practitioner attends twice a week and a dental officer once a week.
Dr. A.J. May, who has been part-time medical officer to Suntrap School for some 40 years, retired
in September 1969. The Haringey Authority and its predecessors, the Middlesex and Tottenham
Authorities, are most grateful to Dr. May for his excellent care of the children over this very long
period. He has been succeeded by Dr. A.H.W. Brenan.
The number of children placed at Suntrap at the end of 1969 was 103, of whom 13 were Haringey
children and 90 from other boroughs.
The following were the defects for which the Haringey children required placement-
Asthma 4; Bronchitis 2; Nervous Debility 1; Osteomyelitis 1; Hirschsprung's Disease 1;
Recurrent Respiratory Infections 1; Lead Poisoning 1; Emotional Disturbance 2.
Blind children are placed at special residential schools, mainly at Dorton House School at Sevenoaks
and at Linden Lodge School, Wimbledon.
Children in other handicapped categories who require residential schooling, for whom Suntrap cannot
provide suitable care and education, are placed in schools administered by other local authorities
or independent bodies, apart from epileptic children with severe epilepsy, who are placed in hospital
special schools. The only category involving a large number of children is that of maladjusted
pupiIs.
Hospital Classes
I am indebted to the Chief Education Officer for the following report::-
"The tuition of children who have been in-patients at St. Ann's and the Prince of Wa/es's Hospitals,
has continued during the past year under the direction of two full-time teachers. The ages of the
pupils range from 4½A - 15 years and wherever possible the school curriculum is followed.
Some children attend school in the classroom in one of the wards at St. Ann's whilst others have
bedside tuition. When weather permits, some lessons are taken in the extensive hospital grounds.
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