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Medical Services at the Vale School for Physically Handicapped Children
This school offers day education to physically handicapped children in the borough and also from the London
boroughs of Enfield and part of Barnet.
I am again most grateful to Mr. A.J. Ives, Headmaster of the school and his staff for their continued co-operation
with the medical staff.
Dr. Z. Zubryzcki, Medical Officer to the school, reports as follows:—
Children attending the Vale School present a wide range of physical disabilities. The largest group, forming
one-third of the total, are the cerebral palsied children, sometimes called spastics. This group is under the
supervision of Dr. William Dunham, the visiting consultant in Physical Medicine, who holds a weekly session
jointly with the school medical officer. The remaining children include cases of spina bifida, muscular
dystrophy, bone and joint abnormalities, heart defects, blood disorders, etc.
Nearly every child attends periodically one or sometimes more hospitals where the initial investigation
of the handicap had been made before the child started school. In these cases the specialist's recommendations
for treatment such as physiotherapy or drugs are carried out by the school medical team, consisting of the
school medical officer who visits the school twice a week, a full-time nurse and two full-time therapists. In
addition, speech therapy and auditory training by the peripatetic teacher of the deaf are also provided in
the school.
Every child has a general medical examination by the school medical officer at least once a year, when the
parent is invited to be present. Various complaints and ailments, from which no day in the school is free,
are dealt with by the school nurse or medical officer.
Swimming sessions in the municipal baths once a week are of great benefit to these children, and are greatly
enjoyed by them. Unfortunately, in some cases, particularly of heart defects, the coldness of the water in
the pool is quite prohibitive. It is hoped that when the school gets its own swimming pool as has been planned,
more children will benefit from this very useful form of physical exercise."
The cerebral palsy unit associated with the school is a Centre to which mothers are referred for advice and
children for treatment as soon as cerebral palsy is diagnosed. Dr. William Dunham, Consultant in physical
medicine to the Unit, attends weekly and a full time cerebral palsy therapist gives treatment to the children
under his direction. A speech therapist and an educational psychologist are available to give advice and
treatment in suitable cases.
Of the nine new cases seen at the Unit during 1970, five were Haringey children and four from outside the
borough. Four of these children were under 5 years of age and five over 5. The recommendations made for
the new cases were as follows:—
Recommended admission to the Vale Special School — 6
Recommended for later re-assessment — 3
Audiology Unit
The Audiology Unit is within the curtilage of Blanche Nevile School and there is excellent co-operation between
the medical and teaching staff. Three sessions are held each week.
There is regular supervision of pre-school children with hearing defects and school children with hearing loss
who attend ordinary schools. Pre-school children with hearing loss are admitted where possible to day nurseries,
playgroups and where necessary to the nursery class at the Blanche Nevile School. Many of these children wear
hearing aids and those not attending Blanche Nevile School are supervised by two full-time peripatetic teachers
of the deaf who work in close co-operation with Dr. L. Fisch, the Consultant Otologist.
Dr. Fisch reports as follows upon the year's work at the Unit:—
"The work of the Audiology Clinic proceeded satisfactorily during the past year. By strenuous efforts we
managed to reduce the waiting time and no child who needs urgent examination because of a suspicion
of deafness has to wait very long. The greatest difficulty still was the lack of a third peripatetic teacher. In
spite of efforts by the education authorities no suitable applicant for the post has been found as yet. The
two peripatetic teachers on the staff of the clinic worked very hard in order to cover the urgent cases of children.
Special attention is paid to the pre-school group. Unfortunately occasional visits to schools, where there are
children with hearing impairment, have had to be curtailed. There was an improvement as regards placing
children in classes for partially hearing children. The pressure for places has been, to a certain extent, relieved
by the establishment of two classes for partially hearing children in the Borough of Brent. We still feel that
one of the most important deficiencies is the provision of a nursery for partially-hearing children. The clinic
is well equipped. Fortunately more funds were available for purchasing additional equipment, such as an
improved model of a free field audiometer which helps with the testing of small children.
Contacts were established with the Hornsey College of Art. Their Industrial Design Section is keen to work
on various projects for deaf children and a promising situation is developing in this respect. Several projects
are planned, such as the production of a new series of test cards and the construction of new types of equipment
for testing.
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