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The children attending the partially-hearing units require special teaching because of their hearing difficulty,
but are otherwise fully integrated with ordinary school life.
The absence of a day school for maladjusted pupils has in the past been a great handicap. A unit for 15
children, with Mr. A.H. Hicks as Headmaster, opened in September 1972 at the White Hart Lane (Old
School) building and was transferred to the Page Green School premises in January 1973. This has greatly
facilitated work with handicapped children in the Borough and we look forward to the opening of the new
school for maladjusted pupils planned for 1974.
The Moselle School for educationally sub-normal children, which began as a small unit in October 1970,
continued successfully in 1972 under very difficult conditions in the former Downhills (East) School
building, and in February 1973 was transferred to its own new building on the Broadwater Farm Estate.
This school will have a special unit for the assessment of learning ability of children difficult to place.
The Health Department greatly appreciates the close co-operation enjoyed with the Education Department
in the care of the pupils of these schools. Partially-sighted pupils who require day special schooling are
placed mainly in the Joseph Clarke School, Walthamstow, or the New River School, Islington, and
delicate pupils mainly at Hazelbury Open Air School, Enfield.
During the year two children of nursery school age attended a special class for children with difficulties of
communication held at the Wolfson Centre, Mecklenbergh Square, London, WC1. We could with
advantage provide a special class within the Borough for children of school age who have difficulties of
communication.
(b) Residential Special Schools
The Borough's residential open air school, Suntrap School, Hayling Island, Hampshire, accepts delicate
and physically handicapped children — boys of primary school age (5—11) and girls of all ages. The resident
staff includes a night nurse, and a medical practitioner attends twice a week and a dental officer once a
week. The number of children placed at Suntrap at the end of 1972 was 100, of whom 9 were Haringey
children and 91 children from other Boroughs.
It is increasingly evident that many of the children already placed in Suntrap School are there because of
their social conditions and are long stay cases. There is a case for using the school for short stay cases —
children who need convalescent holiday periods following illness or hardship at home, and whose
schooling will not suffer by being on holiday. There are many Haringey children who would benefit from
this type of placement and whose parents would accept short periods from home. Great distress was caused
by the closure of the Acorn School. Seven severely handicapped children with marked autistic tendencies,
for whom it had been almost impossible to find suitable placement, were returned home from this
school which closed down within six weeks of opening. Intensive investigation to find alternative
residential placement for them by the Authority failed for all but two children. Considerable stress was
placed upon the parents of these very handicapped children.
Praise cannot be too high for the Education Department and the Head Teachers concerned who have
cared for these children in the Greenfields and William C. Harvey Schools throughout this year. Meantime,
plans were put in motion to set up a special unit in the one time isolation block of Suntrap School,
Hayling Island, for the care of such children. This unit has been adapted for 8 children and, while under the
over-all control of the Headmistress of Suntrap, will be completely separate and its own staff has now
been appointed. The unit will open on 18 June 1973 with 4 children.*
Blind children are educated in residential special schools. Children with other handicaps who require
residential education are placed in schools administered by other Local Authorities or by independent
bodies, apart from children suffering from severe epilepsy, who are placed in hospital special schools.
* NOTE: The Unit opened as planned. The four boys who were admitted seemed happy and quickly
settled. Great praise is due to the staff and the other pupils of Suntrap, who have welcomed
these pupils, and to all concerned at the Education Department.
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