View report page

58
These children, who should have had no great difficulty in learning
to read and do arithmetic, were working well below their capacity—
indeed so much so that they were referred as possible mental
defectives.
In the 7 to 8 age group none of them had been to school for any
prolonged period of time—either through evacuation, half-time
schooling owing to shortage of staff, accommodation, or repeated
absences through illness. They had not had the fundamentals of
education, though they were expected to have had it.
Similar broken schooling due to war conditions affected the
10 to 11 year old group. There they had been given the early
stages of teaching in the infant school; but at the critical period of
learning, namely, seven years, they had been evacuated or their
school closed and when re-opened, half-time education only given.
The unsettled nature of the child's environment in the first 2 J years
of the war affects practically all children, but those with any
emotional defect go under badly and the result is now coming out
in educational failure in school and difficult behaviour.
The problem does not grow less as the war continues, school
classes get larger, although these children demand more and more
individual attention from their teacher.
In the older age groups behaviour problems predominate—
mainly boys whose homes have been broken up either by fathers
serving in the Forces or by mothers out at work. These difficult
children are also backward in school work in the majority of cases.
As they do not get satisfaction in school, they try to get it in other
ways. Where possible, advice from. Child Guidance Clinics has been
obtained, but the usefulness of these Clinics is much diminished by
their distance from the Borough and the long journeys necessary
to get there.
Knotts Green Special School for Mental Defectives.
Admitted 13
Discharged 12
Physically Defective Children.
Knotts Green Open Air School.
Admitted during the year 30
Discharged 23