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The Juvenile Employment Officer, Mr. Rees Owen attends at the school and consults
with the parents and head teacher and the child about future employment. He has a report
from the School Medical Officer also and sometimes in difficult cases a discussion is
held with the School Medical Officer and also with the Mental Health Officer if it is
a child who has been reported as in need of community care.
The great majority of the children do well in the work found for them. Mr. Rees Owen
takes a great deal of trouble to find the right work for these school leavers. It is
important to start them off in work suited to their capacity otherwise if it is too
difficult they can be greatly discouraged. A few parents have to be helped to understand
this. They have ambitious ideas much too exacting for the poorer equipped child.
This area is fortunate in having a Juvenile Employment Officer who has an excellent
liaison with employers who will give these children a good start with sympathetic
understanding of their problems.
THE DAY SCHOOL FOR MALADJUSTED CHILDREN, LEA BRIDGE ROAD E.10.
This school opened in September, 1959 with two teachers and 13 children; four
girls and nine boys, ranging in age from 7-12 years.
By the end of 1960 there were 23 children and three full-time teachers and one
part-time teacher who specialised in teaching children with special reading difficulties.
Mr.Giles, who had been teacher in charge, was appointed in November as Head Teacher,
an appointment which gave great satisfaction to all those in any way concerned in the
school's well-being as there is no doubt that his work in establishing this school has
been of the highest order.
Initially the school was only two classes and the school premises were shared with
a small infant school of two classes, and the playing space for outdoor activities was
very much limited as the open ground at the rear of the premises was used by a nearby
secondary school. It was obvious after the first six months that the school would only
fulfil its object fully if it could expand to such a size that numbers justified the
appointment of a Head Teacher with sufficient teaching staff that he or she could be
more or less free of routine teaching and the school be self contained in its own
premises and with plenty of space for outdoor activities of a constructive and imaginative
kind.
These objectives were fortunately achieved. The infant school moved out, the large
piece of open ground was freed for the use of the school, and in September, 1960, the
school started to function as a quite independent unit.
The number of children in the school remained the same until the end of the Summer
term. In June all the children except one attepded, with their two teachers in charge,
a weekend camp in the grounds of Hassobury School. It was a great success and the
teachers found it a valuable experience in giving them even more insight than just
school contact gave of the problems of the children in their care. So many of the
children come from homes with limited interests and resources it could not but be helpful
to them to extend their experiences and widen their horizon in this way. It is
hoped to repeat the experiment in 1961.
At the end of the first school year one boy returned to a secondary modern school.
He was a less severely disturbed child than the majority of the others and it was felt
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