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127
Estimated Costs.
Capital Charges. £ s. d.
50 beds at £300 per bed 15,000 0 0
Annual Charges.
50 beds at £3 10s. per week, per bed 9,125 0 0
Less Government Grant, of 50 per cent. 4,562 10 0
Net Annual Charge to Rates £4,562 10 0
(d) Mentally Defective Children.
Powers and Duties of Education Committee.—Vide under Physically Defective Children.
Importance of Manual and Open-Air Education.—It is important that the education
of the feeble-minded should not be neglected, because
(a) They tend to get worse.
(b) They tend to reproduce their kind, and
(c) They form the material of the great problem of incapacity and unemployability.
In the past the education of these children has been based on two main factors—handwork
and small classes. Gradually the view has been taken that sedentary occupation, while necessary,
is of limited use. Space is a first necessity, and this implies fresh air. At Kettering the Mentally
Defective School forms a department of the Open-Air School.
The results at the Kettering Open-Air School for mentally defectives bear testimony to the
advantages of Open-Air teaching for the mentally defective. If open-air teaching is good for the
normal child, and for the physically defective and debilitated child, it is reasonable to say that when
the mentally defective child is brought into the best physical bodily state that its brain and nervous
system will also improve and respond more readily to sensory impressions obtained by methods of
teaching similar to those in Open-Air Schools, i.e., gardening, nature study, manual training, etc.
Number of educable mentally defective children in Willesden.—The number of children attending
Willesden Special Schools in—
1915 was 111, 1916, 105, and in 1917, 103.
Proposals.—The Mentally Defective School should be on the adjoining site and worked in conjunction
with the Open-Air Day School as at Kettering, attention being given to the following requirements
of the Board of Education:—
(a) Mentally Defective Children to be taught in separate schools from other defectives.
(b) Separate playgrounds to be provided for boys and girls.
(c) The Head Teacher of a Physically Defective School may also be Head Teacher of an
adjoining Mental School.
From the above it would appear possible to make arrangements for using the administrative
block in large part of the physically defective school for the mentally defective school by a suitable
arrangement of the time-table if these schools were placed on adjoining sites.
In this way the Mentally Defective School need only consist of a small Administrative block
and 6 Class Rooms with necessary offices.
The dining hall, and kitchen, and bath rooms would be common to both schools.
Estimated Costs:—
Capital Charges. £ s. d.
Open-Air School for Mentally Defective Children ... 10,000 0 0
Land for Mentally Defective Children 3,600 0 0
Total £13,600 0 0
Annual Charges.
Expenditure. £ s. d.
Meals 1,000 0 0
Salaries 1,000 0 0
Doctor 100 0 0
Caretaker and Cleaning 350 0 0
Lighting 30 0 0
Heating 30 0 0
Interest and repayment on loan (£13,600), 30 years
interest, 5½ per cent. 931 0 0
Ambulances 1,000 0 0
Total £4,441 0 0