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These cases are reported to the Authority by Parents, Head Teachers, Health Nurses, School Attendance
Officers, Hospitals and similar Institutions, Voluntary Societies and Private Medical Practitioners.
They are submitted to a special medical examination and are placed in a Special Day or Residential
School or ordinary elementary school according to the character and degree of the abnormality.
During the year 1929, 826 special children were examined or re-examined. Of the 241 original
examinations included in the 826 examined, 65 were found to be physically defective, 28 mentally
defective, 4 deaf, 4 blind and partially blind, 2 epileptic, 22 dull or backward, 92 anaemic and debilitated,
21 defective speech, 1 diabetes and 2 incontinence of urine and faeces respectively.
Leinster Mentally Defective School.—On the 29th August, 1929, the children attending
Leinster Road M.D. School were transferred to other school premises at College Road, Kensal Rise,
N.W. 10, which are now known as Leinster M.D. School. The certified accommodation at this school
is for 90 children and during the year under review the average number on the roll was 108, the actual
number on the roll at 31st December, 1929, being 103. The average attendance for the year was 91.
There were 10 children awaiting admission to this school at the end of the year.
The staff, which was reduced by one full-time assistant in 1923, consists of one Head Teacher
and four full-time assistants. Arrangements were made for the provision of a part-time assistant to
train a class of boys in bootmaking, and this assistant started work early in 1925. Arrangements
are also being made for a part-time instructor in handicraft for boys, and this will avoid the necessity
for the boys to attend a handicraft centre.
Seven children were reported to the Local Control Authority as incapable of receiving further
benefit from instruction in the school, 6 were reported with a view to being placed under guardianship,
one was reported as being unable to be instructed in the school without detriment to the interests
of the other children, one was admitted to a residential deaf school, one was suitable for transfer
to an ordinary elementary school and one was allowed to leave school.
The certifying officer visits the school weekly for the purpose of revision of classification and
for medical examination of the children. The parents are notified of any defects requiring attention.
58 such examinations were made during 1929.
The school dinner is brought from Furness Road Feeding Centre and served in the school
hall. On an average 65 children take dinner, and the remainder bring their own meal.
Oldfield Road Physically Defective School.—The certified accommodation at this school
is for 140 children. During the year under review the average number on the roll was 126, the actual
number on the roll on the 31st December, 1929, being 131. The average attendance for the year was
102, and there were 35 children awaiting admission at the 31st December, 1929.
The school takes physically defective children between 5 and 16 years of age. The staff consists
of one Head Teacher and five full-time assistants. Early in January, 1930, the staff will be increased
by one full-time assistant, consequent on the arrangements to be made for a class in the hall to provide
for the admission of the children on the waiting list.
During the year 6 children were allowed to leave school before reaching the age of 16 years and
9 children were allowed to attend ordinary elementary schools.
The school dinners are brought from Gibbons Road Feeding Centre and are served in the
School Hall. Practically all of the children take the school dinners.
Two trained nurses who also act as ambulance attendants are attached to the school. They
treat such minor ailments as require it and supervise the personal cleanliness and the care of the
teeth and hair of the children. They arrange for the repair of surgical instruments and boots and
undertake the massage of the children who have been ordered this treatment by their Surgeon and
who are unable to attend a Hospital for this purpose. They also give the children the medicines
and nutritive drugs ordered by the Doctor, such as Syr. Ferri Phos. Co., Virol and Cod Liver Oil.
The school is visited by the Certifying Medical Officer once a fortnight and each child is seen
every six months. The parents are notified of any defects found which require attention.
The majority of the children at this school who are actual cripples attend periodically either
an Orthopædic Hospital or the Orthopaedic Department of a General Hospital. In a few cases difficulty
is found in getting the parents to keep their children under the care of an Orthopaedic Surgeon.
The cost of travel and the distances to the nearest hospitals are the chief factors in preventing this
being carried out. Difficulty also arises when a case is ordered special daily treatment which can
only be carried out in an Orthopaedic Department. When the Orthopaedic Clinic to be established in
Willesden at the new Stonebridge Health Centre is in working order, these difficulties will disappear,
and it will be practicable for every cripple child to be kept under the case of a Specialist and also
to have such treatment as is considered necessary for the particular defect.
Convalescence.—Convalescent homes for children attending the Physically Defective Schools
are arranged by the Invalid Children's Aid Association and by the Shaftesbury Society. The Stamford
Hill Cripples' Home has a branch at Thorpe Bay, near Southend-on-Sea and this institution admits
Willesden children at a reduced rate.
The Education Committee have made arrangements with the Russell-Cotes School of Recovery,
Parkstone, near Bournemouth for the reservation of 4 further places at this Institution for Willesden