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157
For the past five years Mr. Spencer the Head Teacher of
St. Nicholas School, has admitted some autistic children to his
Day School for educationally subnormal children and has integrated
them within the school with a good degree of success. It
is now proposed to establish at St. Nicholas an assessment unit
for the somewhat less severely autistic children. The unit would
be used as an aid to help the integration of the autistic children
within the school.
The Tutorial Classes run by Mrs. Waite and Mr. Thomas
have 70 children at present on roll, attending on a part-time basis.
The classes originally for primary school children with learning
difficulties are now extending to secondary school children as well.
The establishment has been increased by one additional teacher,
Mr. Rogers. The School Psychological Service is responsible for
the selection of the children and supervises their progress.
The Phoenix Spastic Centre at Farnborough Hospital has 37
children on roll. This number includes some very young babies.
The teaching section of the centre under Mrs. Turner has two parttime
assistant teachers. They have 21 children on roll, ranging
from 3 to 7 years. The children attend on a part-time basis
starting with two days a week at the age of 3 years and gradually
building up to full-time attendance ot the 5-year level. There are
at present 9 children receiving full-time education at the Phoenix
Centre. The learning difficulties of spastic children are indeed
complex, and careful and lengthy psychological investigations are
essential.
The Maladjusted Class at Stepping Stones, Bromley Hospital,
was a new venture started last year with Miss Johnson, teacher in
charge. Children attend on a part-time basis. At present there
are 13 children on roll. The class is designed to help children
resolve their problems of impaired social and emotional adjustment
and aims at rehabilitating them as quickly as possible so that they
may resume attendance at their ordinary schools without great
difficulties. Here too Psychological monitoring is required, and
the Borough envisages further development of such classes.
During this year two teachers for the Deaf were appointed for
the Borough, and a day unit for the partially-hearing is to become
operative very soon. Psychological and Educational assessments of
these children are essential.
There are three day schools for educationally sub-normal
children from 7 to 16 years with a total of 359 children on the rolls.
Here too, the Psychological appraisal of the children is of great
value to the teachers and the School Psychological Service should
not neglect this rather large and important group.
Some contact is maintained with the Senior Speech Therapist,
Mrs. Evans, and her staff and a closer liaison is envisaged. The