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problems of speech and reading difficulties are common amongst
children and Mrs. Evans and the School Psychological Service hope
to be able to work in closer collaboration over this.
In the face of such varied and vigorous expansion of special
provisions the inadequate staffing of the School Psychological
Service becomes only too blatant. It is frustrating to the present
Educational Psychologists not to have enough time to be able to
extend the necessary advisory and counselling service they know
is required, and the Head Teachers must justifiably at times regard
the School Psychological Service as of little practical value to
them. It is, therefore, very gratifying to know that the Borough
proposes to expand the present establishment of 3 Educational
Psychologists to 5 in order to permit adequate Psychological
service to the schools, to the various Clinics, and to the special
classes.
I am pleased to report that a third Educational Psychologist,
Mr. A. Bennett, is proposing to join the School Psychological
Service staff next year. It only remains for the problem of
accommodation to be resolved, for the School Psychological
Service to be able to look ahead to next year with a little more
hope of meeting the basic requirements of the Borough.
Handicapped Pupils
Handicapped pupils are one of the main concerns of the School
Health Service, and every effort is made to ascertain them at as
early an age as possible. Many of them come to the attention of
the School Health Service through the Health Visitors, but some
are introduced by the Chief Education Officer, parents, teachers
or some other person or organisation.
The officially recognised types of handicaps are:—
Blind, partially-sighted, deaf, partially-hearing, physically handicapped,
delicate, maladjusted, educationally subnormal, epileptic
and speech defects.
Arrangements are made for the special examination of any
child over the age of two years thought to be in need of special
educational facilities because of a specific handicap. Once a child
has been ascertained as handicapped it is kept under supervision
and any recommendations for special educational treatment are
forwarded to the Chief Education Officer for his consideration.
Most of these recommendations are made as a result of advice
received from various appropriate Hospital Consultants with whom
there is very close liaison, and they may include ordinary schooling,
day or residential education at a special school, or in suitable
cases home tuition.
During the year 74 boys and 34 girls were assessed as needing
special educational treatment at Special Schools. Details of the
various handicaps are included in the following table.