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55
Harrow Junior Training School.—This is a modern purpose-built
establishment which was first opened in November 1963. It occupies a
site behind the health clinic in Whittlesea Road, Harrow, and provides
accommodation for 104 boys and girls up to 16 years of age.
The main building consists of three classrooms for senior, intermediate
and junior children. There are also two nursery classes and a
special care unit. This unit caters for 24 children and is divided into two
sections so that physically handicapped children can be looked after separately.
The school also has a well equipped domestic science room.
The hall is equipped with physical training apparatus and the older
children also use it as a dining room. Those children in the special care
unit and nursery group, however, lunch in their own rooms. The staff
consists of a Supervisor, Deputy Supervisor, seven Assistant Supervisors,
five General Duties Assistants, as well as domestic staff and coach guides.
Three coaches are hired to take the children to and from the school during
term time, which corresponds with that of other schools in the Borough.
Four children (two from Hillingdon and two from Ealing) are conveyed to
and from the school by ambulance.
Summer Outings and School Journeys.—So that the children from
the junior training school could have the same opportunities as those in
ordinary schools, approval was given in 1950 to them having a summer
outing and to them visiting places of interest. Since then, the children have
enjoyed numerous outings and excursions, the latest of which took place
in June 1965, when a party of 36 children, accompanied by five members of
the staff, visited the Zoo at Regent's Park. The outing proved a great
success and it held considerable educational and social training value for
the children, as indeed do all similar outings and school journeys.
Educational Rhythmics.—As well as elementrry 3-R work and play
activities, the curriculum of the junior training school includes sessions of
educational rhythmics or practical exercises. Up until this year, there had
been, in this country, no exercises designed specifically for mentally handicapped
children and so staff had to adapt the methods of people such as
Margaret Morris and Eileen Fowler. However, a Swiss couple, Ferris and
Jennett Robins, have devised a series of exercises for such children of all
ages and have visited various countries demonstrating their method. They
came to England for the first time in 1965 and we were fortunate in obtaining
their services at the junior training school for one day in May.
They gave two demonstrations before an invited audience of supervisors
from Junior training schools in adjoining boroughs, teachers of E.S.N,
schools, organisers, physical education instructors, Head Teachers and
Heads of Training Colleges, and a small group of children from the
school took part, as did children from Shaftesbury E.S.N. School.
The demonstrations were of great interest to all who attended, and as
a result, the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children have
agreed to sponsor the Robins in a Training Course for teachers of children
in Junior Training Schools in April 1966.