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57
"From time to time throughout the year cases which
xequired hospital and operative treatment were admitted as
heretofore from the various eye clinics to the Western
Ophthalmic Hospital."
Miss M. L. Balls, the Head Teacher, has kindly sent the
following report:—
"The Walthamstow Education Authority provides a Special
School for blind and myopic children of both sexes. The
-school, which is at Wood Street, accommodates 85 children,
but during the past year the number on the roll has never
exceeded 68.
"By a careful arrangement of the curriculum, every effort
is made to educate children of varying degrees of blindness,
in such a manner that each child may develop its capacity
for learning and doing, to the fullest extent, in spite of the
handicap of defective sight.
"The children are divided into two groups:—
1. Those who are partially blind.
2. Those who are ' Blind within the meaning of the Act.'
"On the 31st December, 1935, the children in the first
group numbered 54; there were 14 classified as ' Blind within
the meaning of the Act.'
"The method employed in the instruction of the partially
blind children in the school may be described as the 'Sightsaving
Method.' Great care is taken that these children
subject their eyes to no strain when they are performing
their school tasks.
"The reading books employed are printed in letters
measuring one inch. The children write on blackboards with
white chalk, and problems in arithmetic are written down
and worked on black paper, in figures of at least one inch in
size. All work is executed, as far as possible, in an upright
position, so that the minimum amount of head bending, with
its consequent eyestrain, is required of the partially blind
child.
"In the senior classes the children are taught to typewrite
on ordinary Remington typewriters, so that in time they
are able to typewrite their exercises and essays, without
using their eyes at all, the modern 'touch method" being
employed.