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63
"A keen interest is taken by all the children in the small
patch of garden which has been made in the playground.
"The children were very sorry to lose Miss Coates, who left the
school at Whitsun after thirteen years at this school. Miss V. K.
Mitchell was appointed assistant teacher in September of this year."
(iii) School for Physically Defective and Open Air School.
—The School for Physically Defective Children was transferred in
September to newly erected classrooms at the Hale End site and
became known as the Hale End Open Air School.
The site is within a few hundred yards of the trolley bus service
and has an area of over three acres which slopes downwards towards
the west. The cost is stated to be as follows:—Site, £4,500;
Buildings, £8,170; Furniture, etc., £300.
The existing three-storeyed house was renovated and adapted
to provide the following accommodation:—
Lower ground floor—Dining hall, kitchen (electrically equipped),
scullery, cloakroom, and shower baths.
Ground floor—Orthopaedic and medical inspection suite comprising
waiting, inspection and treatment rooms; Head and
Assistant Teachers' room.
First floor—Two rooms for Speech Therapy; Caretaker's quarters.
The classrooms are arranged in three detached blocks, each
accommodating two classrooms. Each classroom opens on two
sides. There are two detached blocks of similar size, which open
on three sides, originally intended as rest rooms. The construction
of the five blocks is of brick piers supporting asbestos roof sheeting
over timber roof trusses; the backs are timber framed with weather
boarding externally and asbestos sheeting internally.
The first half term, i.e., up to the end of the year, was largely
experimental. Five of the classrooms were equipped to accommodate
up to 30 children each; the sixth was used as a woodwork
and manual room. One of the blocks was used as an art room, and
the sixth as a resting shed, each class being given a rest period in
rotation.
Two up-to-date motor omnibuses are used to convey the non
ambulant children.
The children are weighed and measured each month and the
results are charted on a special card for each child. One half-day
per fortnight is allowed to medical inspection and re-inspection
(frequently increased to one half-day per week).