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43
in the swimming gala. This competition with hearing children is
very good indeed for the morale of our girls.
"On September 5th, two classes went to occupy rooms at
Thorpe Hall School at Hale End Road. They stall assemble here
and return for dinner, so. that we may keep the school an entity.
They have much more freedom of movement and more beautiful
surroundings in their new premises and they are mixing with hear
ing children, but we do miss meeting them casually during the day.
The teachers, too, miss the close fellowship which was perhaps
even deepened by our being thrown together in so restricted a
space. However, over all the move has been for the good of the
children.
"On October 7th, Mr. Pierre Gorman, a deaf born Australian
who has studied at Melbourne University and is now doing post'
graduate research at Cambridge, visited the school for a short time
and addressed the Parent Teacher Association in the evening. The
fluency of his language, the quality of his speech, and the almost
uncanny accuracy of his lip reading was a great source of comfort
and hope to the parents of the young deaf children. He stressed
the fact that one's handicap, of whatever nature, must be faced and
accepted before it can be overcome. His wise replies to parents
questions will long be remembered.
"Dr. Francis Clarke, Ear, Nose and Throat Consultant,
examined the children in October.
"The entire staff attended a course of lectures in auditory
training given at the Old Kent Road School during October. They
made us very proud of our wonderful Western Electric Group
Hearing Aid— "few London schools have so good a one," but they
also depressed us by showing us the utter futility of trying to do
really good auditory training without a sound-proof room, or even
an ordinary room with solid walls. This is one of the few points
where there is still room for improvement.
"Two partially-deaf girls have been sent back to normal schools
this year and we are always glad when it is possible to do this. The
one who left last year after two years of intensive language and
speech training, is preparing to sit the General Entrance Examination
to the Grammar School, so in her case the move has been justified.
She remains steadily at the top of her class and visits us whenever
possible.
"At the end of 1955 we had 46 children on the roll, 20 deaf
and 26 partially deaf. Six of them live in Walthamstow." ,
(b) School for the Educationally Sub-normal.— The school was
inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectors on the 19th and 20th May.
They were informed that pupils received a physical inspection once
a year, that a medical officer attends the clinic at Hale End each