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inspections carried out. Five children were excluded during
these visits.
Provision is made for children attending this school to
receive a bath once a week and a special attendant is employed
by the Education Committee for the purpose. Many of the
parents are glad for their children to take advantage of these
facilities.
A cooked mid-day meal of excellent quality is served at the
school. On an average, sixteen children stayed for this meal
for which a charge of threepence is made. In six cases it was
found necessary to forego the amount owing to the financial
circumstances of the parents.
In addition to the routine class teaching special attention
is paid to handicraft instruction. Carpentry, gardening, cookery,
and laundry-work were taught.
A list is kept of all retarded school children in the district.
These children are examined on an average every six months
in order to ascertain their suitability for transference to the
Special School. In addition every school is visited periodically
by one of the School Medical Staff with the view to ascertaining
from the Head Teachers the number of backward children in
attendance.
Children. who have left the Special School on attaining the
age of sixteen and who are in need of supervision and care are
notified to the Local Authority under the Act of 1913, as amended.
Two boys were notified for this purpose.
In other cases, where the school report is satisfactory, the
home influence good, and the prospect of employment favourable,
the names are passed on to the Committee of the Guild of Social
Welfare which acts in Wimbledon as the Local Committee of
the Surrey Voluntary Association for Mental and Physical
Welfare.
One girl who was not attending any school and who was
unsuitable for the Special School was also notified to the Local
Authority under Article 2 of the Mental Deficiency (Notification
of Children) Regulations, 1928.
Children leaving the Special School in nearly all cases
succeed in obtaining employment. The boys take up work in
the local factories, or on milk and paper rounds, or acting as
carriers for local business houses. The girls are generally employed
in factories, laundries, in indoor service or doing daily
work. Only one of the children who has left the Special School
in recent years is at present reported not to be in employment.
The home conditions are good and he should experience no
difficulty in obtaining suitable work.
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