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Category F: Epileptic. These are children who by reason of epilepsy cannot be educated under the
normal regime of ordinary schools. This is a very small number indeed and use is made of Lingfield
school for Epileptic Children. All other epileptic children in the Borough can be educated in
ordinary schools, with the valued co-operation of the teaching staff.
Category G: Maladjusted. These are pupils who show evidence of emotional instability or
psychological disturbance. The Child Guidance Service deals with children exhibiting problems of
an emotional nature. The majority of such children attend ordinary schools under the supervision
of the Child Guidance Service. However, there are two groups of these children who give rise to
anxieties. The first are those who require education at a residential school for maladjusted children.
Places at these schools, which are mainly independent, are extremely hard to find. Too often, however,
the child's problems are so great that the particular school to which he is sent excludes
him within a few months of admission and the problem becomes very much greater; and because
there is nowhere else for these children to obtain education they have to stay at home and receive
home tuition. This state of affairs is extremely unsatisfactory. The problem is intensified when
children reach secondary school age, because places for maladjusted children of this age are even
more difficult to obtain than in the case of younger children.
The second group of children are those who show severe mental illness, especially in the age
group 12 to 16. There is an urgent need in the London area for a hospital unit which will cater for
in-patient treatment of these children. They are neither suited for the paediatric department of a
general hospital, nor should they be incarcerated in adult wards of a general mental hospital. This
type of problem does not occur very often, fortunately, but when it does it is a serious one which
taxes the resources of the medical and education departments to the utmost; in fact, the solution is
usually a very inadequate compromise, to the child's disadvantage.
Category H: Physically Handicapped. Children not suffering from defect of sight or hearing
who by reason of disease or crippling defect cannot be satisfactorily educated in a normal school.
A great many defects of bygone days, which led to the physical crippling of children are no longer
seen.
There remains, however, the small number who need special educational treatment. Owing to
the redistribution of special schools, formerly the responsibility of the Middlesex County Council,
the Borough has acquired St. Michael's School for Physically Handicapped Children, Eastcote. This
is a small school providing for 32 children, part day and part boarding. There is a resident matron
and deputy, and ancillary staff, who give the children physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational
therapy as well as formal teaching. During the year arrangements were made with Highgrove
Bath for spastic children at the school to be given lessons in swimming and two children have
obtained certificates showing that they can now swim without support.
Category I: Speech Defect. Pupils who on account of difficulty or lack of speech not due to
deafness, require special educational treatment. These children attend a local clinic and advice and
treatment is given to the child and his parent by the speech therapist.
Great difficulty is being experienced in recruiting staff trained in this particular field and
numbers of children have a very sketchy course of treatment or none at all. Only rarely is a child
sent to a residential school for speech defects.
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