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few years, the degree of disability of new entrants to the school has become increasingly severe.
The progress of modern medicine has preserved many children from early death but often at the
expense of full activity and mobility. As an example, the insertion of a Spitz Holter Valve is a life
saving measure when a spina bifida child shows evidence of increasing cerebrospinal fluid pressure
but this may leave a child with an existing paraplegia and subsequent confinement to a wheelchair.
Indeed the increasing traffic in wheelchairs and children in calipers is causing congestion in this
little school and the problem of space may soon become urgent. Toilets have been drastically
altered to allow wheel-chaired pupils to use them without help and new apparatus has been
erected in the corridors to give support and much needed therapy to children with palsied limbs
and a poor balance mechanism. The types of physical handicaps are many and varied mainly,
Spina bifida 8
Muscular dystrophy 3
Cerebral palsy 10
Congenital heart 4
Post Thalidomide 1
Multiple congenital defects 1
Post road traffic accident 1
15 other children are placed in Martindale School for Physically Handicapped Children,
Hounslow:
Cerebral palsy 9
Congenital heart defect 2
Haemophilia 1
Hydrocephalus 1
Rheumatoid arthritis 1
Post paralytic poliomyelitis 1
ST. MICHAEL'S SCHOOL, JOEL STREET, EASTCOTE
I am grateful to Mr. Thornton, Headteacher for the following report:
"St. Michael's is a school for physically handicapped children between the ages of five and
sixteen years. The school contains pupils with various categories of physical handicap including
spina bifida, spastic, congenital heart conditions and post thalidomide abnormalities, but most
of the pupils suffer from spina bifida or spasticity.
The school caters for day pupils, pupils resident on a weekly basis (Monday to Friday), and
pupils resident from holiday to holiday.
Activities at St. Michael's include archery, animal husbandry, gardening, music, theatrical
productions, pottery, photography, cooking, swimming, roller skating, printing, carpentry, etc.,
and the boys have pets which include rabbits, guinea-pigs, tropical fish, cold-water fish, over
thirty cage birds, chickens, various types of pheasant and many others.
Over the last two-and-a-half years several new activities have been introduced, most of
which are used as class-room work and hobbies. For instance, the school now has a pets corner
which contains budgerigars, parakeets, finches, gold and silver pheasants, jungle fowl, Java
sparrows, rabbits and guinea pigs. The school curriculum now includes Rural Studies; we have
incubated our own chickens which started producing eggs earlier this year, and the school now
has a greenhouse which produced its first crop of tomatoes last year and this year includes
decorative plants and flowers. We have also extended outside a little to include sweet peas and
some of the easier crops such as radishes and lettuces. The pupils have also been introduced to
photography, which is proving of great benefit towards more comprehensive records of the physical
progress of our pupils. Pottery was introduced into the syllabus two years ago and I am sure that
the children are achieving great benefit from the physical expression of handling the clay apart
from the sense of achievement in producing the final article and the chance of self-expression
therein. To date we have produced a Nativity Play and two Pantomimes for outside, sympathetic,
audiences. In these productions we utilised the music which has recently developed in this school.
Most of the two senior classes now play a musical instrument, the two most common being the
recorder and the piano. The other instruments include xylophone, glockenspiel and percussion,
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