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there are many occasions upon which transfer to a special school can be the only means of providing
satisfactorily for the education of a handicapped child. A survey of physically handicapped children
in ordinary schools was circulated by the Department of Education and Science during the year.
It showed that a large number of such children were indeed attending ordinary schools and some
of these children were severely handicapped. Nevertheless a significant number were considered to
require additional help, and it was by no means clear that such assistance was available whenever it
was required. The need for greater flexibility allowing handicapped children easily to transfer
between the special school and ordinary school system at appropriate stages in their development
seems likely to offer greater opportunities to the handicapped child than either despairing attempts
to retain a child in an ordinary school when his handicaps are affecting adversely his education or
retaining the child in a special school when, with a little ingenuity, his educational needs could be
met more appropriately in open competition with normal children.
I am most grateful to the Committee for their interest and support throughout the year. I am
greatly indebted to the Director of Education together with the staff of the Education Department
and the headteachers of the schools who so readily provide the help upon which much of our work
depends. The Town Clerk and his staff have continued to provide much helpful advice and assistance.
Finally my particular thanks are extended to the staff in the service to whose efforts the following
pages bear witness.
Yours faithfully,
J. Stuart Horner,
March 1973 Principal School Medical Officer
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