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WOODFIELD SPECIAL DAY SCHOOL FOR EDUCATIONALLY SUB-NORMAL PUPILS
Woodfield School provides special education for children with learning difficulties. Classes are
smaller than in ordinary schools and more individual help is given to the children to enable them to overcome
these difficulties. Many of the children are ones who have arrived in this country fairly recently and
who present learning problems and sometimes behaviour problems. These children come from very different
cultural backgrounds and together with previously inadequate schooling create special problems to be solved.
During the year 36 new children were admitted to Woodfield School and 52 children left; of this
number, the majority were school leavers at age 16, a few transferred to other schools and 4 returned to
ordinary schools. The school can accommodate 200 children but owing to staffing difficulties during the year
admissions had to be suspended in the Autumn term and a waiting list of 25 children developed.
Children are not usually admitted until aged 7 years and during their school life at Woodfield they
have three medical examinations, one at 8 years, another between 12 and 13 years and a final one before leaving
at age 16 years.
The school is visited twice weekly for medical examinations and during the year 61 examinations
were carried out, the majority being routine but included were special examinations requested by the staff
or parents.
Children if necessary, are referred to their general practitioners for treatment or further investigation.
Some are referred to specialists in the School Health Service; ear, nose and throat, orthopaedic, eye
and otological. Particular care is taken with eye and ear defects which may hinder the child in the opportunity
to learn. Regular hearing tests are performed at school and further audiological investigations undertaken
at the audiology unit where necessary. The peripatetic teacher for the deaf visits the school to give help
to children with hearing difficulties and those wearing hearing aids. There appears to be a higher incidence
of minor hearing loss in children at Woodfield School than among children in the ordinary schools.
The speech therapist attends weekly and there are a large number of children needing treatment.
Extra sessions would help to reduce the number of children awaiting treatment and allow some to have treatment
more often.
BCG Vaccinations against tuberculosis were given to all 13-year-old children needing it.
The School Nurse visits the school regularly and every opportunity to give health education at a
personal level to the girls is taken.
The spacious grounds provide an excellent opportunity for games and sports and many of the children
at Woodfield School are excellent athletes.
LOWER PLACE SCHOOL FOR PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED PUPILS
The school provides special education for over 100 children with a wide variety of physical handicaps.
During the year 32 new children were admitted and 19 left. There has been an increase this year in
the number of children recommended for admission and fortunately there is no waiting list and children have
been admitted without delay. There were at the end of the year 64 children from Brent, 19 from Ealing, 7
from Harrow, 11 from Barnet and 2 from Hillingdon in the school.
Medical inspections take place every other week and each child is seen six monthly or more often if
necessary. A close link exists between the teaching staff, school nurse, parents and medical staff and assessments
of the children's progress and needs are regularly made. The consultant orthopaedic specialist visits
the school regularly and supervises the children with orthopaedic defects. A close liaison is maintained with
consultants in other fields whose patients attend the school. Two full-time physiotherapists work at the
school under the supervision of the orthopaedic specialist.
The ophthalmic specialist attends the school and supervises the children with defective vision and
the orthoptist visits when necessary.
Difficulty has been experienced in providing accommodation for the speech therapist to work separately
from other activities going on in the school.
It is hoped that next year the new physically handicapped school at Grove Park will be ready for
occupation. The improved and extended facilities including a hydrotherapy pool and the provision of two
classes for children with hearing difficulties in addition to other handicaps are greatly needed.