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Vernon House School
This school provides 40 places for primary aged maladjusted children and throughout the year the
school was full. At the end of 1970 there were eight children on the waiting list. In the case of all these
children admission was urgent as a recommendation for special schooling is only made for the children most
seriously needing help.
Regular medical inspections were carried out throughout the year and the School Nurse co-operated
closely with the staff of the school. There were five or six case conferences each term with the team from
the Child Guidance Clinic, the Senior Medical Officer for School Health, the School Nurse and all the
Vernon House Staff to discuss the progress of pupils and to make plans for their future placement.
I am indebted to Mr. Staniland, the Headmaster, for the following account of the structure and aims
of the school.
"This is a day school for emotionally disturbed children of primary school age. The children
represent a total social cross section and display a variety of both neurotic and psychotic symptoms. Many
of the children have been excluded from normal school, some for withdrawn behaviour but mostly for acting
out violent behaviour both in and out of school. For these children, the idea of removal from normal
school because they cannot be tolerated, is purely negative; what follows and what we aim to provide here at
Vernon House is directed towards restitution and successful return into normal society. This is done by
providing a therapeutic family type environment where the grossly sick child is totally accepted and where
there are secure, warm adults with whom the child can successfully relate, as many of the problems have
origins in poor family relationships.
"The school is divided into four groups each with a different function, one is an Infant Group not
necessarily for infant age children but where there is plenty of regressive type activity that allows the children
to relive unsatisfactory periods of their early childhood. Another is an Art Therapy Type Group that apart
from following a normal type educational programme is involved in considerable therapeutic art and craft
work. Many of these children have expressed their aggression and played out fantasies in the past in a destructive
way towards objects or people but I believe it is possible to channel these manifestations in safe and
more guiltless ways by providing a variety of creative activities throughout the school. The time table includes
two periods of swimming and most of the children are able to swim. Students from both the St. Alban's
School of Art, Art Therapy Course, and the Guildhall Post-Graduate Music Therapy Course now join us for
long periods of practice, and the Institute of Education, London University used the school to make a closedcircuit
film for Advanced Education Students. Each year most of the children attend school journeys to St.
Mary's Bay Holiday Camp. Two other groups are structured both in different ways and contain children who
have worked through their problems to the extent that they can take sustained periods of school work. Last
year 60% of the leavers went to normal Secondary Schools. The remainder went to Boarding School, Hospital
Units or Barretts Green Special School.
"Close contact is kept with Child Guidance Clinics and their Staffs and the Senior Medical Officer
for School Health, and the Vernon House Staff attend meetings at school where individual cases and general
problems affecting the school are discussed.
"Research has shown that a small percentage of all school children are handicapped by emotional
disturbance and in need of specialised help. It is important that teachers are aware of the symptoms of
maladjustment and refer children as soon as possible and certainly before the problems begin to crystallize in
adolescence.
"My aim is to see these children back into normal school and to make them well enough to cope
with their often unsatisfactory home background and, therefore, more likely to succeed and become selfsufficient
both in school and adulthood."
Residential Schools for Maladjusted Children
At the end of 1970, 90 of the 187 ascertained maladjusted pupils were placed at a wide variety of
special and maintained residential schools for maladjusted pupils and at independent residential schools
accepting maladjusted children.
Forty mildly maladjusted children were placed at Tylney Hall.
physically handicapped children
Grove Park School
Grove Park School provides primary and secondary schooling for children with a wide variety of
physical handicaps. These children require special education and often special teaching methods to enable
them to overcome the difficulties resulting from their handicaps. At the same time a large proportion of the
children require regular physiotherapy and this is carried out with as little interruption of their school work
as possible. Throughout 1970 the school was full and there was a waiting list of children for admission.
At the end of 1970 there were 124 children on roll, 74 of whom were from Brent, 25 from Ealing,
16 from Harrow, eight from Barnet and one child from Hillingdon.
During the year 25 children left of whom six returned to ordinary school and six left at the age of
16. The rest either transferred from the district or to residential or other special schools.
The younger age groups in the school make up the larger section and the number of children with
spina bifida has contributed to this increase.
As reported last year the pattern of disabilities has changed over the years and more of the younger
children being admitted now are seriously disabled and usually have more than one handicap.
It is these children who so desperately need the advantages of a nursery class in the school as many,
in their pre-school years, have had to remain confined to their homes without opportunities of playing and
mixing with other children, until they reach Grove Park at age five. It is hoped that the long awaited nursery
class will soon become available.