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Nursery education up to the age of six or seven years is provided mainly by the
Sunshine Home nursery schools which are managed by the Royal National Institute for the
Blind. At the age of six or seven children ase transferred to schools for the blind.
The instruction for boys includes woodwork, basket work and modelling: for girls,
housecraft, knitting, light basketry and simple sewing. Reading and writing are taught
through the medium of Braille, arithmatic by a system of arranging types in a board,
and geography by means of embossed maps. Typewriting is also taught at a later age.
Certain pupils can continue their training beyond the age of sixteen and, in addition
to typewriting, take up shorthand or telephony, pianoforte tuning, basket weaving or
machine knitting. In the case of partially sighted children the curriculum resembles
that in schools for children with normal sight. Written work is done by using chalk
on blackboards or with thick crayon on large sheets of paper. Reading books with large
type are used by the Junior children and a special reading lens on a stand is supplied
for every pupil of secondary school age.
The following figures relate to work carried out in connection with blind and
partially sighted children during the year:-
BLIND
Number ascertained during the year Nil
Number in residential special schools at the end of the year 2
Out of school 2
PARTIALLY SIGHTED
Number known to the Authority during the year 10
Number ascertained during the year 1
Position at the end of the year:
In day special schools 8
In residential special schools 1
Out of school 1
The incidence of partial sightedness for special educational provision remains
fairly constant at 0.33 per 1,000 registered pupils. There is close liaison between
the Chief Assistant School Medical Officer and the ophthalmologist on this subject.
DEAF AND PARTIALLY DEAF CHILDREN. A deaf child is defined as one who has no hearing
or whose hearing Is so defective that it requires education by methods used for deaf
children without naturally acquired speech or language. A deaf child must be educated at a
special school unless the Minister determines otherwise. In all the schools for the deaf
the oral system of speech and lip reading is used. Those children who have enough hearing
make full use of group hearing-aid apparatus in specially equipped classrooms and are
supplied with individual hearing aids for personal use. The normal curriculum is followed
as far as possible but with particular stress on speech training and lip reading and
language development. Some of our children with the highest academic ability go at the age
of twelve to a voluntary special school, the Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf,
Newbury, which is the only one of its kind in the country,
A partially deaf child is one who has some naturally acquired speech and language
but whose hearing is so defective that it requires for its education special arrangements
or facilities though not neoassarily all the educational methods used for deaf children.
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