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The elder girls take cookery in the dinner hut one morning weekly
and the elder boys are taught woodwork by a visiting master. Drill
and country dancing are taken, but owing to the fact that the school
has no hall, it is not easy to arrange for these lessons in inclement
weather.
Speech and language being normally learned by imitation, the congenitally
and totally deaf are also dumb unless they receive special
instruction. Not only are they dumb, but they have the deeper disability
of being without language. The school therefore strives to give the
pupils a mastery of their mother tongue so that they may express their
thoughts and receive the thoughts of others.
The pupils leave school at the end of the term in which their 16th
birthday occurs, and before each child reaches the maximum age work
is found for him, so that he goes straight from school to employment.
Among the types of work the deaf undertake are lettering, signwriting
and all branches of commercial art, cabinet making and various branches
of work in wood; dressmaking, millinery and embroidery.
During the year a School Journey was undertaken. Twenty-seven
of the senior boys and girls in the care of three mistresses spent a fortnight
in June at Nutbourne Camp, Hambrook, near Chichester. The mornings
were given to lessons, chiefly on the surrounding countryside; during the
afternoons walks were taken, and in the evenings there were games.
A part of every day was set apart for free time and rest. The pupils
kept their sleeping quarters clean and tidy, but otherwise had no domestic
duties. The food was good and abundant and the conditions of the
camp were excellent. It is hoped that the boys and girls learned something
of country life and also of good citizenship during their time of
living together.
Oak Lodge School for Mentally Defective Children.
The Head Teacher has furnished the following report with regard to
Tottenham children attending Oak Lodge:—
During the year 1934, 72 children attended this school from the
Tottenham area. Of these, 20 were new admissions and 14 were withdrawn
.