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80
Vale Road Day Special School for Physically Handicapped Children.
This school accommodates over 80 children suffering from physical
disabilities. Like the School for the Deaf, it is a day special
school where children attend from all parts of North-East Middlesex
and are transported by motor coach, A waiting list is kept
for this school, consultation taking place between the medical and
educational staffs before adding to the list. There is a school
nurse attached to the school and a school medical officer visits
the school at intervals during each term for routine inspection of
the children. The physiotherapist from Lordship Lane Clinic attends
for two sessions weekly and the speech therapist once weekly.
At present, children suffering from the following defects are
in attendance:-
Cerabral palsy.
Muscular dystrophies.
Anterior poliomyelitis (effects of)
Rheumatic heart disease.
Congenital heart disease.
Disease of bones and joints.
One child who formerly attended this school owing to congenital
heart disease, was successfully operated upon and now takes part
in full activities at an ordinary school There is another child
in the school for whom a similar result is anticipated.
Handicapped Pupils-Leavers' Conference.
Each term a conference is held at the school, at which the Head
Teacher, the Youth Employment Officer and School Medical Officer
attend to discuss the future employment of pupils who are leaving
at the end of the term. This conference takes place before the
Youth Employment Officer holds his usual interview with the pupil
in the presence of the parent.
Spastic Unit.
By far the largest single group of children in attendance at
Vale Road School are cases of cerebral palsy. Approval has now
been given for the formation of a "spastic unit" at the school when
two new classrooms are built. Recommendations for this spastic unit,
the purpose of which is to increase and co-ordinate the existing
medical and educational services for the ascertainment and special
educational treatment of spastic children, included the following