View report page

94
School for the Deaf
Mr. T. Brown, Headmaster, reports that the School now serves
the whole of the Administrative County and started the year with
68 severely deaf children on the roll divided into nine classes
with an age range of 2 to 16 years.
The children under five are accommodated in the Nursery
building and most important section of the school. This ensures
a sound start at an early age when an infant is "speech ready" and
is reflected in his work throughout school life. Unfortunately
the need for this early start is not fully appreciated by everyone;
the problem may be further aggravated by parents being
assured that their children were partially deaf and would speak
normally after a short time, whereas in actual fact these children
were educationally severely deaf and only clinically partially
deaf.
Early in the year three boys took the entrance examination of
the newly opened Burwood Park Technical School for severely deaf
boys. All passed, the school thus taking three of the thirtythree
places available to the United Kingdom, a laudable effort as
the school roll is only approximately 1.5% of the deaf school
population of the country.
Throughout the year close co-operation with parents has been
maintained and the Parent-Teacher Association flourished. This
is quite an essential part of the education of a deaf child and
much can be done by such co-operation. A most interesting
Parent-Teacher Association lecture was given by Mr. Pierre Gorman,
an Australian,, born severely deaf, who already holds two degrees
of Melbourne University and is studying at Cambridge for his
doctorate,
Under the care of Dr. P P M, Clarke the aural health has been
excellent and there remains but one child requiring further treatment
for suppurative otitis media This is incredibly good for a
school for the deaf.
Educationally Sub-normal Children
The second largest category of ascertained handicapped
children, and the largest important group, is that of the EUS.N.
(135 out of 6 16). Most of these children attend day special
schools but where the home circumstances are difficult, and this