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46
The school for the Deaf and Dumb children is situated in
the centre of the district, and has accommodation for 20 children.
The number of pupils on the register at the end of the year was
14 boys and 8 girls.
Speech and lip reading are soon acquired by most of the children,
and many attain a fair standard of education.
Their medical supervision is similar to that of the children in the
ordinary schools.
Myope Centre.—The present buildings—wood and corrugated
iron—were formerly used as an ordinary day school with a capacity for
120 children.
Its situation is convenient, the trams passing within a few hundred
yards.
The surroundings are also good, and a considerable amount of land
for gardening is allotted to the school.
During the year five boys and six girls were admitted, and three boys
and one girl left. There are at present on the register the names of 53
children—boys 21 and girls 32. Five others have been refused
admittance.
Of those attending, 23 are "blind" within the meaning of the Elementary
Education (D. and E. Ch. A.) 1899, and are taught Braille and
suitable manual occupations such as chair caning, basket work, and
the use of the knitting machine.
The other children, apart from the special equipment supplied for
them, learn to read and write in the ordinary way.
"Their manual work includes printing, woodwork (strip), bent ironwork,
cardboard modelling, knitting and drawing.
In the summer of 1921 gardening was undertaken, and the results
were good.
In March, 1922, with the consent of your Committee, Miss Arthurton,
a teacher from the " Guild of Blind Gardeners," commenced to give
gardening lessons, and the Head Teacher tells me that the pupils are
greatly benefiting by the instruction.
The school journey of these children to Hastings has been reported
upon by the Head Teacher, and there is little doubt she possesses all
the qualifications which are so essential for a Head Teacher of a school
of this kind.