Combined Open Air Schools for Mentally Defective and Other Handicapped Children
Sir George Newman in his annual Reports on the Health of the School Child frequently lays stress on the value of Open Air Schools and of the necessity of providing them for Mentally Defective, Physically Defective and ” Delicate ” children. In his Report for last year (reviewed in the last issue of Mental Wel- fare), he gave a few suggestions as to how these schools might be established at a minimum cost. He writes, ” the children spend the day at the school and special accommodation is required for the preparation and service of meals, resting and bathing. Such provision forms an essential part of the treatment and nec- essarily costs money. Economies however can be effected by using particular rooms for more than one purpose.” He suggests dining rooms that could also be used as classes, rest sheds and open air classes to be interchangeable, etc. ” If the provision of Open Air Schools is to be increased to anything like the extent required, all possible avenues for keeping the cost within reasonable limits must be explored Incidentally this provision for delicate children would in some degree contribute to the solution of difficulties presented by the needs of the back- ward child.”
There are now several joint Open Air Schools in England, for both mentally and physically defective children and some which also include provision for ” delicate ” children. It was thought that it might be of interest to readers of Mental Welfare to know in what way the accommodation of these schools is arranged and what type of school curriculum is followed. The following account of such schools are extracts from reports kindly sent us by the School Authorities. LEYTON. The Knotts Green Special School was opened in May, 1927, to accommodate three types of children, physically defective, debilitated or pre- tubercular, and mentally defective.
The department for Mentally defective children is almost an ideal one for its purpose. The class rooms are lofty and the north and south sides consist of doors which leave these two sides completely open when they are fastened back. The curriculum is the usual one of a day Special School, the subjects such as reading, writing and number being taken in the mornings and chiefly handicrafts in the afternoons. As the garden is large, practically all handicrafts for the boys are connected with it. The construction of a large fowl house and garden frames has already been completed and an incubator is being run to provide fowl house stock. Netting is being taught; woodwork and gardening instruction is given by a trained Certificated Teacher specially qualified in these subjects. It is hoped later to provide the boys with instruction in tailoring and boot-repairing. The girls are taught domestic subjects, their home conditions being specially borne in mind. Other subjects include lace-work, sealing wax art and weaving. A minor clinic is held daily and some of the children are receiving sunlight treat- ment, the apparatus for which is installed in the school.
The children of this school are not isolated from those of the department for delicate children. They come into frequent contact, particularly in the playing of games, with benefit to both types of children and a successful Camp was held in the School grounds last Summer in which both Open Air and Special School children participated.
KETTERING OPEN AIR RECOVERY SCHOOL. This school, opened in 1913, comprises three separate schools under one head; the Open Air School for Physically Defective Children, a School for pre-tubercular children and a School for Mentally Defective Children. The Building includes Class rooms, Bath room, Dressing rooms and a large Rest Shed, and there is accommodation for 110 child- ren. The Staff consists of a Head Teacher, five assistants and three domestic staff. The children being of very varied ages the work is necessarily individual and the time table elastic. Personal hygiene, prayers, number, drill or games occupy the time until 10.30 a.m. Reading, writing, general information and singing are held till 11.45 a.m., and dinner at 12 is followed by a half-hour’s rest. The afternoon school is devoted chiefly to handwork, and particularly to work in the garden. ” The garden is an education in itself for our mentally deficient children ?children who in the main come from poor and squalid homes and have little or nothing beautiful in their surroundings. Here at school, they see a succession of the buds on the trees forming into blossom and leaves, and watch the develop- ment of the fruit. Whilst the boys do the heavier garden operations such as digging, planting potatoes and other vegetables, the girls share in the work of weeding, picking gooseberries, raspberries, etc., and help in the kitchen to turn the fruit into jam.” The older boys attend a Woodwork Centre and with the smaller children a greater amount of time is given to music, dancing and games. There is on the premises a large bathroom with 11 showers which makes it possible for the mentally defective children to have two baths a week, and the other children one bath. Many children in this way learn to dress and look after themselves.
One of the latest developments in connection with the School has been the purchase of a Bungalow on the East Coast. This was bought and furnished out of voluntary efforts. It is maintained by the Education Committee and recognised for grant purposes by the Board of Education. This will accommodate 15 children and four staff and is open from the beginning of May until the end of September. Children are taken there for relays of a fortnight’s or a month’s stay. During 1927, 103 children benefited in this way. The Bungalow is only 60 yards from the sea, with bedrooms opening on to a verandah where the children have their meals and do their lessons. In this way they are able to have a very free and open-air life. The parents pay 8/- a week towards the children’s keep.
DONCASTER OPEN AIR SCHOOL. The building accommodates 240 children of both sexes, in two departments, the larger one for physically defective and the smaller one for backward children. There are seven class-rooms with a manual room to each department. Housewifery, carpentry and various handi- crafts are taught. Particular attention has been paid to the provision for facilities for medical treatment and the building is fitted with the ” Panel Invisible ” system of central heating. The School is constructed so that either the back or the front can be thrown entirely open.
ABERDARE OPEN AIR SCHOOL.
The School was opened as a temporary one in 1914 for mentally and physically defective children. The physically defect- ive return to their former schools if the medical officer is satisfied with their recovery while the mentally defective remain in school until they are 16. The work of the mentally defectives is strictly practical and individual in character. Handwork for the older boys consists of gardening, cobbling, basket making and chair-caning; for the younger boys, simple weaving of cane; straw plait and raffia into shop bags, etc. Special emphasis is laid on domestic training for girls. Much rough work such as digging, cutting firewood, etc., is done by the boys partly as an attempt to prepare them for surface work at the local col- lieries to which most of them go on leaving the School. The school day for the Mentally defective is shorter than that for the Physically Defective and special attention is paid to personal cleanliness. Here as in other schools, there is a good bathroom accommodation. As the Director of Education for Aberdare writes in a report of the School, ” The method of the school is not merely ‘school in the open air ‘ but a system which affects the life and habits of the child at many points.”
Two other large schools at PRESTON and YORK, though for mentally defective children only, are conducted on Open Air lines. In the Preston school there are 90 children in attendance. For lessons the children are grouped into three classes under the Head Teacher and two assistants. The afternoons are devoted to handwork and there is a splendidly fitted up Manual Room. There is a large stretch of ground behind the school where each child has a piece of land for vegetable growing; in addition they look after the flower beds belonging to the School.
The school in York has an average attendance of 116 with a staff of four. The premises consist of an old Mansion with land adjoining. The open air school for physically defective children is separated from the school for mentally defective children except that the kitchen and dining room on the ground floor of the con- verted Mansion serve for both schools. The school is divided into four classes and the curriculum aims at giving the children healthy bodies, helping them to adapt themselves socially together with vocational preparation for work and leisure. Gardening and outdoor work is made an important feature of school life.
It is to be hoped that the number of these joint schools will be materially in- creased and that Education Authorities and Teachers alike will make full use of the educational opportunities they afford for increasing our knowledge of the best methods of education for handicapped children. The close connection between the mental and physical health of the child though recognised by all has not been sufficiently emphasised in its educational implication. The physical health of the mentally defective and dull and backward child is not sufficiently considered in the school curriculum nor do the physically defective children get the benefit they might from a closer study of, and adaptation to, the particular needs of the methods of teaching the mentally defective and backward child. In these joint schools we have an unique opportunity of working out practical methods of deal- ing with acknowledged theoretical difficulties.
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