[Report 1971] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wallasey County Borough.

  • Wallasey (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1971] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wallasey County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    School Psychological Service. 1971 saw a further increase in the calls made upon the Schools’ Psychological Service by the usual agencies re¬ ferring children for assessment and advice with regards to their learning difficulties or signs of delayed develop¬ ment, which added to the demands made by the newly opened Wimbrick Hay, has ensured that in all but the most pressing cases the Service has now assumed a first aid role, with a consequent inability to review the progress of referrals made in previous years or to adequately carry out the important aavisory function in both Special Schools and Classes and in Ordinary Schools with slow learning pupils. The proposed increase in staff of an additional psychologist and social worker will alleviate the pressures upon the present staff, although it remains to be seen how the increased staff will cope with the continuing expansion of special educational facilities in the Borough; in this regard there would seem to be a critical difference between a staffing ratio calculated on past demand as opposed to to a more generous ratio arrived at on projected demand and allowing for a more enlightened and considered app¬ roach towards the services which can then be provided. During the year there were several significant mile¬ stones in the expansion of special educational facilities in the Borough with the opening in January of Wimbrick Hey Keception/Observation Centre by the Social Services Department with educational provisions on the site, the inclusion of the former Junior Training Centre into the educational system in April, the opening of Pinetree School for Maladjusted Children and the extension of the Schools' Reading Service into Middle Schools from Sep¬ tember. All of these facilities in their different ways have offered placements to children referred to the Education Guidance or Child Guidance Clinics, either for learningor behaviour difficulties. Moreover, the anticipated opening in September 1972, of two additional Assessment/Pro¬ gress Classes, a Partial Hearing Unit, the further expan¬ sion of the Schools’ Reading Service and the promise of more places in Pinetree School, indicate further important landmarks in the progress towards a complete system of special education in the Borough. However, there are still two clearly identifiable groups of children remaining to be catered for in appropriate education settings, namely those with serious speech defects and those suffering from a highly specific disability in reading (so-called dyslexicsj* both groups being small in number yet requiring the bene¬ fit of sophisticated educational techniques, for there is clear evidence to suggest that to neglect such children is to condemn the majority of them to serious educational retardation, irrespective of their intellectual potential; it is thus hoped to explore the possibility of appropriate educational provision for such children, although transport difficulties may prove insuperable.