[Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Manchester.
- Manchester (England). Council.
- Date:
- 1959
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Manchester. Source: Wellcome Collection.
71/130 page 67
![(d) Lancasterian Day Special School for Crippled Children This school, which is situated on the south side of the city, caters for children suffering from physical handicaps and who, by reason of their disabilities, do not need residential care, but require special education in a day school. As children attend this school from all over the city it is necessary for special transport to be provided for those who are unable to travel on public service vehicles and live far distant from the school. They are conveyed by two coaches belonging to the Education Committee and three buses hired from the Manchester Corporation Transport Department. An attendant, who also looks after the children during school hours, travels on each of the buses to supervise the children. A school medical officer visits the school one halfday each week to undertake the general medical care of the children. Any in need of treatment, which would normally be given at a local school clinic, can receive it from a school nurse who is permanently attached to the school. As there are quite a number of children whose speech is defective, a speech therapist attends the school every day to undertake treatment. The Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Education Committee visits the school fortnightly and prescribes any necessary orthopaedic and remedial treatment which is carried out by the physiotherapists permanently in the school. If any child needs operative treatment, this is usually arranged at the hospital at which the orthopaedic surgeon is a consultant. As a relatively large number of children with rather serious disabilities are attending the school, it has been found necessary, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Education, to reduce the number of children in the present accommodation. At one time during the year, even though some children had been discharged, it was not possible to replace them *with others awaiting admission. Fortunately, by reorganisation, the waiting list has been considerably reduced, although the accommodation is still restricted. To relieve the congestion two prefabricated classrooms are being built in the grounds and it is hoped that these will be ready for occupation during the early part of 1960. The headmistress, Miss E. Slinger, has submitted the following report : “ During the Autumn of 1958 alterations to the domestic science room were started and completed by the summer of 1959. The portion of the room previously utilised as a three room flat was dismantled and the whole room has been replanned to give the maximum space to incorporate four kitchens. This rearrangement has proved very satis¬ factory, for now the chair-bound children and those who have difficulty in moving in confined space find the extra room a help to them in their classwork. The room is now equipped with a washer and drying cabinet, electric and gas cookers and other mechanical gadgets which are especially helpful to the handicapped. One end of the room is furnished as a sitting room so that a complete course of housecraft for boys an girls, whatever their menta] or physical handicap may be, can be carried out.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29786034_0071.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
