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289
OPEN-AIR EDUCATION.
Playground classes were held during the summer months at
Woodside School. There was no extension of these classes during
1934.
BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
Full statistical details are given in Table III. of the Tables
required by the Board of Education, Appendix III.
Blind Children.
Seven boys and 3 girls are resident at special schools for the
blind. The institutions which these children attend are as
follows:—Royal Normal College for the Blind, 4 boys;
Chorley Wood Blind College, 1 girl; Barclay Blind School,
Brighton, 2 girls; Abbotskerswell, Devon, 1 boy; Sunshine
Home, East Grinstead, 2 boys; (these are residential); 18 children
attend the Special Class for Myopic Children.
St, Luke's Special School For Partially Sighted Children.
At the end of the year there were 18 children in attendance.
Of these, 9 were cases of myopia, 6 were non-myopes, and 3 had
myopia combined with some other ocular defect. On the basis of
the figure suggested by the Committee of Inquiry into Problems
relating to Partially Sighted Children (1934) Croydon should
have about 26 elementary school children suitable for segregation
in a special school of this type. Refusals are sometimes met with
and are difficult to combat, the degree of difficulty depending on
the type of ocular defect in question. Again, the clever myope
who has a scholarship in front of him is often not referred. If,
as is usual in these cases, he is the child of understanding parents
and is under close ophthalmic supervision, with the necessary
restrictions imposed, no harm may result, or, at least, a change
°f regime can be advised if found necessary.
The education of the parents and children about the nature
of myopia and the means to retard its advancement is receiving
attention, and an attempt is being made to admit young myopes
for a temporary period for this purpose.
.
The curriculum is that usually laid down for the myope and
the Partially sighted, respectively, but is under constant review,
and changes are introduced according to experience. For
example, during the past year both bovs and girls have attended
domestic science classes, and now the system of mixing the