ABSTRACT

For many years central government documents have suggested that the principle of integration was official government policy. In 1954, Circular 276 stated that 'no handicapped child should be sent to a special school who can satisfactorily be educated in an ordinary school. In the Warnock Report there was evidence to show limited integration taking place nationally of pupils with physical and sensory disability. Schemes involving the maladjusted appear to be the result of local rather than national initiatives. It is unfortunate that many teachers are reluctant to admit what they perceive to be failure because, as a result, the disturbed pupils may remain in a situation where they not only cause acute distress to others but continue to damage themselves. Although in the lower school the pupils are aged up to ten years, the curriculum is infant school orientated, and for some pupils it offers a preschool type of experience.