Cut‐off: how we spent our time in a residential school

Abstract

Accessible summary • This article is about children and care staff in a boarding school for children with physical disabilities and mild learning disabilities in the1960s. • The story is told by three women who worked as assistant housemothers at the school when they were young. They explain how the children and care staff spent their time during the week and at the weekend. • The way some things were done would not be acceptable now but, at the time, the lives of the children were thought to be better than children with learning disabilities who lived in ‘mental handicap’ hospitals. • It is hoped that this article will add to the history of disabled people and people with learning disabilities. Summary This article documents the ways in which both pupils and care staff spent their time in a residential school for children with physical disabilities and mild learning disabilities in the 1960s. It is told from the perspective of the author, who worked at the school as an assistant housemother, and two of her co-workers who responded to an open-ended questionnaire. It is clear from the study that many of the child care practices would no longer be acceptable and yet, according to Maureen Oswin who researched the school in the late 1960s, the standard of care for people with learning disabilities was good for that time (Oswin 1971). It is hoped that this article will add to the history of disabled people, including those with learning disabilities, as told through the experiences of three young women embarking on child care work.