Women's History Month...2023. Post 4. Kathleen Morrisby...A School At The Children's Hospital At Subiaco (1944).
This month is Women's History Month. I have decided to repost the stories of many of the wonderful women from Subiaco I have come across.
Kathleen Morrisby...A School At The Children's Hospital At Subiaco (1944).
Kathleen Morrisby was a teacher in the Education Department who set up a school in the Children's Hospital in Subiaco in the orthopaedic ward to help young patients remain in touch with their studies while they under went treatment. She was born in Roebourne in 1906.
During the summer break of the school in 1944 Kathleen travelled to Melbourne and visited several hospitals to learn about teaching children in orthopaedic wards at her own expense. In 1949 Kathleen travelled to England and Europe to study their methods used to educate children with a range of disabilities which were used to assist the children at the Children's Hospital upon her return.
In 1951 Kathleen obtained a position as principle of Larchfield House in England which was a home for disabled children set up on the Earl of Harewood's estate near Harrogate. During her time there she leant some of the newest methods for the diagnosis and treatment for children with disabilities.
The West Australian reported about Kathleen's study and work... "Two years ago she went to England to study the latest methods of teaching all types of handicapped children. There were about 80 girls at Palingswick House School, she said, their ages ranging from eight to 16 years. The teaching was remedial, and only 18 girls were in any one class. In addition to ordinary lessons, according to their ability, they had art therapy, pottery, sewing, woodwork, dramatics, speech therapy, domestic science and sewing. Excellent results had been achieved..."(West Australian, 27 June 1951).
Throughout her life Kathleen was interested in the Girl Guides movement in Western Australia. She established branches and participated in committees and encouraged young girls to become involved. After Kathleen returned from England and Europe she took on the role of Commissioner for Extension Guiding and set up a play therapy unit for girls at the Claremont Mental Hospital.
The first article titled 'School in a Hospital' Sunday Times, 9 July, 1944 is about Kathleen Morrisby and her work in educating children at the Children's Hospital in Subiaco. Together the children with Kathleen as their teacher achieved some amazing results.
The second article titled 'British Work in Educating Handicapped Children' from The West Australian, 8 August 1950 is about the observations Kathleen made during her study tour and work in England and Europe. She gave considerable praise to the work already being done by professionals for children at the Children's Hospital.
The achievements and work of the children at the Children's Hospital are continued in the next post.
After Kathleen returned to Perth in 1955, she was appointed Principal of Minballup Occupational Centre and, from 1962, the Specialist Section of South Kensington Occupational Centre until retiring in 1970. She died in December 1990, aged 84.
The articles and photographs are from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Sunday Times, 9 July 1944.
SCHOOL IN A HOSPITAL
Facilities For Sick Children
Since the beginning of the school year, little patients at the Children's Hospital at Subiaco have been having regular school lessons under the supervision of Miss Kathleen Morrisby.
The scheme, which is under the control of the Education Department, enables kiddies to keep in touch with their school work, so that when they return after long absences they can more easily take up the threads of their studies.
Small patients range from three years old to a pupil is up to 5th standard work. Most of them are in the orthopaedic ward, and there are others who are accident cases, or in for treatment for heart or diabetes.
Studies are naturally suited to the capability of the small patients, according to their improvement in health. Besides helping their education the scheme is one which, give them plenty of interesting occupation.
Miss Morrisby said that the three-year-old are most anxious to join in, and demand their paper and crayons when the others are being attended for lessons.
Excellent Standard
The standard of work is very good, some of them, who are In higher grades, possessing wonder fully neat work with lessons which have been well done.
Drawing is the delight of the tiniest, and rabbits and squirrels in startling colors adorn the papers which are given out for the morning's work. Sewing and hand work are also included in the curriculum.
There are several natives among the cases, and these small boys and girls display keen interest and ability, one little lad in particular, showing quite a talent for drawing.
"It ls the most interesting work." said Miss Morrisey. "I love it. Of course there ls plenty of preparation to be done for the lessons, and one has to see that the work is suitable for the precarious health of the children. They are all very keen, and we get on splendidly."
Classroom Soon
Soon there will be a classroom built for the use of pupils who are well enough to be housed there for lessons, and later on there will be sand-pits and other kindergarten facilities.
Miss Morrisby has plenty of equipment to carry on, and makes quite a number of things requited for the lessons.
Besides being of help and occupational Interest to the sick kiddies, the parents are delighted to think that their little ones are able to keep in touch with school work in such a pleasant way, and feel they will not be so hackward when they take their place again In the regular school.
West Australian, 8 August 1950.
British Work In Educating Handicapped Children
Special attention was being paid in Britain to the education of physically and mentally handicapped children and remarkable results were being achieved, said Miss Kathleen Morrisby alter her return to Perth last week from England, where she had spent 18 months.
Miss Morrisby, who started the school for orthopaedic patients at the Princess Margaret Hospital, the first of its kind in Australia, went to England to study the latest methods of educating children who were handicapped.
She has brought back much valuable information gained at first hand. Her visit was welcomed by the London County Council, whose education officer made it possible for her to visit many schools and she worked in some of them. In the area controlled by the L.C.C. there were 83 special schools for all types of handicapped children and the director of the section which controlled them was a woman chosen for her wide experience and knowledge of the particular problems which were met in these special schools, Miss Morrisby said.
Great progress had been made in educating blind children, and at one school she saw children aged between five and ten years running about and playing as though unconscious of their disability. Their school work was excellent. Children with partial vision were educated separately and by means of special lenses attached to the desk the child was able to use ordinary text books. Miss Morrisby has made inquiries to see whether these lenses can be imported if they can be made use of in Australia.
SIZE OF CLASSES. Other special schools catered for orthopedic cases in hospital, and for convalescent orthopedics, Miss Morrisby said. One hospital with 800 patients employed 49 teachers, but she saw no hospital school which was so well equipped as that at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Children who suffered from a double defect, the mentally handicapped, the maladjusted, and children who had been through the courts for delinquency were all educated in separate schools, and in no case did the number of pupils in a class exceed 15. This made it possible for the teacher to give better attention to each child.
Miss Morrisby worked for a time at a residential school for girls, all of whom had been through a court for delinquency, and children such as these. she said, were England's greatest educational problem. Deaf and dumb children were equipped with hearing aids, but she saw nothing better in these schools than what was being done at the school for deaf and dumb children in this State.
LOCAL DESKS ADOPTED. Open-air schools for tubercular contacts had been established in different parts of England and there were hospital schools for heart cases. One of these proposes to copy the type of desks used at the Princess Margaret Hospital and the recumbent spectacles already being used in this State have been introduced to Guy's Hospital and some children's hospitals as a result of her visit.
During her time in England Miss Morrisby was able to have discussions with leading educationists and psychologists. She later visited Holland, France and Switzerland, combining a holiday trip with visits schools in those countries.
From Celebrating 100 Years PLC OCA by Presbyterian Ladies College
https://issuu.com/presbyterianladiescollege/docs/100_years_booklet_single_pages/s/11343637
Kathleen Edith Mary Morrisby (1923)
1922-1923; Deputy Prefect
Born in Roebourne in 1906, Kathleen grew up in Geraldton where her sisters, Elinor Morrisby (1926) and Isabel Lee (Morrisby 1929), were born. She came to PLC in 1922-1923, after which she worked as a monitor at her old school, Geraldton High, and captained the 1st Geraldton Guide Company. She then attended Claremont’s Teachers’ Training College, with her first posting as Head Teacher at Kulikup State School, in Yallingup, in 1928. From 1929-1930 Kathleen was the OCA’s Geraldton Branch Secretary and, in 1937-1938, OCA President. The next year she became the first female appointed to PLC Council as the inaugural OCA Representative to Council. She served until 1952, and was OCA President again from 1942-1945.
In 1944 she led a new scheme, educating orthopedic patients, aged 3-15, in the Children’s Hospital. She visited interstate specialists to study their methods and, from 1948, embarked on a tour of England and Europe, learning new techniques in the education of tubercular, blind, deaf and mute children. Finding Western Australia led the way in some methods, she brought others back when she returned in August 1950. She then rejoined the OCA committee and, as Girl Guide Commissioner for Extension Guiding, set up a play therapy unit for girls at the Claremont Mental Hospital.
In 1951 Kathleen was appointed Deputy Principal of Palingswick House School in London, for 80 “educationally subnormal” girls aged 8-16, but was soon the Principal of Larchfield House, a home and school for children with cerebral palsy, near Harrogate.
Returning to Perth in 1955, Kathleen was appointed Principal of Minballup Occupational Centre and, from 1962, the Specialist Section of South Kensington Occupational Centre until retiring in 1970. She and her sister Elinor then moved into different apartments in the same complex in Nedlands, where she died in December 1990, aged 84.
