EXPERIMENTATION:
With the end of the sixties the whole ethos of the Community went into the melting pot. Punishments, runs, cold baths - the lot had all gone as well as bells and dormitories, in our endeavour to soften the boarding school image and replace it with individual space and decoration.
And Leila Rendel's "thou shalt not touch" had been somewhat transformed by piggy-backs, hugs and other demonstrative displays of affection. The other side of that exhortation, that you should avoid taking hold of a child unless it is absolutely necessary, was constantly re-examined without us ever being content that we had a satisfactory answer to this essential tool of the residential worker with EBD children. In the early seventies we watched the "Warrendale" film and tried to adapt their semi-affectionate, non-threatening techniques. In the light of recent difficulties in "holding", it might be wise to look at "Warrendale" again. Residential social workers have constantly to look at ways of making themselves more and more professional and "holding" needs the most expert scrutiny and wisdom. Unless we find an acceptable solution we put ourselves at risk every time we take hold of a child for whatever reason. There are of course other ways of holding, but physical holding is fundamental to the job.
We cannot afford to leave it until later, [for] much longer.
Our seventies children meanwhile showed what they were made of whenever they competed outside. Two boys held county athletic records; two years running we overcame the Boy Scouts of Kent in their Nightmare exercise and ours was considered the crack crew of the ocean-going [Training Ship]"Arethusa." They weren't just pretty faces! And throughout the decade any child leaving Caldecott, however unqualified, could walk straight into a job.