A new department for girls is established and cooking, laundry, housewifery and therapeutic massage is added to the curriculum.
The school is staffed entirely by women and girls as the male staff enlist. Children are taught in mixed classes for the first time.
Image: Senior class.
The Institution takes over the supervision of blind home workers in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire at the request of the Ministry of Health. A women's hostel is opened for 17 blind women workers at a house in Carpenter Road in Birmingham.
The Blind Persons Act made it a duty for councils to provide for the welfare of the blind and extended the old age pension to blind people at 50 years of age rather than 70. For the first time, blind children are allowed to take the same examinations as sighted people, such as City and Guilds.
The Institution records a deficit of £9,568 attributed to economic depression and high unemployment. Some blind workers are reduced to part time hours.
Image left: Upholstery workshop.
Image right: Brush making.
Pupils from the school triumph at the Midland Music Festival winning in open competition against 72 other choirs.
The Cowley Home for Blind Women is established at Gravelly Hill, Erdington. This provides a retirement home for 30 blind women.
Several miniature articles made by blind workers at the school are accepted at the Wembley Exhibition. A wool rug, cane chair and linen basket pass into Queen Mary's private collection.
Turnover in the Institution's trading department reached £37,900 and new workshops are opened by Neville Chamberlain, then Minister for Health.
Radio services established - issuing and maintaining wireless sets to blind people in Birmingham, Smethwick, Oldbury and West Bromwich.
Image: Mat making.