EDUCATION - KEEPING THEM HONEST

First day of School

Today was my youngest daughter Amanda's first day back at school in Year 6.  I dropped her off this morning and she was happy.  I cannot believe how wonderful the Principal is being to my daughter and to me.  She advised my daughter that if the spelling was too easy and that if she didn't need to do it to just let them know and that anything that my daughter felt was a waste of her time and she didnt' enjoy doing anyway to talk to them and they would give her something more suitable.   This attitude is something that we have never experienced before!   It gives me great hope to know that their are Principals who talk that way and who do appear to understand and who do appear to want to help.   I always believed that there was alot of potential and goodness in the Public school system that is being stifled by bureaucracy and that is why we keep perservering, of course the other reason is money.   

The really interesting thing was my son's reaction.  As soon as we walked into the school he just seemed to withdraw.  Then he started yawning, he started saying that he felt really tired.   His eyes sunk into his head.  He was leaning on me, like he had no energy.  Then he started saying that his neck was getting stiff and hurting.  He really did look unwell.  Then he said that his bones started hurting and he had to sit down.  Then he said his stomach felt bad and then he said that this little blister appeared on his finger.   He deteriorated rapidly. 

When we left straight away he said he felt better, although it took a while for that  feeling in his stomach to go away and the little blister is still there.    When he got in the car he said that school makes his body feel sick and that he believes that it is because school is his worse nightmare.

I just dont know what I am going to do with him.     He has seen his siblings and family suffer so much anguish and despair because of school issues and he himself has suffered and it is having a serious affect on him psychologically and physically.   It is just amazing to watch how his body reacts.

I really don't know how we are going to overcome this but I do believe that until the system acknowledges my families situation and does the right thing, this fear that is causing my son so much sickness is not going to go away.

GREAT NEWS

It is with delight that I can say that my daughter Amanda has been enrolled into a Public School that is only 2 stations away from where we live.   

She starts Monday.  The Principal was wonderful.  She was understanding, compassionate and caring and she welcomed my daughter and family.   She appeared to fully understand the difficulties that gifted students faced.

Its going to be a good weekend and hopefully a good year.

GOOD NEWS FOR AMANDA AND ME

I am feeling very optimistic.   I have received replies to my emails from Principals regarding whether there are any places available and suitable for my Amanda in Year 6 this year.    We are making arrangements to see the Principals of the 2 schools that have said that they will see us as they have a place but we need to ensure it is suitable.

That is wonderful,  I appreciate that my daughter is a "special needs" child and I dont want them to accept her if they do not believe that the environment will be satisfactory for her.   I don't want trouble.  I am happy to work with them and if it doesn't work out - no hard feelings.  I appreciate that the Public System struggles to meet the needs of children with special needs and in the end it is just more work but my daughter  and I are  happy  to work with them. 

Whether it will work will depend on a number of things.  The fact that they could have said no and they didn't is already a very good start, it brings back hope in me.  I was so scared that everybody would say no.

Anyway we will see how things go.  Wish us Luck!

WAITING FOR NEWS ON SCHOOL PLACEMENT

Well, last Friday I sent an email to the school that my daughter wants to attend this year asking them to re-consider their decision not to offer my daughter a place  and asking that they reconsider her application on compassionate grounds and on the basis of extenuating circumstances.  I have not received an acknowledgment of my email or any communication at all.

They know my daughter is sitting at home waiting.  How can they be so cruel to not at least acknowledge our email or to let us know what is happening?  The days are long when you are waiting and they are passing, school has already started, children are settling in.  They are so cruel.   

I am too scared to ring because I just cannot deal with any more negativity or rejection.  My heart starts beating too fast, my chest tightens and I feel sick.  I hate having to deal with these issues.  They make our live miserable.

I don't want to send emails to all the local schools as yet because it wont help with our already ruined reputation and I really would like to have to avoid doing that if the school is considering her for placement.  Plus I wouldn't know what to say to the local schools.  I know that schools are scared of my family but we have never done anything wrong.  We are the ones that have been wronged.

My daughter is a wonderful kind, and caring student and an asset to any school.  I just don't know what to do anymore. You cant force a school to take your child.  You really don't have a choice of schools.   So how does a parent cope with a situation like this when nobody in the Education System is required to care? 

UNSUCCESSFUL AGAIN

Well I knew that this would happen.  I received a response from the School today and it went like this:

Dear Mrs Challita

Thank you for your application for the enrolment of Amanda at Caringbah Public School as a non- local student. Unfortunately your application has been unsuccessful. There are no positions avaliable for non-local students as our school has reached its enrolment ceiling.

Thank you for your application and please pass on my best wishes to Amanda for the coming year"

I have informed them about Amanda's situation and they don't care.  They are not required to care.  The Public System is run by people who do not give a damn about our children.

I haven't told my daughter yet,  I don't know how to tell her.

I knew that they would do this to her.

Distance Education Allowance blues

I recently applied for an allowance that I was told my children qualified for as they have been granted Distance Education on Psychological and medical grounds and they are enrolled in the Distance Education School .  The Centerlink site is here, it is called the Assistance for Isolated children http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/individuals/st_payments.htm

I sent in the forms and within a couple of days I received a statement saying that my children did not qualify because they did not live far enough away from a school.    At the same time they sent me a form to fill in if I wanted to apply under the Distance Education on Psychological and medical grounds. 

The process involved to fill in the forms means having to go back to the Psychologist and having him fill in a medical report.   I wrote back to the Department of Social Security and informed them that my children had already been assessed for Distance Education on psychological and medical grounds and they had been successful and qualified so therefore they qualified for this allowance and that I did not particular think that it was fair or right for them to demand that I take my children back to the psychologist for this and pay for the psychologist to do another report when the children are already on Distance Education!

It already took the Department of Education 5 months to process my children’s Distance Education forms as it had to undergo special consideration and scrutiny, whilst my children sat and waited.    So many bureaucrats have read my families business and have had internal access to my families life  AND now the Department of Social Security wants me to also send them our life so that they can also see.

I said not on your life,  I have objected to giving them any more information and requested that they process the applications on the evidence that they have before them as my family is sick of the abuse of our privacy.

Home Education to prevent bullying.

The on-line opinion forum has an article headed Home Education can help prevent bullying http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3977

I have commented a number of times on the article and when I wrote, I wondered how long it would take before somebody tried to blame me for our situation.  I didn't have long to wait.    In a post by sajo on 1 January 2005 he states:   "One word of advice - this will all work much better if it is presented reasonably and accurately without unnecessary anger and blame and with the confidence that you expect something to be done. I do however wonder if there is not a lot more to your problem than you are letting on if, as you say, there is no support among the parent community. Parents at my own children's school stick together when they want something changed. This is also why a class action is more likely to succeed and make headlines than individual lawsuits".

One of the annoying things about Online Opinion is that you can only post 2 posts on one subject every 24 hours so now I have to wait until tomorrow to reply as I have already posted twice but sajo's post really bothered me because he has just assumed that I haven't done things by the book and that I didn't take it to the P & C first and that I wasn't part of the P & C and that if I was different and did things differenlty things would have been different.   People dont realise that it doesn't matter how you present it, the system is set up to cover up.   The post seems to indicate that if you are bullied and targeted and you get upset and/or angry and put blame on the culprits that it is unneccesarry reaction.  In essense he cant help but believe that somehwere, somehow I caused the problems by the way I dealt with it.

This is how the system protects itself.   If they don't deal with an issue properly people automatically assume that there is no problem and it must be the complainant that is the problem.   Parents did not ostracize me because they didn't like me, they were scared, scared that if they were seen with my family that they system might think that they were supporting us and they would also become victims.   When a victim is being bullied usually there is a crowd of onlookers.  Just because the onlookers turn their back on the victim of the bully doesn't mean that the victim deserved what they got, or even caused the problem and it certainly doesn't mean that the onlookers all resent and hate the victim.   Its fear, fear of becoming a victim that causes others to not support the victims of bullying and that is exactly what has happened in our case.

For the benefit of people like sajo I would say that I followed Policy and Procedure to the letter and in writing.  I didn't try to place  blame initially, I tried to address the issues, which were issues in relation to the treatment of children and the neglect of the educational, emotional and social needs of gifted children. I presented it as a school/system problem and not necessarily and individual problem.   For that the system turned on my family and systemically bullied, vicitmised, vilified and discredited us.  I tried dealing with it nicely and it doesn't work. It doesn't actually matter how you present it, it appears that you have to resort to drastic measures in order to get anything to happen. 

Distance Education

Well, today I received an email from the Distance Education Office saying that Amanda and John have been enrolled in Distance Education and that I should receive their first load of work early next week.   Hows that for service,  I first contacted them in August.

Anyway I am pleased that at least it is going to  start this year as then next year the KIds can start the year organised in their Education. 

Amanda is of course "not happy" as she actually wants to go back to a particular Primary school (the school she was at before we moved house) to do Year 6 next year as she wants to spend her last year of Primary in school with her friends and we are now 'out of area' and the school says that they are full and cannot know whether they will have room for her until they get their numbers next year.  It seems that extenuating circumstances mean nothing to those in the system.   It will be such a shame if her last year in Primary cannot be spent in school with her friends as she really wants to spend her last year of Primary in school and she has always talked about being in Year 6 and how good it will be to be the eldest/biggest in the school.  She will be so disapointed and upset she she has to spend her last year in Primary at home. 

No doubt somehow people will blame me!

Distance Education

In August this year my two youngest children found themselves not enrolled in any school and in a position to be unable to attend school.

In August I contacted the Distance Education Centre and advised them of the matter and asked for the Application forms to be sent out.  They were not forthcoming.  In September I wrote to them and formerly requested Distance Education and provided them with medical reports supporting the applications and  informed them that the matter was urgent.      It is now 18 November and my children are still sitting at home waiting to be put on Distance Education.   After chasing the matter this week I have been advised by the District Office that  the Applications have been approved and that I shall hear from the Distance Education Office.

I dont know when my children will start Distance Education,  but I am concerned that the process that the system uses is slow and without regard to the children and how it makes them feel and that it leaves children without Education and in limbo for long periods of time.