Thursday, March 22, 2007
March 21st
Inniu Dé Ceadaoin 21ú Márta: "Te agus trocha"
Slept in. Late on the road. As usual, school hard to find, but I suppose that it is the same at home for people trying to find Irish schools. Cóilín needs to get a hair cut and some pollyfiller for a tooth. No time for the dentist or barber. Next week, God willing. Feel like taking the morning off, but cannot disappoint the schools or the VPA who organised the visits.
Mount View School in a very salubrious part of Melbourne. 800 pupils in this middle-class school means that with a budget of $6 million, resources are not an issue. 75 staff, 55 teachers, 36 of them mainstream.
Some observations:
Monash Special Developmental School: An extraordinarily moving experience, to visit a school of 140 children with very severe intellectual and physical disabilities. Some unable to speak, some unable to see, some unable to walk, some confined to their bed. The sixty three staff who work with these young people are extraordinary people themselves. Pupils start attending at 2.8 years of age and only leave when they are 18.
Low staff turnover, but difficult to recruit young teachers, for this type of school. A very humbling experience for both of us.
Nath na Seachtaine:
Share the luv: Australians are a very tactile people. Cóilin got five hugs today!
Slept in. Late on the road. As usual, school hard to find, but I suppose that it is the same at home for people trying to find Irish schools. Cóilín needs to get a hair cut and some pollyfiller for a tooth. No time for the dentist or barber. Next week, God willing. Feel like taking the morning off, but cannot disappoint the schools or the VPA who organised the visits.
Mount View School in a very salubrious part of Melbourne. 800 pupils in this middle-class school means that with a budget of $6 million, resources are not an issue. 75 staff, 55 teachers, 36 of them mainstream.
Some observations:
- One full-time art teacher
- One and a half full-time music teachers
- Two P.E. teachers in a massive gym. Before and after school sports provided. Teams entered in local and state-wide competitions. Every sport played on adult courts/fields-no concession to mini-games here.
- One performing arts teacher
- A school nurse, two hours a day, paid for by voluntary donations of $40 per family per year. 90% of families pay.
- They also pay $200 per family for admin, art monies etc.
- Principal, two Deputies and two Leading teachers are all "walking". They kindly agreed to meet and be interviewed by us, at length, as they did not have class teaching responsibilities.
- Lunch was nice, good tucker, as they say.
- Many children with special needs integrated eg 30 deaf and 14 others with a high level of special need. Each child attracts individual funding of between $8,000 and $40,000, but this has to cover the cost of teacher, SNA and all other related expenses. I think that we will keep our system.
Monash Special Developmental School: An extraordinarily moving experience, to visit a school of 140 children with very severe intellectual and physical disabilities. Some unable to speak, some unable to see, some unable to walk, some confined to their bed. The sixty three staff who work with these young people are extraordinary people themselves. Pupils start attending at 2.8 years of age and only leave when they are 18.
- 63 staff
- 22 of them teachers
- 30 teacher assistants
- 2 physiotherapists
- 1 O.T.
- 1 Speech Therapist
- 1 Social worker, one day a week
- 1 psychologist, one day a week
Low staff turnover, but difficult to recruit young teachers, for this type of school. A very humbling experience for both of us.
Nath na Seachtaine:
"You want me to kill some trees for that?" (Am I to photocopy all that?)
March 20th
Inniu Dé Máirt 20ú Márta: Tá sé ag cur agus athás ar ghach duine. Easpa uisce le trí mhí anuas. Tháinig na hÉireannaigh leis an mbáisteach.
Up at 6.00 a.m. for a "Breakfast Meeting" at 7.30 in Chandler Primary School. Gerry and I decided to change positions. He drove and I navigated. We still got lost. We had to travel about 25km so it was bound to happen. It reminded me of the story of the husband and wife. Husband says to wife:
Wife to husband:
Some observations:
There is a local English Language School for new arrivals with poor English. They attend this school for one, two or a maximum of three terms, before attending mainstream school. If parents forgo this entitlement, there is no additional support to boost their children's English in the mainstream school.
Second school visit fell through (Allah be praised!) but we used the time to familarise ourselves with the new curriculum for Victoria, called "The Victoria Essential Learning Curriculum".
For those of you interested the whole shooting gallery is available on: http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/
The "third" school was Emerson Specialised School. Largest specialised school for children with mild to moderate learning difficulties in the state. 358 students and 80 staff, 53 teachers. Ages 5 to 18. Here the Principal, John Mooney, was an altogether remarkable scholar and charismatic leader. Winner of Principal of The Year Award 2005. Highly confident and personable students ready to take on the world, on their own terms, are the product of this incredible school. No blog would do justice to the school or to the man. This will have to wait for the report.
Home at 5.30 just in time to host local Principal, for Bagún agus Cabáiste (would you believe?) in Quiet Man-local Irish pub. Gerry says that the pint of Guinness travelled well.
Apologies for lack of photos, we hope to have them uploaded today or tomorrow. We will have a section on T-shirts and also signs, as well as a selection of schools and their facilities. If we can manage video and slide shows we will oblige.
Prices on a par with expensive Dublin egg: Two Kit Kats for ?4. Hotel car parking ?20 per day. Pint of beer over ?5.
Nath na Seachtaine:
(Tipsy after one drink)
T-shirt slogan: "The liver is evil and must be punished."
Up at 6.00 a.m. for a "Breakfast Meeting" at 7.30 in Chandler Primary School. Gerry and I decided to change positions. He drove and I navigated. We still got lost. We had to travel about 25km so it was bound to happen. It reminded me of the story of the husband and wife. Husband says to wife:
"Darling, I think that tonight we should spice up our lives by changing positions."
Wife to husband:
"That's a great idea, love. Tonight you can do the ironing and I will sit on the couch, drink beer and belch!"Chandler School has 314 pupils with 40 staff, 20 non class teaching, in a socially disadvantaged area with a multi-cultural school community-42 ethnic identities. This had been a graffiti-ridden dysfunctional school up to six years ago, where children felt unsafe. The new incoming Principal brought about a dramatic improvement by investing in creating a safe environment and adopting an abattoir approach. This "gentle slaughtering" brought about a 60% turnover of staff in two years. Now there is a queue to join the staff.
Some observations:
- Planning Week once a term where Special Ed teachers cover mainstream teachers to allow them to plan.
- Fulltime speech therapist funded by school
- Staff flu shots provided by school annually
- All classes are deliberately mixed eg: four classes of Fifth and Sixth combined, rather than four single stream classes. All for a better learning environment
- Deputy Principal fulltime
- Leading teacher .6 non-teaching
- 15 integration aides (SNAs)
There is a local English Language School for new arrivals with poor English. They attend this school for one, two or a maximum of three terms, before attending mainstream school. If parents forgo this entitlement, there is no additional support to boost their children's English in the mainstream school.
Second school visit fell through (Allah be praised!) but we used the time to familarise ourselves with the new curriculum for Victoria, called "The Victoria Essential Learning Curriculum".
For those of you interested the whole shooting gallery is available on: http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/
The "third" school was Emerson Specialised School. Largest specialised school for children with mild to moderate learning difficulties in the state. 358 students and 80 staff, 53 teachers. Ages 5 to 18. Here the Principal, John Mooney, was an altogether remarkable scholar and charismatic leader. Winner of Principal of The Year Award 2005. Highly confident and personable students ready to take on the world, on their own terms, are the product of this incredible school. No blog would do justice to the school or to the man. This will have to wait for the report.
Home at 5.30 just in time to host local Principal, for Bagún agus Cabáiste (would you believe?) in Quiet Man-local Irish pub. Gerry says that the pint of Guinness travelled well.
Apologies for lack of photos, we hope to have them uploaded today or tomorrow. We will have a section on T-shirts and also signs, as well as a selection of schools and their facilities. If we can manage video and slide shows we will oblige.
Prices on a par with expensive Dublin egg: Two Kit Kats for ?4. Hotel car parking ?20 per day. Pint of beer over ?5.
Nath na Seachtaine:
"I'm a one pot screamer!"
T-shirt slogan: "The liver is evil and must be punished."
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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