week 3 of the summer school hoildays

Its been a lovely week of sun shine and relaxation we have been very lazy this week all sleeping in and enjoying our own little joys for my husband and eldest 2 sons its been playing war of world craft and planning the down fall of their online enemies.

My eldest boys are typing a bit quicker if they can have an extra 30 minutes on the game. small progress at least.

my second son is on target to finish the dank Davies method soon maybe 2 -3 more sessions - fingers crossed.

looks like the high school RTLB wont be back till the 15th at the earliest so more waiting.

I should point out that I have 3 children with dyslexia
and with my younger children with dyslexia at both a primary school and a intermediate school their respective schools have been fantastic and they have been very supportive. we have a once a term meeting with the teacher and the coordinator of special needs the Their IEP's are reviewed and continued or changed as needed. The teacher recommends things to try at home or what the main social studies topic will be for the term and gives advice on how best to support our child - standard meeting time 30-45 minutes if there are specific problems then it could go on for an hour to hour and a half - but we know before going if they want to discuss any big problems - thanks to a email or phone call before hand so we can plan the meeting lenght to fit in with work and other commitments.

my contribution has always been welcomed and I have felt valued.

THIS IS NOT HOW MY SONS HIGH SCHOOL HAS TREATED ME.

but there are good teachers and RTBL's out there unfortunately not in all schools and there is great variation from one school to the next - we should be asking the New Zealand government to have a national school wide standard. Our teachers all need to have some training in special needs especailly things like dyslexia - which effects upto ten percent of all children.

The ministry of education does have in place policy which can be found at
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=7327&indexid=7954&indexparentid=6871


The aim of the Government's special education policy is to improve learning outcomes for all children and young people with special education needs at their local school, early childhood centre, or wherever they are educated

I have so far experienced a very patchy service that needs improvement.

MY biggest concern is what about the other kids that are out in NZ and their parents dont know what dyslexia is - what support are those kids getting? (if any) and what happens when tehy fall through the schooling systems cracks? who picks up the pieces?

bye for now
Adele