Tuesday, 28 February 2017
Monday, 27 February 2017
Strawberries
Planting strawberries
I decided just to grow what the kids will eat this year which is basically strawberries and potatoes ( which we will plant mid-year)
Cassowary ( organising our visit to the Ballarat wildlife park tomorrow.)
Patterson's Track work and pattern making.
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Playing Twister in Japanese
Playing Twister in Japanese
Story map for Patterson's Track.
Putting resources together for a re-vamp of my pulp fiction unit.
Tomato plants bought after school today.
Gonski
Great story from Jane Caro in the Saturday Paper
Lithgow is a small New South Wales town on the wrong side of the Blue Mountains – if you consider Sydney to be the right side. Once it was a thriving coalmining community. Now, with the mines largely played out, it has a declining population and a high percentage of families doing
it tough.
In 2016, 112 students studying for their HSC at Lithgow High visited the “Every Day/All Day” senior tuition centre in the school library. These visits added up to 22,135 sessions. Their investment paid off. The HSC results in 2016 were the highest they have been in years. Thirteen students achieved results in the highest band, 52 in the second highest. Forty-five students received university offers, two in engineering and one in medicine.
The “Every Day/All Day” tuition was made possible thanks to Gonski funding. It is generous because 52 per cent of the school’s students are in the lowest socio-economic quartile and 26 per cent are in the second lowest. Gonski money, sensibly, follows need. The two student learning support officers who ran the senior tuition in the library were paid for by Gonski. In other words, as taxpayers, our investment paid off, too.
I know this because my sister, Ann Caro, is the principal of Lithgow High School. She was understandably cock-a-hoop when she told me about her students’ results. This made me curious. What were other high schools serving disadvantaged students doing with their Gonski funding and what results were they starting to see?
The most reliable predictor of school success is the socio-economic status of a child’s parents. The higher the status, the better the kid does, and this is true the world over. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense: people who have done well in the world are generally well educated, confident about their ability to succeed and, if all that were not enough, can afford to offer their kids extra help. Children follow their parents’ lead. If Mum and Dad value education and feel comfortable in a school environment, their children generally will as well. Unfortunately, if kids come from families who have had less positive experiences of life and school, that rubs off, too. It isn’t that poor children lack merit; it’s that they lack privilege.
Universal, free, secular, public education was created to do something about this. It’s a big ask and nowhere has it completely succeeded. It is, however, no coincidence that some of the most successful countries academically have among the lowest equity gaps between their advantaged and disadvantaged students. Australia is not in their company.
Australia has used education funding, until as recently as 2014, to increase those gaps rather than close them. Researcher Trevor Cobbold, who heads the Save Our Schools lobby group, says Australia has the largest gap in teacher shortages between disadvantaged and advantaged students in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. We are one of only seven countries in the OECD where disadvantaged schools have a higher student-to-teacher ratio than wealthier schools. Worse, the difference in the sheer number of students a teacher in Australia must deal with is the second largest. We also have the fourth-largest gap in the shortage of educational materials and physical infrastructure. In other words, Australian kids who are already behind the eight ball must also struggle with bigger classes, fewer teachers, crumbling and neglected schools, and classrooms containing inadequate and ageing technology, textbooks, sporting, art, music and other equipment.
Handicapping opportunities
For a decade-and-a-half, since the introduction of the so-called socio-economic status funding by the Howard government in 2000, we have been handicapping the opportunities of the kids most in need of them. The Howard SES scheme pretended to be needs based but as it applied only to private schools it was a little like running a hunger relief program for the well fed.
Since the introduction of the sector-blind Gonski model, schools servicing the poorest communities have been able to offer students much better opportunities, tailored to their individual needs. And they are seeing results.
At South Grafton High School, for example, Gonski funding has been used for myriad tailored support programs. They include employing specialist literacy consultants to help students with writing skills, a program that takes South Grafton students onto a university campus for workshops and “university taster days” in both Ballina and Brisbane. This exposure is vital for students who may well be the first in their family to go to university. South Grafton also uses Gonski funding to stop kids dropping out. The school has developed a foundation skills work-offline class for kids at risk in years 9, 10 and 11. They have employed a transition adviser to co-ordinate that program and individual Vocational Education and Training or work experience pathways.
As a result, South Grafton High has improved attendance by Indigenous students from 70 to 76 per cent and from 80 to 84 per cent for the whole school. One in 10 year 12 students achieved results in the top two bands of the 2016 HSC. Seventeen students were in the top band. In other words, give disadvantaged students the support they need and they will respond.
Funding in limbo
Yet Gonski is in limbo at the moment. Most of the money is meant to flow in the final two years of the six-year scheme. That is how long the review panel estimated it would take to bring all schools up to a minimum national resource standard. But the federal government has refused to commit to more than four years’ funding. This runs out next year. Most state governments are adamant they want to see the full Gonski implemented so, yet again, educators are in for a stoush.
The collateral damage of this largely ideological fight is the lifelong potential of our most vulnerable children and the ability of our income-segregated education system to give them the support and the opportunity they need.
At Fairvale High, a school located in an area of south-western Sydney with the highest rate of pokies gambling and one of the highest rates of family violence in NSW, 50 per cent of its students now achieve above the state average in the HSC. Retention to year 12 has improved from 75 per cent in 2010 to more than 90 per cent in 2016. Gonski funding has also enabled this school to set up tuition centres, student engagement mentors, and a transition adviser to help kids move from year 10 into senior studies or productive post-school training and employment. Fairvale has also used its funding to employ a school nurse, occupational therapist and speech pathologist. Disadvantage creates many problems and all impact a child’s ability to learn. As American education activist Diane Ravitch pointed out, it’s not the quality of the teachers that stops kids learning, it’s poverty.
What’s more, because successful role models matter, especially to kids starved of them, Fairvale High’s 2017 boys’ school captain has been selected – ahead of kids from much more advantaged schools, including high-fee independents – to represent all NSW schools at the National Schools Constitutional Convention in Canberra.
At nearby Canley Vale High, 56 per cent of students are living in homes in the lowest SES quartile, and 88 per cent are from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Principal Peter Rouse says, “Gonski funding has been focused on foundational skills for students such as timetabled literacy classes, free after-school tuition, student welfare programs focused on physical and psychological wellbeing, supports for students with English language needs, and a breakfast club to ensure that every student has the opportunity to start the day well.”
This is another taxpayer investment that has paid off in spades. Ninety-seven per cent of Canley Vale High students perform above the national minimum standard in NAPLAN. Principal Rouse boasts that “HSC cohorts have consistently ranked in the top 20 per cent of secondary schools in NSW, with a four-year average of 90 per cent of our students attaining an ATAR and university entry.”
Offering support
Coonabarabran High School, 500 kilometres north-west of Sydney, also demonstrates value-adding for students who must overcome the double whammy of isolation and economic disadvantage. They, like all the schools I contacted, have used their Gonski funding in myriad ways to support the particular needs of their students. They include literacy and numeracy support for targeted students, a study centre in the library, agricultural skills day, a breakfast club, and the ability to support a broad curriculum for a small year 11 cohort. Coonabarabran also runs equity programs for teachers to train them and develop programs to overcome socio-educational disadvantage exacerbated by distance. Principal Mel Johnston says, “If year 12 are studying Hamlet – they get on the school bus and view a live performance in Sydney.”
Back at Lithgow High, students from years 7 to 12 now have the opportunity to study robotics and STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) electives, including a drone pilot VET course. The Gonski model is not perfect – nothing ever is – but it has created hope in schools and communities that were once very short of it.
“If the money stopped coming I would have to sack or demote staff, end the library tuition, stop purchasing technology, stop buying site licences for the literacy and maths programs, stop any equipment upgrades…” my sister tells me. “We need the money to sustain and embed effective practices over the long term, to update and innovate as the world changes. Loss of funding would mean stasis and stagnation.”
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Friday, 24 February 2017
Sorry.....
An Australian playwright has questioned changes to the HSC English curriculum that would abolish more modern literary texts in favour of classics including Shakespeare.
Michael Gow, whose play Away has been a standard study text in New South Wales high schools, was speaking at the opening of its theatre adaptation at the Sydney Opera House.
Under changes to the 2018 HSC in English, there will be a renewed focus on text, language, writing and vocabulary, and greater emphasis will be placed on works from Shakespeare and Dickens.
"I don't think it is a bad thing to teach children the basics of literature," he said.
What are the changes?
A breakdown of how English, Maths, Science and History subjects will be changed.
"I hope they don't throw the baby with the bathwater and only give them texts that they will struggle with.
"I think it would be great if there were still things that were familiar [to them].
"So there is not some great chasm with their daily lives and these remote texts that they always struggle with."
Gow said he had a poor experience studying literature at high school.
"We were dragged to see really dull Shakespeare, not really understanding it when we read it."
The director of the latest production, Mathew Lutton, said the play was still important 31 years after it was written.
"It is still speaking to us about Australian families and our country," he said.
Away is set during the Christmas holidays in 1967 which three families spend together at the beach.
Gow apologised to students who had to study his play, although he said certain elements of the work were still relevant.
"There are certainly elements of the play that speak to the '60s," he said.
"But I think the idea of still learning how to talk about complex ideas and how to deal with death and how to keep going are ideas the play still speaks to today.
"I had no intention of tormenting them [students] with this thing I wrote, but it also gratifying as they always said they enjoyed it."
WTF! It's Mem Fox! You bastards!
From ABC news
Australian author Mem Fox has received a written apology from the United States after what she said was a traumatic detention by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport.
Fox, who was questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers for two hours earlier this month as she was on her way to Milwaukee to address a conference, said she collapsed and sobbed at her hotel after she was released.
She said the border agents appeared to have been given "turbocharged power" by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to "humiliate and insult" a room full of people they detained to check visas.
That executive order was eventually halted by Federal Courts and it was expected a new order would be signed this week, designed to avoid the confusion caused by the original.
"I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness," Fox said.
"The entire interview took place with me standing, with my back to a room full of people in total public hearing and view — it was disgraceful.
"I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I'm 70 years old."
Fox, whose books include classics such as Possum Magic and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, said she was questioned about her visa status, even though she had travelled to the United States 116 times previously without incident.
"My heart was pounding so hard as I was waiting to be interviewed, because I was observing what was happening to everybody else in the room," she said.
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Making a pirate flag
Making a pirate flag using calico and fabric pens and paint.
One to one correspondence and making groups.... and having fun!
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Black Beauty resources
As you can see there is no shortage of resources for Black Beauty which I'm currently reading as a serial. The lit unit will be finished on the weekend. Then I can start on The Secret Garden, another old favourite I haven't read in years!
One of them just wants clean water!
Artist Adnate paints enormous, beautiful murals aimed at raising global awareness of how indigenous people "get pushed under the carpet".
Finishing work
Today we worked hard at trying to finish Treasure Island and Pugwash work. We probably have one more day of wolf left to do. Below are photos of a 'Treasure Island' tourist park we are working on.
Pugwash work on display.
Monday, 20 February 2017
New NSW syllabus
The New South Wales Higher School Certificate syllabus has been given a radical overhaul for the first time in 16 years, with a renewed focus on "rigour, thoroughness and depth" in classic learning areas and major changes in year 12 science and history teaching.
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) will today publish new syllabus materials in 22 separate subjects across English, maths, the sciences and history.
A breakdown of how English, Maths, Science and History subjects will be changed.
However, aspects of the math syllabus are yet to be finalised, with consultation continuing over calculus teaching after a backlash from teachers and academics unhappy with the draft new syllabus which was issued late last year.
NESA chair Tom Alegounarias described the changes as a "major shift".
"We reviewed the whole HSC, we looked at what the community is demanding for now and in the future," Mr Alegounarias said.
"The major shift is towards greater depth, rigour, and mastery of content learning.
The new syllabus is a move away from a "social context" approach to teaching that critics — particularly in science academia — argued had led to a "dumbing down" of subject matter.
More complex topics will be introduced across the maths and science syllabuses in response to criticism that students were ill-prepared for university studies in science, engineering and maths.
There will be a common syllabus introduced across the maths subject levels, and the marking of higher level subjects will be pegged against the lower level subjects in a marking scale designed to reward achievement at higher maths levels.
This is partly a response to a trend in which talented students undertake lower levels of mathematics study in the belief that it will result in a higher Australian Tertiary Entrance Rank.
A group of students who self-documented their entire final year for the ABC give their thoughts.
"What we want is students to study at the right level of the course, and at the highest possible level of study," Mr Alegounarias said.
"That's the rationale, that's why we're putting all the courses on a common scale."
NESA is still consulting with teachers over the new maths curriculum amid earlier criticism that there were major problems with the draft syllabus.
SCEGGS Darlinghurst principal Jenny Allum said not all of the issues with the maths syllabus had been ironed out yet.
"I think [the draft syllabus changes] are an improvement on the older drafts but they still leave quite a bit to be desired," Ms Allum said.
"I'd be sorry if we're consulting on the calculus courses but not on the general mathematics too."
There is also a major overhaul to the physics syllabus to focus on the science of physics and its mathematical bases.
It comes after University of NSW (UNSW) quantum physics professor Michelle Simmons derided the "feminisation" of physics during this year's Australia Day address.
Her comments attacked the way students were directed under the NSW syllabus to write essays about the historical aspects of physics.
Professor Simmons described that aspect of the syllabus as a wrong-headed attempt to attract more girls to physics.
The standards authority has conceded major problems in the physics syllabus.
"We think physics has been diluted," Mr Alegounarias said.
"There was an emphasis in previous generations of emphasising the social context in which you studied physics. This is a return to the science of physics."
Professor Joe Wolfe, a professor of physics at UNSW, welcomed news of the syllabus changes and said the NSW Year 12 physics syllabus had been widely panned.
"I thought students had been defrauded about the nature of physics," Professor Wolfe said.
"People were telling them that physics was this qualitative subject with lots of history and social aspects, and leaving out the analysis and the quantitative calculations.
"And that made physics at university a huge shock. It left students badly prepared."
Bryony Lanigan, a third year student in the UNSW a Bachelor of Advanced Science in Physics, said she was pleased to see changes to the physics syllabus at NSW schools.
"I think the idea previously was if we cut out the maths, the girls will like it more, but funnily enough that's not the case," she said.
"I think it's an insult to women to say we'll dumb it down and then they'll like it more."
Removal of 'context' also applied to English and history
The English and history syllabuses have also been overhauled.
In English, there will be a renewed focus on text, language, writing and vocabulary. Common module areas including Journeys, Discovery and Belonging have been abolished.
Are rote learning, controlling teachers and a "fixation" on standardised tests crushing children's creativity?
"The context, the sociology if you like, around the text is being removed," Mr Alegounarias said.
"It's the text and what makes it powerful that will be the centre of the study."
The history syllabus has been amended to incorporate an "overarching narrative" about the development of modern liberalism and modern democracies.
There will be less topic options on offer but greater depth in the syllabus.
Students will also be required to study Asian history or a non-Western module, and the focus on Aboriginal history will continue.
Looks like NSW is catching up with Victoria especially with a focus on in-depth learning and the study of Asia. A focus on the contribution of Menzies is bizarre and more to do with the current government in NSW and Howard's tired old 'history wars'.
Mind boggling
The Catholic Church is continuing to cover the legal bills of convicted paedophile and Christian Brother Robert Best, who has admitted to sexually abusing a further 20 boys in his care, a Victorian court has been told.
Best, 76, admitted on Monday to 24 charges of indecent assault against the boys, mostly aged between eight and 11 years old.
The County Court heard the abuse took place between 1968 and 1988 while Brother Best was a principal, teacher and year level co-ordinator at four schools: St Alipius at Ballarat, St Leo's at Box Hill, St Joseph's at Geelong and St Bernard's at Essendon.
Best was sentenced to 14 years and nine months jail in 2011 for sexual crimes against 11 boys during the same period.
His latest guilty pleas take the total number of victims to 31.
Saturday, 18 February 2017
Government attack on racism
Racist tirades on public transport, bigotry in schools, and discrimination in the rental market face a crackdown as part of a state-wide push to counter the rise of the far right in Victoria.
Amid concerns the community has reached a tipping point, the Andrews government will today launch a new campaign to reframe the debate on multiculturalism in the wake of events such as Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump and the growth of One Nation.
"I see this in part as a struggle between fear and hope," said Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott, who will unveil the strategy with Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday. "It's important for the future of our community that hope wins."
The campaign begins on Sunday night with a television ad featuring Victorians from diverse backgrounds, and an underlying message of shared values and common goals.
"No matter where we're from, we all do our bit, making Victoria the best place on earth – so let's be proud of it," says the voiceover.
A $1 million anti-racism action plan has also been developed with a focus on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The plan includes:
* New measures to crack down on commuters who racially abuse people on public transport.
* A broad-ranging review to stamp out discrimination and "unconscious bias" against some people who seek approval to rent a home.
* A revamp of the Respectful Relationships school curriculum to teach students about prejudice and discrimination.
* "Bystander awareness training" to help people respond accordingly when they experience or witness racism.
* Tougher complaint mechanisms to ensure the reporting of racism is taken seriously by authorities.
Over the next few months, the government will work with Public Transport Victoria to develop new measures to combat racist incidents on trams, trains and buses, although it is too early to say if this will lead to tougher fines and penalties.
Some famous superheroes knew about the damaging effects of racism and bigotry even back in the 40s-50s!
More teachers and nurses anyone?
How much could the Commonwealth Bank’s 1/2yr profit pay for? Over 30,000 teachers or nurses!
DeVos sees what she wants to see
Newly minted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had a hard time getting inside the District’s Jefferson Middle School Academy last week when protesters briefly blocked herfrom entering. But at the end of her visit — her first to a public school since taking office — she stood on Jefferson’s front steps and pronounced it “awesome.”
A few days later, she seemed less enamored. The teachers at Jefferson were sincere, genuine and dedicated, she said, they seemed to be in “receive mode.”
“They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,” DeVos told a columnist for the conservative online publication Townhall. “You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.”
DeVos, who has no professional experience in public education, is an avowed proponent of voucher schools, charter schools, online schools and other alternatives to traditional public schools. Teachers across the country have been galled by what they see as her lack of faith in — and understanding of — the public schools that educate nearly nine in 10 of the nation’s children.
Jefferson educators found her comments about their work hard to take: On Friday evening, the school responded to DeVos via its Twitter account, taking exception to the education secretary’s characterization of Jefferson teachers.
“We’re about to take her to school,” the first of 11 rapid-fire tweets said.
The tweetstorm singled out teachers like Jessica Harris, who built Jefferson’s band program “from the ground up,” and Ashley Shepherd and Britany Locher, who not only teach students ranging from a first- to eighth-grade reading level, but also “maintain a positive classroom environment focused on rigorous content, humor, and love. They aren’t waiting to be told what to do.”
“JA teachers are not in a ‘receive mode,'” the tweets concluded. “Unless you mean we ‘receive’ students at a 2nd grade level and move them to an 8th grade level.”
An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But DeVos weighed in on Twitter Saturday morning, saying Jefferson’s teachers are “awesome” and that they “deserve more freedom to innovate and help students.”
Meanwhile
A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urges the dismantling of the Education Department and bringing God into American classrooms.
The five-page document produced by the Council for National Policy calls for a “restoration of education in America” that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools and home schooling and enshrine “historic Judeo-Christian principles” as a basis for instruction.
Names of the council’s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing that Stephen K. Bannon — now chief White House strategist for President Trump — was a member and that Kellyanne Conway — now counselor to the president — served on the council’s executive committee.
DeVos was not listed as a member, but her mother, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, was named on the council’s board of governors. Her father-in-law, Amway founder Richard DeVos Sr., twice served as president, most recently from 1990 to 1993. And she and her husband have given money to the council as recently as 2007 through their family foundation, according to federal tax records.
The council’s “Education Reform Report” says it is intended to help DeVos and Trump map a path toward change. The proposal to abolish the department dovetails with the long-held views of many Republicans, and Trump suggested during the 2016 campaign that the agency could be “largely eliminated.” But Trump has given no sign since taking office that he aims to act on that idea, and DeVos embraced the mission of the department when she took office last week.
From the Washington Post
Friday, 17 February 2017
Busy Saturday
Another busy Saturday morning, cleaning, changing displays and preparing for next week.
Baa Baa Black sheep 
Black Beauty
Phantom
17 February 1936 - The world's first costumed superhero, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in comics. Big favourite in Australia. I like the old Golden Key comics from the 60s. Always on the lookout for them and yes I do have a unit on the Phantom! Not on TPT. Don't want Lee Falk'sestate suing me!
Miffi creator dies
Dick Bruna, the children's author and artist who created the cartoon white rabbit Miffy, has died aged 89.
Bruna, who sold more than 80 million Miffy books, died in his sleep last night in his hometown of Utrecht, his publisher said in a statement.
Bruna created the character to entertain his infant son after seeing a rabbit in the dunes while on a seaside holiday.
He went on to relate the giant-eared, orange-pullovered bunny's adventures in dozens of books sold worldwide.
Born in 1929 into a family of publishers, Bruna began his career as an illustrator of covers for books including Ian Fleming's James Bond series and the Inspector Maigret thrillers of Georges Simenon.
Miffy, known as Nijntje in Dutch, was his best known creation, enjoying great popularity in Asia and adorning lunchboxes the world over.
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Disturbing funding gap
Students with a disability face an enormous funding gap in Australian schools, new figures from the Productivity Commission and the Education Council appear to show.
Last December, the Education Council released its Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) for school students with disability for the first time, with responses from 100 per cent of schools.
When compared to the Productivity Commission's figures, it appears to show more than 268,000 students with disability are in school without funding support to assist in their education.
For some families this means their children cannot get the education they had hoped for.
BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS
The NCCD numbers for 2015, the most recent year available, showed 12.5 per cent of all Australian school students — 468,265 students — received some form of support due to disability that required additional funding.
This support is known as an "educational adjustment". It can include money spent to make schools more accessible with handrails and ramps, to paying for learning support officers who help students with a disability in the classroom.
The NCCD number for students that required some sort of financial support dwarfed the number of students with disability that the Productivity Commission said were actually funded.
Earlier this month, the Productivity Commission released its own report on government services. It found the total funded students with disability in 2015 by all Australian governments was 200,168.
According to those numbers, more than 268,000 students with disability were in school without funding support to pay for adjustments to assist in their education.
GOVERNMENT USING FLAWED DATA TO INFORM FUNDING DECISIONS
However, the Federal Government said the NCCD statistics were flawed.
"It really is very disappointing," Education Minister Simon Birmingham said.
"This data … hasn't come to a credible landing point just yet."
The NCCD figures are the result of an eight-year process to come up with a standardised definition of students with disability that could be used to compare spending and support in all states and territories.
The statistics rely on a survey filled out by school principals and teachers.
Senator Birmingham said the numbers produced wide variations between states and territories that made the results unreliable.
"There's much more work to be done by the states and territories to ensure that (the NCCD data) truly is nationally consistent," he said.
The Government admits, however, that it does use NCCD statistics to "inform" its funding decisions for students with a disability.
"We're using it as part of a mix of information," Senator Birmingham said.
TEACHERS SAY FUNDING GAP IS REAL
Those who have been struggling for years to find financial resources for students with disability have said the funding gap is real.
"There's really not enough resource allocated to school communities to really address the needs of these young people," said Terry Bennett, principal of Melba College, in Melbourne's outer east.
"We know from working with them in a daily capacity that they do need extra support," he said.
When the money is not there to make that support available, that can lead to tough calls.
"Unfortunately, it also means sometimes you have to make hard decisions about access time in the school," Mr Bennett said.
For Misa Alexander and her six-year-old son Hugo, restricted access to schooling due to a disability is all too familiar.
Hugo lives with moderate functioning autism spectrum disorder and moderate intellectual disability. His verbal communication is limited.
He was provided with a learning support officer to accompany him at school for three hours a day.
"He wants to be there. And having the amount of funding that we have doesn't allow him to attend a whole day," she said.
Ms Alexander says because Hugo only attends kindergarten in the mornings, it means he misses out on lunch — and, crucially, making friends. She wants him to be able to attend school all day.
"It is an example of children with a disability not getting enough resources," she said.
From the ABC Online.
Ship in a bottle #2
Ship in a bottle looking good
Fantastic Collesium models finished with Lucy today!
For her first plastic model, my grade 4 girl has done a terrific job. I spent some time preparing samples of art for Black Beauty. ( photos below)
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