A day of Discovery

Yesterday didnt start too well but it was one of those days that just got better.
I was expecting to be picked up from home at 7.30 by Joshua's Maths teacher and then heading off with the Maths teacher and SENCO to Worcester to visit New College Worcester. This is the School for the Blind and we were hoping to gather some information and ideas to enable the school here to better meet Joshua's needs.

Unfortunately due to some staff sickness the Maths teacher was not able to be released from school for the trip and so the SENCO was picking me up on the way, this would be apporximately 8am. This of course gave me extra time at home to get organised and ensure everyone had what they needed for school. By 8 am I had done just about everything I usually would have done and was dressed and ready and reasonably organised with paper and pen for notes, phone fully charged, Blue Badge collected from Bus I even had our SAT NAV as I remembered SENCO saying she didnt have one.
I went to the top of our drive to wait and I waited. I decided to sit in the car as it was cold and my feet hurt, and I waited! I gave up and went back indoors. The girls bus came and I helped to take them out. Girls loaded I was cold so headed back indoors as David and the others got in our Bus to head to school. I was just about to call school and see if SENCO had left when I saw her car coming up the lane. Appologies given and accepted we headed out. SENCO had borrowed her parents SATNAV so I planted mine under the seat. Soon realised that not being used to a SATNAV meant SENCO was not really sure how to use one....so I became navigator explaining that if the arrow pointed left it could be a good idea to turn the car round the left hand corner...between us we got a system and things were going ok. Traffic around Peterborough was diabolical as usual but once we hit the A1 things were moving and we were able to relax and chat. Starting off officially, discussing what we hoped to achieve and what we needed to investigate but soon lapsing into a friendly banter and chit chat. It was a good journey and we arrived at the College in good time.
A toilet visit was most urgent followed by a very welcome mug of tea. A cosy chat with the Liason Teacher and an LSA discussing the traits to look for in a good LSA. We were joined by the Vice Principal who was able to give us some other points to ponder. We also discussed EXAM Papers, adaptations, enlargement and modifications. The use of readers and Scribes, and the possibility of Joshua joining the school for three days a half term to consolodate his learning and find ways around difficutlies.
We then went to look round the school....well that was the idea but we ended up having an impromptu Science lesson with the most animated exciting science teacher I have ever met. Someone who had learnt valuable lessons through her career and put them all into practice in her innovative teaching methods now. We explored a tactile small intestine, investigated a knitted gastric system, discovered that a mainstream USB device could be put to use in making microscopes accessible to youngsters with severe visual impairment. At a cost of just £40instead of the astronomically priced speciallist equipment. PLugged into a lap top and projected to a flat screen TV rather than the interactive white board makes it so much more accessible. and Accessible to all the children not just Joshua. This teacher told us how she learnt that rather than looking at how she could make what she was doing with 28 children accesible to 1 with SVI she learnt to look at what she could do to make her lesson accessible to the child with SVI that would include the other 28 children. Changing her style of teaching made her lesson more accessible to everyone.
She had made some amazing models. The tactile model of the Villi in an intestine is rigid rubber...the intestine is not a rigid organ. So She had made a soft squigy tactile intestine from a bath mat. Demonstrated the way the villi made the intestine more absorbant by getting the children to cut off the "villi" from one piece of bath mat and having an exact replic with the villi and seeing how much each could absorb from 5 minutes in a bowl of water. Such a simple idea that works for those with and without sight!
We had to tear ourselves away from her impromptu lesson to go for lunch. We were joined by the daughter of a friend, who we have been trying to meet up with since before last half term, it was good to meet her. A lovely young lady the same age as Joshua who also lost her sight suddenly. "Sally" has been at NCW for two years and is doing so amazingly well.
After dinner we had time for just one more class visit to the Maths teacher who was also able to give us some ideas, we also came away with a piece of embossed graph paper and the knowledge of how to produce some tactile diagrams and graphs.
We left feeling totally overwhelmed by the atmosphere of freindly welcome. We travelled the first distance home in almost silence...apart from pointing out where the SATNAV was telling us to go. Soon though we were back in deep conversation and by the time we stopped for a drink and fuel we felt as if we had been friends for years.
It was a great day, very worth while. Made me wonder if Joshua would be better off moving over to residential school. I think he would do really well there. BUT he does not want residential yet, he wants to stay where he is. So we will work hard with his local school to ensure that they can give him the best opportunities they can.
Joshua's Statement arrived yesterday. It does not say all that we agreed it to say. I am annoyed!
I also think we need to push them to write into that statement that LEA will support the school in maintaining a link with NCW, an facilitate Joshua attending on a three days a half term basis.
In this way I think we can maximise Joshua's chances of achieving his potential.

OK So back to the paperwork!