check post in things Fijians love....
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Thursday 2 June 2011
An introduction to school
Name: BSSE
Location: The tiny building next to Sangam Primary school, with a driveway running along its length, and a spectacular bus parked in a shed at the end down the side. Banana and eggplant trees out the back, a scorching hot slide, a swing-set with no swing (located immediately behind the scorching slide, so swinging would be impossible anyways) a freshly turned garden (gardening lessons happen most days and there is really limited garden space to work with) and a public oval over the fence used for sport (quite enjoyable as it is infested with cane toads- makes Amy squirm :)).
Population: 56 students, 7 teachers, 1 secretary, 1 driver and 2 AYADs
Description: There are 4 classes at school: Senilili (Waterlily), Senitoa (Hibiscus), Senibua (Frangipani) and Senirosi (Rose) (more commonly known as Room 1, Room 2, Room 5 and Room 6). The students are divided into classes according to their disability (I would like to say diagnosis, but I'm pretty sure only one child in the school has a formal diagnosis, so they are really divided according to rough guess work). There is the early intervention class, physically handicapped class, speech and hearing class and the intellectually handicapped class (home to the highest functioning students in the school).
In terms of diagnoses I will give my own guestamation. There a mish mash of: Cerebral Palsy, autism, Downs syndrome, spinal muscular dystrophy (this is the kid with an actual diagnosis - I'm not that talented), "dyslexia", severe language deficits, hearing impairments, cleft palates, intellectual disabilities, visual impairments and some students who I cannot diagnose as I don't see anything wrong with them (e.g. two 15 year olds who moved from mainstream school in 2010, are very social, can read well, great language - so who the feck knows? perhaps I will ask someone next week?).
The "children's" ages range from 5yrs to 22yrs. One "boy" has been there since he was 5 and is now 22, and doesn't want to come to school anymore - surprise surprise. Unfortunately he is incredibly low functioning, cant write his name or tie his shoe laces, and spends most of the day sitting and smiling with a very creepy, pearly white smile, or eating a tonne of sweets (and sharing some very sticky, over handled ones with Amy and I - swoosh out the window, oops) before school starts, making himself sick. However the teachers goal is for all the children to be able to read and write before they leave school (ok for some but....). There is a boys home for disadvantaged boys (and soon girls) which offers training in a variety of trades and skills, but apparently you need to be able to read and write (not helpful).
English is the official language at school, however most children speak their own language, and this is either Fijian, "Hindi" or "sign" (a lovely mix of Auslan, Fijian sign, individual sign, and very enthusiastic gesture). So the younger children (and the boy mentioned above) come up to me and rattle off whatever gripes or fantastically interesting information they have in one of three languages that I have no grasp whatsoever of, nor am I certain that they do either. I am also pretty sure that a sneaky swear word is thrown around here and there by the cheeky looks on some faces, and the onslaught of dobbing that I receive afterwards (at least I think its dobbing).
So there is a very brief and somewhat watered down introduction to BSSE. Stay tuned for updates on the happenings at BSSE and an insight to its very interesting population.
p.s. happy now mum??
smell yas
Location: The tiny building next to Sangam Primary school, with a driveway running along its length, and a spectacular bus parked in a shed at the end down the side. Banana and eggplant trees out the back, a scorching hot slide, a swing-set with no swing (located immediately behind the scorching slide, so swinging would be impossible anyways) a freshly turned garden (gardening lessons happen most days and there is really limited garden space to work with) and a public oval over the fence used for sport (quite enjoyable as it is infested with cane toads- makes Amy squirm :)).
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| Ba mapsies - click on me! |
Description: There are 4 classes at school: Senilili (Waterlily), Senitoa (Hibiscus), Senibua (Frangipani) and Senirosi (Rose) (more commonly known as Room 1, Room 2, Room 5 and Room 6). The students are divided into classes according to their disability (I would like to say diagnosis, but I'm pretty sure only one child in the school has a formal diagnosis, so they are really divided according to rough guess work). There is the early intervention class, physically handicapped class, speech and hearing class and the intellectually handicapped class (home to the highest functioning students in the school).
In terms of diagnoses I will give my own guestamation. There a mish mash of: Cerebral Palsy, autism, Downs syndrome, spinal muscular dystrophy (this is the kid with an actual diagnosis - I'm not that talented), "dyslexia", severe language deficits, hearing impairments, cleft palates, intellectual disabilities, visual impairments and some students who I cannot diagnose as I don't see anything wrong with them (e.g. two 15 year olds who moved from mainstream school in 2010, are very social, can read well, great language - so who the feck knows? perhaps I will ask someone next week?).
The "children's" ages range from 5yrs to 22yrs. One "boy" has been there since he was 5 and is now 22, and doesn't want to come to school anymore - surprise surprise. Unfortunately he is incredibly low functioning, cant write his name or tie his shoe laces, and spends most of the day sitting and smiling with a very creepy, pearly white smile, or eating a tonne of sweets (and sharing some very sticky, over handled ones with Amy and I - swoosh out the window, oops) before school starts, making himself sick. However the teachers goal is for all the children to be able to read and write before they leave school (ok for some but....). There is a boys home for disadvantaged boys (and soon girls) which offers training in a variety of trades and skills, but apparently you need to be able to read and write (not helpful).
English is the official language at school, however most children speak their own language, and this is either Fijian, "Hindi" or "sign" (a lovely mix of Auslan, Fijian sign, individual sign, and very enthusiastic gesture). So the younger children (and the boy mentioned above) come up to me and rattle off whatever gripes or fantastically interesting information they have in one of three languages that I have no grasp whatsoever of, nor am I certain that they do either. I am also pretty sure that a sneaky swear word is thrown around here and there by the cheeky looks on some faces, and the onslaught of dobbing that I receive afterwards (at least I think its dobbing).
So there is a very brief and somewhat watered down introduction to BSSE. Stay tuned for updates on the happenings at BSSE and an insight to its very interesting population.
p.s. happy now mum??
smell yas
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