Deciding on a school

We began our transition planning one year prior to Lachie starting school. The first step we took was deciding what school Lachie would attend. We wanted him to go to a school in our community. It was very important to us that he have equal opportunities to learn, belong, and grow alongside his peers in a local, regular, school. This was one of our main principles guiding our school search.

We chose several local schools to visit. Each had a good reputation amongst parents in our community and broader networks. We arranged a visit with the school principal. We chose not to take Lachie with us.

At the meetings, we made it clear that our expectation was Lachie would have the same school experience as any other five year old. International research shows that students with intellectual disabilities have better educational outcomes when they learn with and alongside non-disabled peers in regular schools. They also have greater opportunities to learn age-appropriate behaviours and make friends with children from their local community.

The school needed to be inclusive. This didn’t just mean that he would be present in a mainstream class. It meant that he would learn in a setting that ensured his, and other children’s individual learning needs, were met. Inclusive education means that the system adjusts to accommodate the needs of the child, not the other way around.

We wanted to know what each school could offer Lachie, and why we should chose to send our son there. We mentioned that we were meeting with other schools. We were going to choose the school that best fit Lachie. We wanted to know how he would be supported to have his best learning experience. For us, his support needed to be embedded within the class. It would need to be a natural and normal part of the learning process and classroom setting.

We listened for the types of language that was used; the way disability, inclusion, and participation was spoken about. Was diversity and difference welcomed? Was inclusion built into the school environment, in a material and cultural sense? Were the buildings accessible? Did they use adaptive technologies and appropriate learning materials to facilitate different types of learning? We wanted to make sure that diversity, in its broadest sense, was represented in the classroom.

We walked around the school, and observed the children that were in class. We asked specifically about disabled children already at the school. How were their individual learning needs catered for? Alarms bells went off when children with similar impairments were described as having the same learning requirements. While particular impairments bring with them similar characteristics, it does not mean that the individuals are the same. We wanted to ensure that Lachie was respected as an individual first and foremost. Additionally, if schools talked about grouping children with disabilities together, for example in break out sessions or in buddy systems, we asked for them to talk about the reasons for this in more detail, and to explain how it works in practice. For us, it was important that while Lachie was at school he would not be grouped with other disabled children simply because they were disabled. We wanted Lachie to be amongst children of all abilities, with diverse interests and backgrounds, just like all the other children at school, so that friendships could develop organically.

We also listened to recommendations from current support workers. They had local knowledge of the schools, and had experience working with other children that attended the schools. They had professional insight that we could draw from.

After visiting all the schools we had shortlisted, a clear favourite had emerged. This decision prompted the next phase in our planning.

Meeting with the school

We finalised Lachie’s enrolment in March 2017, just under 11 months before he was due to start. Following this, we organised a second meeting with the school to discuss in more detail his individual learning needs. It was a good meeting, attended by: me, Lachie’s dad, the manager from our Early Intervention Centre, the school SENCO, the new entrance teacher, and the school principal. The school’s willingness to facilitate the meeting made me feel confident that we had made the right decision. They approached the meeting professionally, and with a willingness to learn and listen to what we had to say. As Lachie’s parents, we know him best. I was pleased that this was respected.

The manager from our early intervention centre brought with her a list of questions that we used to facilitate the conversation. I have since updated the questions and these can be downloaded here. The questions and our conversation was informed by a strength-based approach to ensure, first and foremost, Lachie was acknowledged as a unique individual with particular strengths, interests, and capabilities. But we were also careful not to undermine the significance of extra support he would need to ensure his best learning experience.

ORS Process

ORS stands for Ongoing Resourcing Scheme. ORS provides support for students at their school in the form of funded teacher support hours, and resources, to join in and learn alongside other students at school. ORS is based on how a child functions within their early childhood centre, so parent can’t apply for ORS funding, but it is good to be knowledgeable on the process.

Our experience with the ORS process was positive. It was facilitated through our early intervention centre, and while we were actively involved in the preparation of the ORS application we were removed from the administrative process. The ORS application should be a collaborative process between parents, teachers, support workers, and anyone who has good knowledge of the child or their education needs. In addition to our knowledge as parents, the early intervention centre staff, kindy teachers, and kindy support worker contributed their knowledge of Lachie and his learning needs to the application form.

One of the difficult things about the ORS process is that it is informed by a deficit model of disability. This means that the information required in the application form focuses on what the child can’t do, or the ‘problems’ associated with their impairment, rather than what they can do. This can be quite hard for parents, family and some teachers who are used to an individualised strength-based approach that focuses on the child and all the wonderful things they can do. It’s important to remember that what is written in the ORS application does not define the child. It is simply something that needs to be done because the current disability support system requires it.

We received confirmation that Lachie had ORS funding a couple of weeks after the application was submitted. The next step was for an application for his teacher aide support hours. Again, we were outside of this process but kept up to date with what was happening, but this determines how many hours of funding support the school will receive. Lachie received an ‘average’ amount of teacher support hours and the school is topping this up. He doesn’t receive full one-on-one support, but has the support at times when he needs it most. It is good to be clear with the school from the beginning as to whether they will top up the support hours.

Communication passport

While the ORS application is a document that highlights all the things that a child can’t do, and tends to present disability and impairment as ‘problems’, a communication passport presents the child positively as a unique individual with strengths, interests, likes, friends and family. It is a place for the child’s preferences to be recorded, to describe how others can best communicate with them, and it takes a whole-life approach to supporting the child in their learning.

I created a communication passport for Lachie, which I gave to his school. I adapted an existing template from so that it more accurately reflected Lachie. You can download my adapted template, if you want to use it to create your own communication passport. I have left some of the content in to work as prompts to help think about the things you might like to include (please note: it might take a few minutes to download and if you have any trouble, please get in touch with us).

I chose to write the communication passport from Lachie’s perspective. I think it’s important that his voice comes through. Often in these situations, the child’s voice is overlooked. I also included lots of pictures, which show all the important things, people and places in his life. Lachie is an important part of a broader family and community network, and I think pictures show that better than anything I could write.

Working together

Research shows that one of the key determinants to a successful school transition is a good relationship between parents and ‘professionals’ or teachers/school staff. Parents and teachers need to be able to work together.  Parents are experts on their child, and teachers qualified and highly trained in the practice of teaching. It’s crucial that these two sets of knowledge come together. Building a good relationship is about everyone feeling respected and valued for their input and opinions.

Teachers and support staff, both current and future, should be involved in planning for the transition. It’s a good idea to invite school teachers and support worker along to a learning setting where they will be able to see your child in action. If possible, ask them to come along a couple of times. If they can’t make it, think about taking a video of your child that you can show to the teacher. Lachie’s new school teacher and support worker visited our early intervention centre twice, and visited Lachie’s kindy once. As a parent, I felt that this demonstrated they appreciated the importance of getting to know Lachie in order to ensure a smooth transition.

It’s a good idea to set up visits with the school before your child is due to start. We felt the best thing for Lachie would be to have a couple of weeks’ worth of visits. Before school started, we arranged with the teacher and his support worker to visit the school so he could familiarise himself with the new classroom and the staff before the busyness of school started. I treated it as a proper school day and he wore his new school uniform and his new school bag. For his second visit, I stayed with him, and supported him to participate with the other new students. I enjoyed being able to be there with him. For the remainder of the visits, he was supported by his new teacher aide, and the staff from his early intervention centre. His support worker from kindy, as well as the head teacher from kindy, also visited. Visits lasted from 8.30am-12pm, so it gave him a good of amount of time to experience the class routine. The visit schedule was typed out and distributed to everyone involved so we all had a clear plan that we were working from.

After roughly a week of visits, I organised to have another meeting with the SENCO, Lachie’s support worker, and I asked the manager from our early intervention centre to come along as well. This meeting was to talk through Lachie’s support plan; what his daily timetable would look like, how many hours of support work he would have, what would happen when he didn’t have one-on-one support to ensure his safety and his right to learning. I was given a timetable which demonstrated this, and felt comfortable with the arrangement.

When having meetings with the school it is a good idea to show the staff that you want to work in partnership with them. Approach the meetings positively and expect the best outcome. Expecting that the school has your child’s best interests at heart is a strong position from which to build a positive working relationship.

Some of the ways I show the school I respect their knowledge and the process is by making sure I arrive 10 minutes early to meetings, and I thank them for the time they take when meeting with me. It’s also a good idea to take along a friend/support person, who can take notes so you have an ongoing record of conversations, plans, and decisions. After meetings, send a thank you email and summarise the details of the conversation. It’s also a good idea to let the MoE keyworker know that you want to be included in the email correspondence about your child, this will help keep you in the loop.

A long school transition worked well for us. It allowed any issues to be sorted out before Lachie started school, for example, supervision over break and lunch time, deciding on which toilet would be most suitable. I felt comfortable that he would do well on his first full day of school.

First week of school

Over the course of his first week I watched him learn the new routines of the classroom, get to know his peers, and develop a lovely bond with his teacher and support worker. When we walk in to the school grounds, students and parents alike say ‘hi Lachie’. This, more than anything else, warms my heart! School is obviously a place of learning in a traditional sense – literacy, maths, science – but it is also about learning how to develop and grow social relations. Building up a community of support around Lachie is a long-term game. It could be that children in his class eventually become his networks of natural support into his teen and adult years.

I have begun to reach out to other parents at the school that have children with disabilities or learning impairments. Shared experience is important for creating a sense of belonging and community. And, collective identity and voice is not only important for providing each other support, but also for advocacy on behalf our children if and when it’s needed. I’ve also put my name forward to be one of the parent representatives for Lachie’s class, which I hope will help build upon the relationship I am beginning to form with the other parents.

I am continuing to talk with his teacher and support worker every day. We have a basic notebook system that allows me and his teacher/teacher aide to record anything that might be helpful to know, such as had a bad nights’ sleep, or wore his hat for the entire lunchtime. We have also set up Seesaw, which is an online communication platform that connects students, parents, and teachers. So far his teachers have shared photos of Lachie playing cars with another little boy on a rainy day, dancing like an octopus with the rest of the class, and having a sip of water from the water fountain. I love having a small glimpse into his daily school life.

I am thrilled with how Lachie’s first week of school went and I felt it appropriate to share this with his teachers. Upon sending an email to his teachers/teacher aide and principal, I received back heartfelt and genuine responses and it was very clear they appreciated the positive feedback. I think it’s important to highlight the good things and the successes.

Now that we have successfully made it through that first week, I realise just how anxious and stressed I was! It’s difficult giving over your precious child to a new set of teachers and trusting that the system will work for them. But I truly believe that the months’ worth of planning and relationship building that went into Lachie’s school transition are the reason that the process has been so successful.

Other useful resources

https://parents.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Special-Education/Starting-School.pdf

http://www.ieag.org.nz/home

https://carematters.org.nz/resources