Election in Queensland

Election results in Queensland are in, and no doubt there will be some sore heads somewhere, considering the successes and failures of the election process. Regardless of who won or lost, at 5energies, we are hoping that someone in government begins to look locally, asks us for our research supporting children with learning delays, and begins to focus on local efforts to assist these children.

I have been told that the Federal Government is bringing in the Canadian Social Development Index, which gives a good amount of information on each Prep child. However, it still does not assess the underlying factors that impinge upon a child’s ability to learn. THESE are important to us at 5energies and we have the success rate to prove it at the learning consultancy. At the risk of sounding like strong activists, we are sincerely hoping that those within the education department and within government, begin to talk to us about our training programmes for teachers, and how we can genuinely help children with learning delays. We are in four schools now and the results from those schools have been stunning… and all because of the commitment of teachers, their understanding of the factors underpinning learning and their willingness to include more apppropriate strategies in their daily teaching.

In the meantime, congratulations to those members of Parliament who have won the election, and we hope you take your responsibilities to your constituents very seriously, including those children who are experiencing developmental delays and need assistance now. These are the voters of the future…

5e will SHINE in 2009!

Nothing like a good motto to get the blood stirring, is there?

After some indepth discussions recently about the directions of 5energies for the next year, Alexandra and I have chosen as our motto – ‘5e will SHINE in 2009!!’. A friend of mine speaks often about her selection of a key word for the year, and how her creative energies focus on making that word a reality – so our key word is ’shine’.

We have been working hard for the past three years to make our vision a reality, but to be honest, we have probably only twinkled at times, as getting a business up and running is not for the faint of heart. There has been so little time to share our message broadly, but that will change this year. Yup, we don’t just want to twinkle and provide a faint light to our door for those children with learning challenges – we want to shine! We want to convince the world that our message of early identification and assistance to these children is not only worthwhile in the short and long term, but essential for our future as a country. How marvellous to think that a future Prime Minister might be attending 5energies right now! Or the future CEOs of our leading companies? Or leading academics in areas of expertise we cannot even visualise right now…

So – this year? Yup, we aim to SHINE in 2009!!  If you have a key word, we would be interested in hearing how you plan your 2009.

Excitement in the Air!

There is a sense of excitement in the air at 5energies! Yesterday the first Basic training for 2009 began, with a new group of talented, enthusiastic teachers giving up their holiday time to train in the 5energies model. This surely indicates the commitment that teachers have towards improving their professional practices, but also optimising opportunities for their learners.  What is exciting from our perspective though, is the amount of laughter and enjoyment, and the willingness of these teachers to contribute their expertise to make the professional discussions so much richer.

As the presenters, Alex and I find these training sessions so exciting – the potential within their schools to create change is so immense! The exchange of information between professions is also so empowering – each time I listen to Alex, as a very experienced speech pathologist, I learn something new. We also have our first trainer coming online too – this is a person who has been working in the 5energies model for the past two years, and is now embarking on the journey to become a qualified trainer. Now that is exciting too!

We will be putting the new learning calendar up in the next few days, so if you are interested in the next Basic Training sessions, please contact the office for more information.

Happy 2009!

Where has 2008 gone? How could we be in the last hours of an entire year? The end of the old year is a good time for a small bit of reflection, so here goes.

Thank you to those teachers who have supported 5energies – meeting you over the past two years has been an honour and privilege for Alexandra, me and the whole team at 5energies. Sometimes it is a thankless task being a teacher – how we have enjoyed hearing your stories, helping you to be more knowledgeable teachers, and hearing about the changes you have made in your classrooms. You are inspiring, and we thank you for inspiring us to do even more.

Thank you to those principals, senior teachers and coordinators who have made our job so much easier. You have welcomed us into your schools, and we have enjoyed seeing how hard you are all working to improve outcomes for children, particularly those with learning delays.

And thank you to other staff within each of the schools. There is a school admin person in one school who always smiles, welcomes us back and smooths the way for us. 

So enjoy your bit of a break, have many coffees with friends, and look forward to another exciting year. Our first Basic Training takes place in mid-January, and 2009 is looking like being exciting and full of even more 5energies!!! Yippee!! Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas to all!

Just a very quick comment to wish everyone a very merry and festive Christmas, and a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! This year has certainly flown past, and as with all things, if you are having a lot of fun along the way, the time just flies. That is certainly the case at 5energies, where it has given us such great delight to see children succeeding – and succeeding well!

Our end of year function was a Bocce Tournament, and Graeme, our IT guru and consultant won the overall trophy, but Zachary won the Junior Trophy in a convincing win. Best and Fairest went to Angie and Claire, who showed restraint and enthusiasm throughout the entire highly competitive tournament. Either way, it was a fun afternoon for all of us at 5energies, and our families.

So whatever you are doing on Christmas Day, our hope is that you enjoy your day as well, and reflect on the richness that our children have brought to our lives. Christmas sure would not be the same without them, would it? Again, all the very best in the festive season, and in 2009, from all of us at 5energies.

Onwards to 2009

Onwards to 2009!

How fantastic it is to be working in a school whose teachers are already looking towards 2009. We have been fortunate enough to be working intensively with a school who is determined to make a difference. They have sent five teachers for their basic training, and are sending another four in January. They have implemented a trial program which was highly successful, showing significant improvements for many children in 14 intensive target sessions. They are now looking forward to 2009, and have planned two days in week 9 of this term, to focus on strategic directions and programs for the next school year.

Parents are fortunate in having teachers of this calibre, and I congratulate these teachers for making the efforts that they are, at this stage of the school year. I would love to shout the name of the school from the roof top, but unfortunately there are guidelines which include a lot of red tape with senior hierarchy, before such a thing can happen on a blog. Suffice to say, they and we know who they are – and they are doing such a fantastic job. In this day and age, such dedication and commitment are not praised enough, so I just wanted to let them know that their efforts to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for children ARE appreciated.

The day 5energies created a storm!

What a week this one has been!

On Sunday, 5energies staff and family enjoyed the inaugural Bocce Tournament and Christmas party. Some 27 intrepid souls battled it out for supremacy in a game that many had never played before, but the eventual winners were Graeme Henry (Open Winner), Zachary McGuire (Junior Winner) and Angie Datseres and Claire Culley won ‘Best and Fairest’.

However, as the tournment was coming to an end, the fierce black storm clouds signalled that a storm was on its way, so most families departed to try to get home before the storm hit. Tales have since emerged of where each 5energies person was during the storm, with some driving in the thick of it, and watching trees with roots fly past the bonnet of the car, to others taking shelter in the middle of the house, away from glass and potential flying debris. Unfortunately, Alexandra, Graeme (IT Guru), Patrick (actor / reader of our DVD stories), Anne-Maree (film-maker and Technology Guru) and families saw the big tree in Alexandra’s front yard come crashing down (see photo), pulling the electricity connection right out of the house, taking out the power grid for the street, and keeping them inside the house, without power or telephone, for 48 hours. As baby James, now 9 weeks, was also with them, nappies became an issue. In a wonderful commentary on community spirit, the neighbourhood soon found supplies and fortunately there was sufficient left-over meat and salads from the Bocce Tournament to provide a street gathering and debrief after the storm, on the back verandah. Mel, our Occupational Therapist, ended up driving through the worst of the storm, but her parent’s house in the Gap, one of the worst hit areas of the storm, also received significant damage. Fortunately power has now returned to all residences, and things are returning to normal, albeit with a lot of cleaning up to do.

However, as with any natural disaster, these are just stories. We all survived the big storm (and the two other storms that decided to visit this week), and fortunately all families were fine. However, the inaugural 5energies Bocce Tournament and Christmas party will long be remembered as the day that 5energies created a storm!! May the immensity of the storm reflect where we are next year – huge, determined and getting wide-spread coverage!!

Brilliant Teachers!

We have been fortunate this term in working with one particular school in the region. This is a school with some significant challenges, but one of the school’s advantages is the calibre of the teachers who are implementing a 5energies approach within their Early Childhood section.

Five teachers trained with 5energies and we are now in week 6 of the implementation of the program. These teachers spent the first two weeks of this term screening a significant number of children, so the school had base-line data on the achievements of their students in the ten key learning domains. But here we are, after only fourteen targeted learning sessions, and the difference in the students is electric! Alexandra and I were fortunate enough to observe learning groups in action yesterday, and the difference in each child’s use of metalanguage, and their turn-taking and eye contact, was fantastic! In individual sessions afterwards, teachers were reporting on the transfer of knowledge into the classroom – ‘K’ had begun recounting oral narratives unprompted, ‘S’ understood completely about words, beats / syllables and initial sounds and a small group of children from 5energies groups had shown mastery of rhyming words. This is music to our ears!

Yes, it is early days, but what a privilege to work alongside such talented and enthusiastic teachers, and how gratifying to be helping children to achieve! This is our vision for all children who experience learning difficulties. What a fantastic early Christmas present – to see our 5energies program in action, and being implemented by such intuitive, intelligent and articulate teachers.

Professional and educationally sound

Recently, the concepts of ‘professional’ and ‘educationally sound’ were raised in discussion around the 5energies table. We had heard on the grapevine that 5energies was discussed in a network meeting with particular reference to our professional approach and the educationally sound nature of the program we offer to children and their families. More recently we have begun working with a number of schools, implementing our integrated approach, and allowing teachers to screen children for their learning delays, and to provide targeted and more effective learning programs.

Quite rightly, teachers view themselves as professionals, offering highly competent teaching to a variety of learners, with direct reference to curricula and jurisdictional accountability frameworks. Speech Pathologists and Occupational Therapists also have such frameworks, to satisfy their criteria for professionalism. While we are a private learning consultancy, we too view that we set an amazingly high standard for services to our clients. We demand not only registered and qualified personnel to work for us, but we also demand that they maintain our professional standards of behaviour, support, mentoring, interaction and communication with our clients. We believe in optimising each child’s chances of success, and to do that, parents are an integral part of the learning process.

While we do not necessarily follow any particular jurisdiction in terms of curriculum, we are at all times aware of the contents of curricula around the country, and the need for strong educational programs. Not only are our consultants trained, registered and experienced teachers and professional practitioners, we have in place a stringent training program and ongoing mentoring and support.  More importantly, we view that we are ‘educationally sound’,  in that our program focusses specifically on the acquisition of underpinning learning skills and on the development of functional literacy and numeracy skills, surely a sound approach for any educational program.

However, we genuinetly feel we go past ‘educationally sound’ into the arena of ‘professionally sound’. We don’t ask teachers to do anything in addition to their current hard work – we ask them to work smarter, not harder, and offer programs to enhance existing learning programs. We work from a framework of integration of high standards from the three professions of education, speech pathology and occupational therapy. This is, of course, a very sound way of working.

What are your thoughts about what constitutes ‘professional’ and ‘educationally sound’ practices?

Speech Pathologist urgently required

Hi everyone,

Well, we have finally reached that lovely state of affairs where the learning consultancy requires another speech pathologist to keep up with demand. If any of you know of a registered, qualified speech pathologist who would be happy with part-time sessional work, please ask him or her to contact the 5energies office urgently.

As you know, we run a professional consultancy, one where we offer an integrated and personal service to children with learning delays and their families. We work as a team, with each of the professions of speech pathology, occupational therapy and education contributing equally to offer a holistic approach to resolve learning delays, but also to offer insight to teachers who want to cater more effectively for the individual needs of learners in their classrooms.

What are we after with a new team -member? Someone with qualifications and registration in Speech Pathology, but this person could also be a new graduate looking to fine-tune their practical skills. Someone who loves to work as part of a thriving and busy learning consultancy, in tandem with other highly motivated professionals. Someone who enjoys working with children, and has a calm, unflappable demeanour. Someone with an enjoyment of life, and a sense of humour. If you know of such a person, please ask them to contact us: we would love to train them in January, and have them on the team for the start of the new year.

« Previous Page — Next Page »