I guess there is no simple answer to all of this. There are a great many parents who welcome the infromation from the Naplan testing as it gives them a broad picture of where their child stands up against the rest of his/her peers around the country. However, there are also a significant number of parents who are upset, angry and dismayed, for they already know that their child is succeeding below benchmark, and having their child sit these tests, already knowing they are going to fail…. well, it is heart-breaking and sad to see any child’s self-esteem chipped away.

With the empthasis on success rates, and high achievement in schools, I still wonder at the traditional lack of funding for appropriate resources for the children who are struggling. With it becoming harder and harder to prove need, the job of teaching children wtih so many learning challenges is becoming more and more of an issue for classroom teachers. I am not certain what the answer is, but I am glad that some of the main issues behind Naplan tests can be discussed in a rational way. The profession of teaching is under such scrutiny at the moment  – let’s hope with valid debate, we can fine-tune the education system to be equitable to all children.

Having said all that, getting quotes, working through figures, designing spaces, choosing colours…. it has been an exciting time, but one also filled with a lot of brain cells working overtime! For those of you who come into the consultancy regularly, you would know that Alexandra has been off on sick-leave, as she took a nasty tumble onto very hard tiles a couple of weeks ago. She has done a magnificent job in managing her pain levels AND contributing greatly to the decision making process. We wish her well, and hope that her recovery is a lot faster in weeks to come.  If you have missed her around the consultancy, that is the reason why…

In the meantime, next week will see the building of new spaces and places – we are so very excited and look forward to showing you the new-look 5energies.

We take our vision seriously at 5energies, and our vision was to create a safe, supportive and enthusiastic learning environment for children with learning challenges. As I looked around the office today, I appreciated our amazing staff, and all that they were trying to do. I also looked at the children and realised what a gift they were also giving us, by allowing us to share their world for a little bit, and to offer a helping hand that might make a huge difference in their future.  Thank you for allowing us into your lives, if even for a short time.

Umbakumba, Groote Eylandt

I was just mulling that in my time as a teacher in school so many things have changed. My very first teaching position was at Umbakumba, a very remote settlement in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I hate to admit to living through the dinosaur days of technology, but this was prior to even Commodore computers moving into the school and home markets. This was even before the time of the Gestetner copying machine – my first stencils were made using what was called a ‘jelly pad’.

A jelly pad was made up of gelatine basically – a LOT of gelatine on a baking tray – and with texta pens (a new innovation at the time), one would write out some Maths (or whatever), place the texta pen written master stencil on the gelatine, face down, and after smoothing it firmly and lifting it off, place a blank sheet of paper on the gelatine to get an image on the paper. It would be good enough for six or seven images to be made before you had to write out your master stencil again.

Contrast that to the technology of today… No wonder schools have such a hard time keeping up though. Even the most innovative and financial schools of today are behind in their use of technology and sharing it with the bright minds of tomorrow. All I can say is thank goodness for the people who specialise in this field and have been kind enough to explain things in words I understand and in concepts I can come to grips with! So thank you to the experts in this field for understanding where we want 5energies to go – and for helping us to make this all a reality!

Victor

We are expanding!!

Over the past week we welcomed Victor and Louise, speech pathologists, to our team. It was a hectic week, with Victor and Louise thrown into a full schedule of clients – and by all accounts they were exhausted but happy!

Victor is working through the week, while Louise (photo on right) is taking over our Saturday sessions, and will shortly be joined by an Occupational Therapist.

Louise

Alexandra, our resident Speech Pathologist has been enjoying the company of Victor and Louise, and these two talented people have enjoyed their first few days as part of the team.

We were also remiss in not introducing you to Carol, who has started in the front office with Julie. Carol (photo below) and Julie are still the first people to contact, as they are the queens of the diary! Carol is also our resident bookkeeper so is keeping us on the straight and narrow!

Carol

The office will shortly be undergoing some renovations too – we are very excited about that too. We hope there will be a minimum of disruption, but are looking forward to the more usable spaces that are created.

So all in all, a time of excitement for us in 5energies. We are currently looking for another Occupational Therapist and a teacher to join out team too so if you know of anyone who might be interested, please get them to ring the office.

We are in the throes of planning for a branch office in Darwin, so from the 27th – 30th April, we will be in Darwin for the first of many regular professional visits. As you can imagine, it is taking up a lot of time and energy to make this a reality, but boy, are we excited! We are also after new staff for our Darwin branch in particular, so if you know of a good speech pathologist and occupational therapist, in particular, please get them to give us a ring.

But thank you to those parents who have found 5energies and continue to show us what a dedicated team of people can do, when we all work together. It makes our job so much easier, but it is so gratifying to see the children progressing so well. Life wasn’t meant to be easy (if you believe Malcolm Fraser, but sometimes life can get very hard – so it is nice that we can work together so effectively to help these children.

So very proudly we announce our new status as Panel provider for services relating to autism, but also advise that we will be continuing our quality services for any child with a learning delay or developmental challenge. It has already been a big week, with those who have heard whispers on the wind getting in fast for appointments, and screenings and program development taking place this week.

It goes without question that if anyone wishes any information on our services to children and their families, please just ring and chat to Julie in the front office.

On another note, we are very sad at 5energies to be leaving our favourite web guru Leah, at workingsolo.com… Fortunately for Leah she is going to be enjoying a lot more of life over the next few weeks, months and years, and is looking forward to many wonderful ambulatory strolls through her neighbhourhood and elsewhere, but we are so going to miss having her quiet support in the background of our web presence. Leah, thank you for your wonderful ability to translate our murky ideas into reality, and for helping us immensely as a growing business.

On that note, the website will be migrating to a new hosting service over the next week, so if for any reason, you experience difficulties, please return in an hour or so.

However, it was of concern that a teacher at the school told them to wait for a year or two and see what happens. I am a teacher of long-standing, and I know that our experiences with so many children can lead us to conclude that most children will improve over time. My concern is that sometimes we are wrong. Since working so intensively with speech pathologists and occupational therapists, my advice has now changed significantly – for the sake of a screening / consultation wtih health professionals, it might be better to find out NOW if a child has developmental delays. As teachers, we might be education experts – but we are not the masters of every health care domain, and sometimes it is good to ask for expert assistance early. Peter’s issues can be resolved relatively easily now, as he is young enough to benefit greatly from an intensive programme helping his development. Had his parents waited till he was failing magnificently at age 8, a time when concrete learning moves into a more theoretical framework, a similar story might not be told.

Please consider what you say to parents. Please consider that there are other professionals who also have a vested interest in optimising each child’s development. Please consider that a problem today just might not go away in two years time – and in fact, might have grown to such significance that there is little hope of overcoming it.

Long story short, the screening showed up some significant developmental delays, and a solid programme with the Occupational Therapist is required to assist Peter. However, the main concern to me was how powerless Leslie and Simon felt.  So, some advice to parents of school-aged children:

• Remember that you are your child’s best advocate. You have known this little soul the longest, and you know his or her quirks, behaviours and uniqueness. You are the best advocate your child can have – but be reasonable, objective and calm when in meetings about your child.
• Remember the teachers, schools, general practitioners, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists and everyone else you may encounter while looking for some answers, are there to help. They depend on you, however, to offer extensive descriptions, to articulate the problems well, and to explain what you are doing at home to help.
• Trust your gut instinct! if you think your child is in trouble, seek help, even if you have to seek second, third and fourth opinions. While well-meaning souls might tell you that your child will ‘grow out of ‘ immature behaviours, or maturationally, next year things might improve, trust your instincts. Do you WANT to wait a year to see what might happen? Yes, things might improve – but they might also get a whole lot worse too.
• Have fun with your child. They are with us for such a short time, and parenthood is not for the  faint of heart. Our children offer us such a unique opportunity to love another little person unequivocably so enjoy the experience, as it won’t come again.

Contact us at 5energies if we can help you in any way.