I went to observe the kindy classroom in our 'school of choice' last week. It looks great. I knowthat Han will have some issues settling in and I know they will need to make some modifications in their teaching to best suit her - but boy - they already have so many strategies in place that will really suit her.

So there we have an old building - a big classroom for 2 classes (dividers there but rarely used). 50 kindy students, 2 teachers and 4 parent 'helpers' on this particular morning. When I arrive one of the teachers is just finishing up whole class instruction on reading. There are an array of groupings (based on abilities and personalities) of oranges, cherries and the likes. Behind her is alarge notice board - it has the picture of the different groups. Next to each pic is the names of the kids in that group and then 1 or 2 visuals of what activities that group is to be working on. The children are dismissed and go to their various 'stations' that have been set up. There will be a ringing bell and one more change over. Before they move off into the second lot of group work Miss V calls them together - they do a brief listening game. It is like one that the brats play in their music class. The leader claps and then the class copies. The teacher chose a range of kids to have a turn.

While I was there I saw one parent volunteer hand over hand modeling writing for a little boy. Another was outside in the hall going over some sight words. Another was helping the kids who had to write a story and draw a picture to go wiith it. The last parent was helping kids cutting and pasting in a picture sequencing activity.

Lots of phonics and whole sight words - perfect for Hannah - and enabling Kit to go at his own pace.

Hannah's psychometric assessment is in two weeks and then a couple of days later the principal (from the 'school of choice') and a special needs support teacher will do a 'functional assessment' at the preschool.

The preschool teacher has had a visit from the EI special needs teacher - it went well and early reports are that some of the suggestions have already been implemented. (That doesn't surprise me as I know the teacher is good - it's just that Han gets no funding support which means that the teacher is working with her first child with DS with no additional support or training - that seems to be the 'mainstream way' in NSW where a diagnosis of T21 is not a sufficient disability to receive targetted funding) - ah that is a whole other post - which I will include soon as I have an update to include - just haven't worked out how to best protect anonymity in doing so.