Guest Janeloz Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi, I was just wondering whether anyone else home schools? I have been home schooling my two boys (currently age 12 & 10) for the last two years here in the UK, mainly because of the state of our local high schools (my eldest would now be in Yr 8), and have heard that it is a big thing over in Oz. I am not against them going to school and will look into both options should we actually make it over there. My eldest has some special needs, although was never 'statemented' here so was never offered any extra help other than the teaching assistant that was in his class part-time. Our local high school got only 14% in their GCSE results (for 5 x A-C grades, incl. Maths & English) and the 3 other high schools in our local town only got between 17-23%!! so you can probably see why I didn't want him going there into a regular class of 30+ kids. Anyway, without going into too much detail over his needs, he just basically needs extra time to learn things and can't keep up with the pace of a regular class. Some things he is really bright on, like countries for instance, he knows alot of capitals, flags etc but still counts 6+4 on his fingers. He gets there eventually but not as quick as other 12 year olds. He also has some joint and muscle problems and is slower in pace than other kids. There is also some difficulty with interacting with his peers, I guess because they can see his is a little different! SO, do you think there is the provision for him in most Australian High Schools, we will probably be heading to north of Brisbane. Or are we likely to come up against the same problems we have here regarding special needs education and also bullying. I'm in no doubt that he would have been easy picking for the bullies here the minute he walked into the school, especially with the horror stories I've heard about our local high school. Anyway, thanks for reading. Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest t'n'g Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi, I was just wondering whether anyone else home schools? I have been home schooling my two boys (currently age 12 & 10) for the last two years here in the UK, mainly because of the state of our local high schools (my eldest would now be in Yr 8), and have heard that it is a big thing over in Oz. I am not against them going to school and will look into both options should we actually make it over there. My eldest has some special needs, although was never 'statemented' here so was never offered any extra help other than the teaching assistant that was in his class part-time. Our local high school got only 14% in their GCSE results (for 5 x A-C grades, incl. Maths & English) and the 3 other high schools in our local town only got between 17-23%!! so you can probably see why I didn't want him going there into a regular class of 30+ kids. Anyway, without going into too much detail over his needs, he just basically needs extra time to learn things and can't keep up with the pace of a regular class. Some things he is really bright on, like countries for instance, he knows alot of capitals, flags etc but still counts 6+4 on his fingers. He gets there eventually but not as quick as other 12 year olds. He also has some joint and muscle problems and is slower in pace than other kids. There is also some difficulty with interacting with his peers, I guess because they can see his is a little different! SO, do you think there is the provision for him in most Australian High Schools, we will probably be heading to north of Brisbane. Or are we likely to come up against the same problems we have here regarding special needs education and also bullying. I'm in no doubt that he would have been easy picking for the bullies here the minute he walked into the school, especially with the horror stories I've heard about our local high school. Anyway, thanks for reading. Jane Hi there Jane My girlfriend in melbourne home schools because two of her children have Aspergers syndrome and the eldest was not getting on with the state system. I know that the home schooling group are quite similar to the UK. Ihome schooled for 6 months last year when we returned from Australia as the school in which they went to for 6 weeks was not compatible!! I know in melbourne they get together every week and go on trips usually once a month. If you need any info let me know obviously can't help with the area you are heading to but certainly can with melbourne. As regard to the school system im not sure, i know that my girlfrind was not really happy with our school but then i dont think she looked around any others either. I think she felt homeschooling was the only way! Trisha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 If you want to home school in Aus you have to register with your local department of education and have your curriculum approved and they will usually have some sort of checking mechanism to make sure that you are doing things right. There are home schooling support groups all over. If you want your son to get additional help in school then he would need an assessment. There is some provision for supporting children with disabilities in mainstream classes so if you have any psychoeducational assessments done within the last 2 years then bring them over and see if he would be entitled to any additional assistance. There are a range of schooling options - we have a strong private system so you might find that a smaller private HS (some of the Christian schools for example) might offer him a more protected environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbriz Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 If you want to home school in Aus you have to register with your local department of education and have your curriculum approved and they will usually have some sort of checking mechanism to make sure that you are doing things right. There are home schooling support groups all over. If you want your son to get additional help in school then he would need an assessment. There is some provision for supporting children with disabilities in mainstream classes so if you have any psychoeducational assessments done within the last 2 years then bring them over and see if he would be entitled to any additional assistance. There are a range of schooling options - we have a strong private system so you might find that a smaller private HS (some of the Christian schools for example) might offer him a more protected environment. Hi, Great bit of information, thanks. We are Australian citizens and are desperately missing the place. We were in Brisbane with our autistic son (statemented in the UK where we are currently) and found the mainstreaming help available just about non existent unfortunately. Home schooling sounds like a potentially good option, especially if there is criteria to be followed and maybe support groups? Our preference though would be for our son to continue mainstreaming, but in Australia, looking at Melbourne. You mentioned about assistance for kids who are in mainstream classes. Would you know where we could find out more on this? Detailed on this kind of information seems very hard to come by. Thanks again, wildbriz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hi, Great bit of information, thanks.We are Australian citizens and are desperately missing the place. We were in Brisbane with our autistic son (statemented in the UK where we are currently) and found the mainstreaming help available just about non existent unfortunately. Home schooling sounds like a potentially good option, especially if there is criteria to be followed and maybe support groups? Our preference though would be for our son to continue mainstreaming, but in Australia, looking at Melbourne. You mentioned about assistance for kids who are in mainstream classes. Would you know where we could find out more on this? Detailed on this kind of information seems very hard to come by. Thanks again, wildbriz Victoria were in the vanguard of integration support in mainstream and they do have a disability and impairment support program which includes support for students with autism providing they meet the eligibility criteria. Their handbook is here http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/stuman/wellbeing/2009_PSD_Handbook_FINAL.pdf Scroll to the end to see what the eligibility requirements are but the rest will give you a clue about what they say they can offer. Vic afaik gives money to the schools and they basically decide how that should be spent - so it could be used for speech therapy or classroom aide etc. I guess it will never be enough but it will be what the budget can allow and as needs based as possible. It will help to have a good diagnosis plus psycho educational assessments along with an adaptive behaviour assessment as those are the usual pieces of information required for eligibility purposes - just the label doesnt get the support any more I'm afraid. Here is the information on home schooling in Vic Home Schooling - Choosing and Enrolling in School - At School 5-18 - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbriz Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Victoria were in the vanguard of integration support in mainstream and they do have a disability and impairment support program which includes support for students with autism providing they meet the eligibility criteria. Their handbook is here http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/stuman/wellbeing/2009_PSD_Handbook_FINAL.pdf Scroll to the end to see what the eligibility requirements are but the rest will give you a clue about what they say they can offer. Vic afaik gives money to the schools and they basically decide how that should be spent - so it could be used for speech therapy or classroom aide etc. I guess it will never be enough but it will be what the budget can allow and as needs based as possible. It will help to have a good diagnosis plus psycho educational assessments along with an adaptive behaviour assessment as those are the usual pieces of information required for eligibility purposes - just the label doesnt get the support any more I'm afraid. Here is the information on home schooling in Vic Home Schooling - Choosing and Enrolling in School - At School 5-18 - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Hi, Thank you for this. We have had a quick read and there is some very interesting and usefull information here. Victoria seems like it may be ahead of Queensland when it comes to mainstreaming special needs kids. It is encouraging and we will have a more thorough read and also look at making a few phone calls. It would be good to get some idea on how much the maximum one on one help any one special needs child could get. We were told in Queensland 20 minutes a day was the absolute maximum. It would be interesting to know if any one has been able to get more assistance than this in Melbourne or elsewhere? At least there is an option to home school and some support services along with it, great stuff. Much appreciated! wildbriz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Hi, Thank you for this. We have had a quick read and there is some very interesting and usefull information here. Victoria seems like it may be ahead of Queensland when it comes to mainstreaming special needs kids. It is encouraging and we will have a more thorough read and also look at making a few phone calls. It would be good to get some idea on how much the maximum one on one help any one special needs child could get. We were told in Queensland 20 minutes a day was the absolute maximum. It would be interesting to know if any one has been able to get more assistance than this in Melbourne or elsewhere? At least there is an option to home school and some support services along with it, great stuff. Much appreciated! wildbriz Not too sure that Vic is ahead of Qld. Qld have had its autism specialist teachers and units for longer than Vic and there seems to be less of a state wide response and more of an individual school based response in Vic. As the budgets shrink and the demand has grown larger the amount of individual aide time has decreased in pretty much every state from what I can gather. Bear in mind that all children are assessed on a needs basis and to get the maximum you have to be very disabled and adult dependent - our max is 50% but a child getting that level of support would be very needy indeed (think wheelchair, out of control behaviour, no language etc). You would be lucky to get an hour a day - and also bear in mind that Vic has one of the strictest eligibility criteria for the pervasive developmental disorders as well, Queensland up to recently has just required a diagnosis and not specified the level of functional deficit. In Vic too the money when given to the school can be used in a variety of ways for example speech therapy or occupational therapy or a psychologist for behaviour management etc not just for the cheap option of an extra body in the classroom. From people I have spoken to, Vic seems to be perhaps one of the harder systems to get support from unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest North of perth Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hi, I currently homeschool two of my kids but in WA due to medical reasons. But still have kids in school too. Homeschooling is much more accepted here, and loads of people doing it. Most towns have a group that meets up regular for trips,and meet ups at the park etc. We signed up with education dept, you get a chat with the home education moderator to check you are sure about it and ask any questions. Then we get a check up once per year to check we are going ok. If you go to Yahoo groups they have Australian homeschooling group. HomeschoolAustraliaFAQ : HomeschoolAustraliaFAQ But lots of others groups depending on your area. j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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