Guest jondi Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi we are looking for general views on education in oz and how it compares to UK. Also our son has a speech problem and has a statement so has support at school. Does the same system work in oz? :chatterbox: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WARDStoOZ Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Hi! Just bumping this up to the top for you so hopefully someone will know the answer to your question, Dan xx :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest michelle in Havant Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Hi I am afraid I can't help. Have you had a look in the education section of the forum, there are varied opinions on there, I think like here the standard of education depends a lot on the shcool itself. We feel that our children will get a better education in oz, as the class sizes in England are getting bigger and bigger, there are 35 children in my 15yr old daughters class, and they are constantly having new teachers, the facilities aren't great (lack of funding), and they now finish school an hour early once a week so the teachers can get ready for yet another government initiative which is being brought in soon!!!! Obviously everyone has differing opinions on this, and I think we won't really know for sure till the children are in school in oz. michelle x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 All the states have disability support programs and AFAIK all of them have a speech/language disorder category. They generally dont support the speech (articulation) disorders unless there is a significant degree of dyspraxia for example with a child actually needing augmentative communication (signing, boardmaker etc). They generally require a speech therapy assessment which puts receptive and expressive language in excess of two standard deviations below the mean (ask your speech path where he fits in this regard, they will know). Some states require it in both areas in order to attract disability funding and others will accept a deficit in just one area. For kids with speech/language disability the support is mainly provided as teacher aide time in mainstream classes although I dont think any state provides a huge amount of support unless there are other factors like challenging behaviour or intellectual disability. Some states do have the provision of speech therapy time within the school setting but others dont - our speechies work on a family support model and so dont deliver services in schools but I know that some other states can either buy in services (Vic) or they have speechies attached to the school system. If you have a child with special needs, the best thing to do is to make sure that all assessments are up to date and for a child with speech language disability then that means within the past 12 months but preferably as immediate as possible. In addition, bring any psychoeducational assessment with you as some states define out the speech language disability as being independent of any intellectual disability and require a significant difference between verbal and non verbal tasks on standardised testing and, if you can get one, an adaptive behaviour assessment along with any skills assessments and his latest IEP. If he doesnt fall into the disability criteria then you will probably have to get speech pathology from outside the school system - it is possible to get it from public systems but they are very strapped and many parents choose to go private. Schools do have limited resources to support children who are having difficulties, most of them go into reading groups/reading recovery type programs. As for the general standards - ask 50 people and you will get 50 answers. They are quite different systems and personally I tend to think that Aus education is not quite on a par - I have worked with several families over the years who have gone back to UK because they feared for their children's education after experiencing it here (and that is in ACT which generally performs well in national standards). However I think it probably all depends on the school you get and the teacher you get which is the same the whole world over! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jondi Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Many thanks for the detailed reply.! I take it you are in the teaching profession?? At the mo he has twice wk nNHS sp therapy, once fortnight private sp th, once fortnight specialist teacher and full time teaching assistant . So we have got a good package set up. I am hoping his need for this will reduce as time goes by. It could be a couple of years before we get to oz as i have to sit exams to work here( Im a physio) We will have to give it alot of consideration because although I tthink the move could be fantastic I dont want to do it too early and lose out on available support. It will take alot of research on schools and the system over there. You could be a good source of info !! Diane and John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Many thanks for the detailed reply.! I take it you are in the teaching profession?? At the mo he has twice wk nNHS sp therapy, once fortnight private sp th, once fortnight specialist teacher and full time teaching assistant . So we have got a good package set up. I am hoping his need for this will reduce as time goes by. It could be a couple of years before we get to oz as i have to sit exams to work here( Im a physio) We will have to give it alot of consideration because although I tthink the move could be fantastic I dont want to do it too early and lose out on available support. It will take alot of research on schools and the system over there. You could be a good source of info !! Diane and John Wow a full time teaching assistant and 2xweek speech! I venture to say that you wouldnt get that anywhere in Aus for speech/language disability! Certainly early intervention in the language disorders is best because if you havent made progress by about 8 then the speechies generally shake their heads and say there isnt much they can do. Ex- Education now thank goodness!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Toorak Trev Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Wow a full time teaching assistant and 2xweek speech! I venture to say that you wouldnt get that anywhere in Aus for speech/language disability! Certainly early intervention in the language disorders is best because if you havent made progress by about 8 then the speechies generally shake their heads and say there isnt much they can do. Ex- Education now thank goodness!!! My daughter has an hour each week with a private speech pathlogist ($120 per hour) plus 1 hour each fortnight in class. The child physicologist (sorry I'm a crap speller) sees her once a month $180 for half and hour. Her class has 13 other girls (so 14 in total). One teacher and one assistant for special needs such as our daughter (Mild Autism). Can't compare with UK but would say early intervention has made a huge difference and that we have been very impressed with the way the schools and private professinals have interacted for the benefit of the child. No egos have got in the way. Most of our friends/contacts who have children in similar circumstances in the UK did not get diagnosis until years 7 or 8 so perhaps a big difference is the ability to detect it earlier over here?? We had a 2 year check up in the UK and nothing was picked up whereas a 2.5year check initated tests straight away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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