We were back to grey skies again, slightly warmer with a bit of drizzle that had turned to rain by the end of the day. Last night, after some not so subtle hints from Peter, I took down all the tree decorations and did as much cutting of the branches as I could with my secateurs. This morning I finished off the job with the branch loppers and finally took a saw to the trunk. It had been such a good tree that not a needle fell until I started taking things down. I boxed up all the various decorations but they haven't quite made it up to the loft as I want to pack them securely and maybe .... clear out any things I don't want. Before Christmas I saw so many interesting ideas for making recycled paper decorations that I thought about getting rid of the majority of my current decorations and making paper ones each year that could then go on the fire instead of having to be stored. But then many of my commercially made decorations hold special memories and I'm not sure I could just get rid of them.
At school this afternoon I worked with the Year 1 children. The RE theme this term is Belonging so today we talked about belonging to a family and the children drew pictures of their families which I will put into a class book. After school our staff meeting was to talk about all the children who have significant needs. I can't be specific but we have a number of children who really need full-time 1:1 support to make any progress or indeed to remain in school and sadly there just isn't the funding for that. At least today's meeting has made us all more aware of the ways we can support these children and which strategies work when they are having a melt-down.
At home I have thrown out the spherical bird feeder as the birds really didn't like it and replaced it with a peanut feeder. (The last one disappeared -downstream? during a recent storm.) This new bird feeder is very popular and there is usually a queue of blue tits, great tits and robins waiting in the bushes for a turn at the nuts. The other day a woodpecker came down and scared the little birds away but it wasn't too keen on the nuts and soon moved onto a tree trunk. I don't get very good photos of the birds through the stair window which is in an awkward position to clean from outside.
Final update on the Lost Cat - my friend at work spoke to the lady with similar cats and although it wasn't hers she knew the cat's owner and took the details. A happy ending to that little adventure.
4 comments:
Ruta, If you are able without exposing yourself to any problems...please discuss--if possible--your theory of why there seems to be a greater number of children in need of one on one school help.
The main reason is perfectly simple- it's due to financial cut-backs. In the last 10 years assessment units have been closed (we had one at the school which had up to 6 children with 2 adults) and special schools have also been closed down. The 'theory' is that children do better in mainstream education and yes some of them do, as long as proper support is given but in reality the policy makers were looking at the costs. The majority of the children we were discussing last night have severe needs which could not be solely due to the home environment though that might be a factor. Personally I wonder if the high numbers of children with autism and similar problems is linked to the amount of chemicals entering the food chain or the air and I'm sure that the rise of technology has contributed to ADD levels. There have been studies showing that the on-screen visual stimulation has become quicker so that children do not have to focus/concentrate for any length of time. (And it doesn't help when a child comes to school never having been told "No". )
Also- in the UK every child in mainstream education is expected to move up with their peers each academic year. There is no provision for a child to have an extra year, or 2 eg in the reception (kindergarden/ 4-5 year old) even if the school and the parents think it would help the child. This continues throughout the school years and class teachers are supposed to make provision for every child in their class what ever their emotional or academic level.
Thank you, Ruta. I have no young children in school. However, I have three youngsters next door and a teacher on the other side. I volunteer with many retired teachers, and the general thought is not enough resources. We also discuss, often, chemicals in both the food chain as well as the home and school environment. We mainstream here as well; however, we do have an additional school level (Intermediate School District) that educates special needs children that can't be mainstreamed. Sad that education so often is not given the necessary tools be it money, staff or whatever to carry out the very important job of educating our children.
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