What to look for when choosing a school for a child with special needs, in NZ

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One of the most challenging, and most important, decisions we make as parents of young children with special needs, is where to send them to school. I have two children with various special needs. One of my children has been … Continue reading →

Dental Fear or Dental Care

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My children’s dentist is a free dental clinic attached to a school that is about half an hour’s drive from home. It’s not close, it’s not convenient, and I could get free dental care for the kids directly through their … Continue reading →

The “S” Word: Attacking and Defending “Special Needs.”

Lately when I use the term “special needs” – whether in my writing or my speech – I’ve been coming up against people who attack my use of the phrase. The arguments I encounter don’t come from a singular line … Continue reading →

What Rachel Smalley, and the public, doesn’t understand about mainstreaming special needs children.

Today a reader of my blog asked if I’d read a recent article written by Rachel Smalley, up on the Newstalk ZB website. The reader was not happy about what she read there, and having read it myself I also … Continue reading →

Protecting the Privacy of Special Students (a case study of a fight won).

The summary of the story I’m about to tell you, goes like this: You will no longer find the National Standards data for Special Schools on either the Ministry of Education or Fairfax’s websites, because of a successful argument that … Continue reading →

Low Decile Paradise?

Private, public, mainstream, special, high decile, low decile: Between my son’s and my own education, I’ve seen all these types of schools in action. I attended a private school, then high decile public schools. My son attended a mid-decile Special … Continue reading →

Social Skills in a Mainstream School

My seven year-old son has been attending a mainstream school for about three months. He spent the first two years of his schooling at a Special School. When his academic and social skills had advanced to a point where that … Continue reading →

Tendering a Relationship? When a taxi is more than a ride.

Over the past two years, my son was driven to and from his school everyday by a taxi service funded by the government. At the end of last year, we were told that the contract for these daily taxi trips … Continue reading →

Mainstreamed

My son spent the first two of his school years at a Special School. That was where he needed to be. That was where he learnt the skills, and received the immense support that was necessary to get him to … Continue reading →

Forced to Choose Between Therapy and Education.

There are certain skills required for learning, that need to be actively taught to children like my son: Skills that are taken for granted in most “normal” children, and therefore skills that are not a natural part of the curriculum … Continue reading →