WAS - What A Scream!

This morning I got up really early, got ready for my exciting day out to a primary school and decided that for a visit to a primary school, it was probably going to be a better idea to wear jeans rather than a dress or skirt (as it turns out, a very wise decision indeed!). I didn’t have time for a cup of tea, as I had to head off on my slightly scary journey to the school which was going to involve taking public transport to somewhere I had not been to before and which I didn’t have a map of. I was going to have to rely on the vague list of road names I had written down when I went online yesterday.

I left the house at 7.30am and walked up the road for a bit, to the point at which I thought I was going to be able to get a tram from, but this seemed unlikely when I realised that there were no tram lines on the road. Hmmmm. I was just looking at the sign, which seemed to indicate that it was a bus stop, when a bus turned up and the driver asked if I was ok. I told him where I was trying to get to and he told me to hop on as the tram stop was further up the road. So I took a free three minute bus ride to Moonee Ponds, where I hopped out and saw tram lines. Despite the fact that time was ticking and I should get a move on, I decided that finding a coffee was equally as urgent, so I went to Gloria Jeans and got a coffee to set me up for the morning (mmmmmm), before hopping on the first tram that pulled up, in the hope that it was the right one!

As the tram went along, I was pleased to see that we were going past the road names I was expecting to see, which made me feel confident I was going n the right direction. I got off the tram at the point that I thought I was supposed to, but soon afterwards realised that it was a bit too early, so had to walk a fair way up a very long road, which added a bit of time to my journey. As I walked, a rubbish truck went past and after turning down a lift from the bin men who had asked if I was lost (which on reflection might have been a mistake!) we ended up leapfrogging the whole way up the road, joking as we went to see who would reach the junction first. I won, so was happy, then continued walking up the next road until eventually I came to the school. Phew, it was a fair walk! I arrived at 8.50am – just in time for the start of school!

I asked at reception for Gabi, who came along and took me briefly to meet the Principal, Val, before we went to the classroom and I met the other teacher, Sarah and the Education Support Worker, Unette, they explained to Gabi that the other ES was off sick – it meant that my day of observing in a primary school setting was slightly shifted – I was now going to be a primary school teacher for the day! No sooner had we said hello, then we were heading outside, through the playgrounds and back out to the road – along the way I noticed that all the door handles were right up at the top of the doors, so that the children could not open the doors themselves. The first mission was to collect the children from their buses and take them to class. There were buses and people everywhere, both children and adults, so I followed Gabi and she hopped on one of the buses and came out with a little boy. She handed me the little boy and asked me to hold his hand, whilst she collected another child who was screaming blue murder.

We stood on the pavement with a screaming little girl and the quiet little boy, whilst Gabi tried to calm the little girl down. She told me the little boy was called Remi and we then started trying to bring the children into the school. Remi was quite compliant, walking when I started moving, but constantly looking over his shoulder and walking with me but backwards, Gabi had Tess, who cried and wailed the whole way. As we got to through the second playground, Remi was still walking backwards and Gabi told me it was because he has an obsession with watching doors open and close, so he was fixated on watching the buses’ doors close. I managed to get him into the building, then had to get him to take his bag and coat off and put them on his hook, but he was far more interested in watching the door to the playground closing.

Eventually, I had managed to get Remi into the classroom, Gabi had got Tess in too; although she was still crying a lot, Sarah had brought in Jorjah-Jade and Unette had Munir. Four students and four adults all present and correct! One child was absent, which I think was a bit of a god-send as I don’t know how we’d have coped with five children between the four of us! These were kindergarten children, aged 5, all with autism and very high needs; only Tess could speak and was toilet trained.

First thing was ‘Schedule’. After extracting Remi from the door handle, putting headphones on Munir and getting Jorjah down from the table, we managed to get all the children sitting down, well sort of, while Sarah introduced them (and me) to the schedule board. She stuck up on the board pictures of each child, then of each adult, saying each name as she did, then she put the pictures of the absent child and ES in the corner with a red cross over them, to show that they were not there. She then sang a song about saying hello and went through singing hello to each child, only Tess responded through her tears with the appropriate ‘hello’ at the end. Next she went back to the board to explain the day’s schedule. The board has numbers one to six down the side and then pictures of different things next to each number, as a visual cue to what was happening. For example, next to ‘1’ was a picture of a bus, next to ‘2’ was a person waving with ‘hello’ written underneath, next to ‘3’ were pictures of children doing different activities, etc etc. At the bottom of the board was an envelope covered in black and white checks, this was the ‘finished’ envelope. Sarah went through the schedule and then put the picture of the bus in the finished envelope. This was quite a lengthy process and there was little indication as to whether or not the children had any idea about what she had said.

The next activity of the day was Occupational Therapy. Each child has their own OT plan, so each of the staff started the child’s session, whilst I interacted with Remi to occupy him until Sarah had finished with Jorjah and so could take him. First we played with a very simple puzzle and I tried to engage him by describing the puzzle using words like ‘open’ and ‘close’- he was still fascinated looking at the doors and handles. He completed the puzzle several times, then we moved on to a different activity with a box where you drop a little wooden mouse into a hole at the top and it slides down a sequence of slopes until it pops out at the bottom. This occupied him for a bit and then it was his turn for OT. The different OT activities ranged from a mini trampoline, to an exercise ball. I then took Jorjah and got her to choose a toy to play with; a little wind up caterpillar.

A lady called Helen then came and collected me, to go on a tour of the school with a group of parents of prospective students. It was very interesting going about the rest of the school. We went into each classroom and it was particularly confusing when I saw Tess in another room and she was not crying, but instead walked straight up to me and asked what my name was – it turned out to be Tess’ twin sister, Eliza and it was surprising to see the difference in the two 5 year olds. On the tour we also saw some speech therapy lessons going on, then the gross motor skills classroom with a lot of large soft play equipment and a very big trampoline. Helen also took us to some classrooms where there were older children, who were quite talkative. They showed us some of the things they have been doing and it was not surprising that some of them would be able to progress to mainstream schools next year. In one of those classes I saw Remi’s older brother, Gaston, who looked exactly like him.

Once the tour was done, I went back to the classroom, just in time to help them take the children out to the playground (after Sarah had taken each of them to the toilet), where Unette stayed with them, whilst Sarah, Gabi and I went back in for a cup of tea and a chat in the staffroom.

After our break, we went back to the playground and collected the children, again I took Remi and felt I had the hang of getting him to move past gates and doors, by pointing out the next door or gate ahead, so that he did not have to walk backwards to look at the last one! Back in the classroom, we went back to the schedule and put some more things in the finished envelope, before Sarah explained to them about their excursion on the bus. We got everyone to put their coats on and Sarah took each child to the toilet, then we went out to the bus and managed to get all the children installed in child seats with their seatbelts on. This was surprisingly easy as everyone was very compliant. Tess was fine, as she had her personal schedule with her (a mini version of the one in the classroom), clutching it very close to her. Unette, Gabi and I sat in the back with the kids, whilst Sarah hopped in to drive.

Before long, we were on our way to Melton – about a half hour drive away. This went relatively smoothly; Remi, Tess and Munir stared out the window and Jorjah just sat squealing with excitement in her own little world. We eventually arrived in Melton at the fish and chip shop, where we each took a child and brought them into the shop. Munir did not like it as there were lots of different noises going on and it was difficult to get him to go in. They sat and ate their lunch quite successfully, until Munir made for a great escape when someone came in through the door, but I managed to chase him and catch him before he went too far – Unette then came to my rescue and after a bit of a kerfuffle, enticed him back into the shop with some food! Sarah bought them some chips which they seemed to like, only Tess was able to ask for chips though, the others just ate what we gave them. I had a chiko roll – it’s still very odd and I don’t think I should like it, but it’s ok!

The main reason for the visit to this specific shop was because they also have a soft play area, which the children seemed to enjoy playing in. Each of them bounded around in their own little worlds, not playing together, but just enjoying running about and crawling through tubes. Even Munir enjoyed it – it was the first time he seemed to take in and be aware of his surroundings, it was amazing. He then started engaging with Gabi and even laughed and giggled! No one had seen him like that before and it was lovely to witness him actually seem to be aware of others and enjoy something. After they’d had a good run around, we had to prepare them for the ride home, which went smoothly and without tears. I went with Tess and got her to look at her schedule, together we put the fish and chips picture in the little finished envelope and we ascertained that we were now going on the bus to go back to school. This helped her get in the bus without any traumas.

The drive back to school was fine as well, Munir carried on giggling away to himself, although the children did get a bit confused when Sarah stopped for petrol. They thought it was time to get out and had unclipped their seatbelts as soon as she’d switched off the engine, so we had to get them all back in their seats and explain what was happening.

When we were finally back at school, we took the children back into the classroom and to the schedule, where we put the excursion pictures into the finished envelope and clarified the next parts of the schedule – rest time. This was quite funny as only Tess was compliant and laid down on the floor under a blanket. Remi had gone into what Sarah called ‘Door Land’ – this involved him making door shapes with his hands, opening and closing them, all whilst humming a really repetitive tune, getting more and more excited and animated whilst he did so; this was the first time I had even heard him utter a single sound! Meanwhile Jorjah sat in the corner plucking the petals off some very small flowers she had picked when she got out of the bus, laughing to herself. Munir wandered around in the corner, still giggling. They all seemed pretty happy though. During this time, which was only about ten minutes, Sarah and Unette wrote up notes in each of the children’s home/school books.

Rest time was over and we got the children back to sitting around the schedule, this introduced them to get their coats and bags, then they gave out the books and it was time to put all the other pictures into the finished envelope, before explaining that it was time to go home on the bus.

We took the children out into the playground, I had Remi and Tess; we found their buses and safely passed them on to the relevant driver and soon they were on their way. PHEW! As soon as we were childless, I realised just how shattered I was! What a day! Gabi and I went back inside and chatted to Sarah and Unette, whilst we tidied up and set up for tomorrow. I was so pleased that I had worn jeans, as I had done so much running around after the kids and had had various children clamped to my legs at various points during the day, I only wished that I had worn trainers. I thanked everyone for giving me such an insightful day, it really had been amazing – seeing such special education first hand was something I had not anticipated to have enjoyed so much.

When I left, I made my way back up the road and stopped at Maccas for a well earned coffee and swift click about online. I then jumped on a tram and headed back to Ascotvale, where I fell through the door and promptly collapsed on the sofa with the others! I told them all about my day and I must have been rather excited about it, even if I was totally shattered. I said to Becs that I don’t know how she manages to survive teaching five year olds every day; I know that hers are not autistic, but with a ratio of 1:1 today, it was still incredibly exhausting! After my initial slump on the sofa, I got showered and changed and settled down for the evening.

Becs had not been at work today as she had been given the day off to write her reports – she had actually spent a lot of the day making pies for dinner. This was definitely a decision that worked out well for the rest of us. They were absolutely delicious! We enjoyed them whilst watching tv, including Masterchef of course. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and chatting with a few drinks and the tv.