WITH A FULL HEART - GIVING THANKS

Written by Hilary Sherlock- Principal

Formatted by Leslie Wan

I SEE YOU - SUMMER FUN 

LESSONS LEARNED

Hard to believe that another year has passed and a new school year is about to begin. The To Do list is long, as is the needs list, and both keep growing, but, I need to step back for a moment and share some lessons I learned this past year.

There are four main lessons – simple, not necessarily new, but each essential.

1.                     Listen

I am usually good at listening to the children, but not as good with listening to the adults. I remember my first meeting with a particular mother, a year ago. She came to me in distress and anger, after her son had been denied entry to another special school because he is blind, in a wheelchair and “not toilet trained”. Apparently he had more challenges than "their specialty". Our school had little experience with a student with low vision impairment before, but we agreed to take him because we see the value of our work with the WHOLE child and he needed a school to view him as such at that moment. This meant that I and our team had to research the best methods for teaching children with visual impairments, but we accepted the challenge for his needs. With the support of the Special Education Unit, we agreed to work with him over the year and then hopefully transition him to ”the more appropriate school” for the following school year. As the end of this school year approached, I held firm to this plan. During a conversation with his mother, I suddenly realized that I was so fixed on our original plan, I was no longer listening to her and what she wanted for her child. Others who worked with him, were confirming the mothers opinion/request. After really listening to her, we decided he will stay with us for another year to consolidate his emerging mobility and independent skills thereby increasing his chances of a successful transition. Listening to another parent describe the spiritual journey his family had been on during the year with their special son, I realized how privileged we are to have been part of their journey.  This student’s frail body, houses a strong, calm force of energy, and he continues to inspire, calm and encourage us every day. There was my first lesson. Plans are important, but so is listening with an open heart and open mind to know where those plans might divert.   

2.                  Simple Pleasures

Again this year we had summer school. The children love summer school and it allows us to fully utilize our building and sometimes to give a child a "try out" on what transitioning to our school might mean for them. Summer school is more relaxed and gives us opportunities to  simply enjoy being together. One morning was filled with laughter as children and adults got very messy with paint and water in the garden.

Another morning, quiet time with staff, volunteers and children, massaging each other and painting toes and fingers. 

Watching our staff's able bodied children, learning to play together with our special needs children, made the second lesson real.

Helping others and making friends makes me BIG! 

It is important to build in times to relax and play, which allows opportunities for friendships to develop and in this case for all children to assimilate with the diversities of people that life brings.  

3.                  Give thanks

Last summer we wrote a blog about our financial needs and the struggle to continue our school. The precarious financial position has not changed, but gratefully we are still here today. Every semester is a challenge to stay afloat, but as long as we believe that our children deserve an education commensurate with regular children, we push on. It is for us to give them the chance and the resources to take them to places they would never go alone. We have been the recipients of goodwill over the year. We have received much. Many of the gifts have been spontaneous and are very affirming to us that our children are IMPORTANT.  Many, many thanks to all who have been so generous with their time and resources. This includes students from Hillel Academy and U-Tech to groups of friends, service groups, individuals and corporate Jamaica.

Looking forward to working with Kingston Rotary Club and Friends for Charity and with many of those we may not know now, but, who will become part of our family. It is a FACT- we believe in the broader scope of family at S.T.E.P.

 Need for Structure

Sometimes it seems that every day is a struggle to get organized …. Well, we promise to be better organized this school year.  Friends who visited from Lees-McRae College in North Carolina have linked us with Connections for Autism and we will be using their resources to assess, set goals, provide appropriate activities, and track each student through the year. Our children share many behaviors and instructional needs with children with autism and this resource answers a long felt need.

Strategy and Group Discussions with Lees - Macrae College

Folks of Lees- Macrae College work with our students

The Canadian Women’s Group of Jamaica has provided resources and material to enable us to have a functional resource room. We will be so much better able to make, catalog and share resources. Thank you to all of them for helping us to have all things readily available.

The Canadian Women's Group of Jamaica, generously donated equipment, shelving etc. to help organize our resource room. (President Barbara Matalon delivered shelves etc. from the group) 

We will be using the new curriculum developed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) for children with special needs and continuing to work on interpreting its goals in meaningful ways for our children. We actually took part in the formation of this curriculum, and its development was truly a collaborative effort involving the teachers who will be using it. It was important to us to give real time classroom interpretation to what will benefit the special needs community and curriculum in Jamaica. We will also be piloting our Gardening as Biosphere Education Guide and supplementing its activity suggestions. Thanks to Dr Aisha Jones, Director of Research, National Commission on Science and Technology, for all her hard work, and to the Rotary Club of the Nene Valley (UK) for their support.

Our school is cash poor, but we are certainly resource rich and bursting with anticipation of all the joyous lessons awaiting us in the days ahead. This year as other years, is an adventure, a celebration, and filled with possibilities and spirit affirming moments. 

OPEN UP THE DOORS AND LET OUR SUNSHINE CHILDREN IN!!!!