OPEN HOUSE / OPEN HEARTS

Blog written by Leslie Wan

As the dog days of summer are here and the regular school year winds down, the school has been as busy as ever. Conferences with parents or caregivers, re-organizing areas of the classrooms that have become abit disorganized in the day to day school time, and some reflecting on where and what changes have we seen with the children, our shifts in focus in the course of the year, are just snippets of some of our recent work.(More on that in the next blog). No good endeavor, certainly of schools, is effective if you don't take the time to make assessments on how you have been measured against your goals and where changes have happened within the students. In the context of these thoughts and the desire to share this and our school with others, we scheduled our open house (aka Open Day).

This year for Open Day, we organized the spaces and bulletin boards around the many ways and modalities we use to teach, provide therapy and sensory work. One board was a visual of our teaching influences and education mentoring styles. Another was photos of "A Year in the life of STEP" and the many activities we do. Others areas were art displays, art reflections from our literary endeavors, methods of physical therapies used, our sensory room, our garden, the various class areas divided by age or competencies etc. If any of you missed it and would like to see it, we have left it up until the end of the school year, so just give us a call and pop in.

We hoped to have many visitors and yet we wondered if our hard work and preparations would be for naught. We should not have worried because the day was a smashing success and we had a great bunch of visitors. Hilary and myself (and a couple of the teachers) served as guides for the day and a few of our students were our welcoming greeters. Our "garden manager" (student) helped us sell plants from our garden endeavors too.

Brandon our garden manager

I want you all to know those students served as hosts or hostesses proudly, and with the most welcoming smiles and greetings. Nothing speaks better for our school than our happy and polite children.

Two of our students welcome our visitors

In the course of the day we had teachers from other schools who wanted insight into how best to reach their challenged students (and have always wondered about our school), faithful supporters and friends who wanted an update on progress, Ministry of Education folks who appreciate the work we do, former students and students from other special needs school and representatives of companies and organizations etc. As I drove home at the end of the day, I reflected on how many times Hilary and I heard from visitors how impressed they were with the children, our methodologies and how the school should KNOW that we have such an AMAZING reputation for our innovative methods and dedication to the special needs community. It is so easy to get caught up in our daily work and not be able to see the bigger picture,or the view from the outside in. It was an eye opener and a real affirmation to me that our message and our dedication speaks for itself. It was a humbling and yet joyous day for us. And I might add that it was a pleasure to see folks actually chatting and interacting with our students themselves.

We enjoyed the day of bringing our message and methods to folks on the outside, and for folks to come in and share with us what our message in this blog has been about. Yes, our children are "special" in all kinds of ways, but one of the most important ways they are special, is as ambassadors for the special needs community. We are forever grateful for people, organizations and media who include our children in their happenings. Our children have been included in dance recitals, fashion shows, building dedications etc. So whether our children go out into activities in the community, or the community comes to us, our children and all special needs children shine a special light and

special love.

Thank you to all who came and please do let us know what you thought. Feedback is always welcome at STEP to guide us and light our way. If you didn't catch us on the day, we will have the information and displays up for a little longer so give us a call. "Programming note"- In the interest of brevity and respect for your busy days, I (Leslie) will not be doing a motivational moment for your day at the end of the blogs anymore. I know time is precious for you in any moment of any day. Thanks for sharing them in the past, and do remember we always think of you in the equation of us!

Have a blessed week.  

We believe in them.