As part of the expatriation agreement dh's company pays for dependent school aged children to attend the local International School.
Our problem was that Port Elizabeth didn't have an International School campus. So the company agreed to pay for the equivalent of an International School, which meant an independent school. What I would call a private school, but we needed to find an appropriate school ourselves.
Before dh would even agree to the transfer we needed to make sure that there was a school in PE that could support ds #1 who has severe dyslexia combined with a "very superior intellect" according to the psyco-educational assessment. It's a killer combination two fold. Firstly, ds #1 has a lot to say, but his dyslexia prevents him from being able to write what he's thinking. Secondly, he wants to know everything, but the dyslexia prevents him from being able to read the things that are interesting to him. He is essentially frustrated all the time.
When we visited in February the company generously agreed to let us bring ds#1, given his special learning needs, so that he could be interviewed by the school's that we were interested in. We researched on the Internet looking specifically for schools that listed special needs/remedial teaching as being available at the school.
We had to take into consideration that children in South Africa start school the year they turn 6. They begin in grade 1. Because children do not need to attend school prior to age 6, the curriculum in grade 1 focuses on phonics and basic number knowledge. This meant that dd would go from 2 years in a kindergarten educational based program, back to a pre-school play based program. So, we had to decide if we wanted to put dd back to pre-school or push her forward to Grade 1. Ds #2 is a December baby. Back when it was time to start school, dh and I, with the agreement of the local school, decided to hold him back a year as he just wasn't ready to start school. In Canada he was in Grade 1, but he should have been in Grade 2. If the curriculum was behind in South Africa, would he be able to manage with his age peers in Grade 2? We reasoned that ds #1 with his severe dyslexia might have more confidence if the material in Grade 4 was a repeat of what he had already learned in Canada. His self esteem had suffered greatly related to his learning disability. One of the other points that factored into our decision where to place the kids was that the school year in South Africa begins in January. So the children would be leaving Canada 2/3 of the way through the school year, but arriving in South Africa 1/4 of the way through the South African school year.
With all those things in mind we visited the schools.
School #1 - A country private school. Gorgeous forested setting, near a river, very private, lots of room to explore. The children would be bussed from PE. The bus picks the kids up at 06:00 (Which would mean leaving home at 05:45). The children attend academic classes and then have study hall to complete their homework. Afterward they participate in sporting activities. They have swimming, field hockey, rugby, mountain biking, rock climbing, paddling and all pupils attend a weekend camp each term. The bus returns them to the bus stop at 17:45. There was room in grade 4 for ds #1, but wait lists for the other 2. Ds #1 was assessed by the special needs teacher while dh and I met with the headmaster. Ds thought he did well. The headmaster called a couple of hours later and said no they could not accept Ds#1, no explanation given. Certain aspects, like the outdoors program would have been ideal for our children, but to have the kids, especially dd at age 5 away from me for 12 hours a day was not really what we were looking for. We also weren't impressed that we were brushed off without explanation.
School #2 - An oooooooooold city school. Lots of history. Lots of famous people have been there. Excellent reputation. No buses, we would need to drive the kids. Dh and I met with the headmaster while ds#1 was assessed by the gifted resources teacher. The teacher was incredible. He was so honest with us. He said that while DS#1 was an incredibly intelligent child verbally, his written output and reading were not sufficient for him to keep up with the grade 4 class. He advised us that the schools teachers were not trained to work with outside the box children and that the behaviours related to his boredom and/or frustration would be seen as disruptive and he would spend more time in the headmasters office than the classroom. No room in grade 1 or 2 for ds#2, but they had space for dd. We really appreciated the honesty of the staff and if they had had room for ds#2 we would have seriously considered it for the younger 2, but I didn't want 3 kids in 3 different schools so that was another one off the list.
School #3 - A 5 years new school for special needs children, including those with ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Autism Spectrum. The school has grown from 16 students to almost 150 students in those 5 years and they have changed location 3 times to accommodate. The current location is an old monastery that had closed decades ago. As the school grows and fund raises they are refurbishing the buildings. We met with the special needs teacher who advised that, as an independent school they could provide extra time for tests, scribes, exempt or replace second language lessons, etc. They have a psychologist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist and remedial teacher on site. The school required a one week observation period to determine if the child would be accepted. We spoke with the headmaster who said they could certainly accommodate the dyslexia, but there was some hesitation as to manging the giftedness and being able to challenge him. I wasn't thrilled with the location of the school, or that the headmaster had reservations about being able to challenge him, but it was our first maybe. Neither DS #2 or DD would be appropriate for this school which meant 2 different schools for the kids, not an ideal situation from my point of view, but it was looking like the only solution for DS #1.
School #4 - This was the school that I liked from the beginning for ds #2 and dd. It seemed the most like home, only smaller. Back when it was started, it was a Jewish school. When they were no longer able to maintain the school with just Jewish pupils, they opened it to all faiths. They still follow the Hebrew calendar and have all of the Jewish religious holidays off. The school is divided into a Pre-Primary (dd), a Primary (ds #1 and #2) and a High School, each with their own principal and a campus head oversees them all. We went to the Pre-Primary first to speak about dd. We loved the school and the principal and put dd on the wait list. The principal asked why we had brought only one of our children. We explained the situation with DS#1 and she lit up like a halogen lamp. Along with being the Pre-school principal and grade R (last year of pre-school) teacher, she was also contracted to the Primary school as a special needs consultant. She is all about inclusion and she thought the Primary would be perfect for DS#1 and asked why we weren't considering it. We told her it was because we had been looking at schools with remedial or special needs teachers on staff and that there was no mention of special needs at the Primary. She encouraged us to speak with the Primary principal. So our next stop was the Primary. They didn't have room in grade 1 for ds#2 but they did have room in grade 2 and grade 4 for ds #1. They invited ds #1 to come back to the school the next day to try it out. Cool, 3 kids, 1 school. I was really liking the possibility. Ds #1 had a fantastic morning at the school, he was shy for about 2 min. and then made a few friends and participated in the class.
We had found our school on the last day of our look and see visit. We were thrilled with the school and felt that it would be better for dd to be with her age peers in the pre-school, that ds#2 could manage grade 2 and decided that even if it didn't work for DS #1 we had a plan B with the special needs school. There was a government (public) special needs school that is very highly respected that could be plan C. If all else failed we could fall back to home schooling. This adventure would be full of life lessons that could never be experienced back in Canada, so the decision was made. We were moving.
Stay tuned for Schools - Part Two - The differences
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