SurferMan Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 Mate, Im so sorry to hear your kid is being picked on. My kids dont have any of those issues, but my son has bad eyes and my daughter struggles to hear. But that is not why they stick out, we are a little different and so they dont get many party invites which makes my son sad. I explained to him its okay. We are not part of the "in" crowd and we always swim upstream. IF you can do homeschooling, go for it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynnie Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 I am increasingly becoming worried about the schools in Australia, especially primary schools in Canberra. The more I read, the greater the worry.It seems that the disrespect for other people is worse in Oz than SA, which follows the trend of Britian, which is insightful. And the website comparing primary schools in Canberra is also very good reading, but the schools I initially sort of "targeted" as possibles, now look as if they dont perform.And you simply wont know what kind of pupils are there and how bullying is treated unless your child is enrolled there.I never thought Id say this, but I think I'll investigate home-schooling a little closer Good luck Toitjie... It is a pity that you hear such negative things abt the schooling in Oz and how disrespectful the kids are. It is not at all the case!!Please Forum, do not generalise and make it sound like all Aussie schools and kids are like that!! We are in Brisbane and almost all of the schools around us are brilliant. I can only tell you fantastic things about the state school my kids are in (we won the showcase for excellence last year in qld)- all the staff there is awesome and do not tolerate ANY bullying on any level, each child is an individual and treated as such. Here and there there are "difficult" kids, but they are dealt with swiftly....My point is - do not generalise please.... Unfortunately you don't know before you enrol your child. But if it does not work out - find another school.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCabes Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'm probably throwing a spanner in the works here, but please do a full investigation on the ACE curriculum. There was a Christian school in our suburb that offered this curriculum to the kids there, and after a couple of years there were kids coming out of that school who had simply learned to check the back of the book for the answers - and since they mark their own work, the parents only ever got lovely reports back and thought their kids were brilliant, until some parents chose to switch back to mainstream government schools and realized their kids are 2-3 years behind mainstream.Granted, if you're using it as a homeschooling curriculum, you would probably check their work. But after hearing the above I'm just completely put off. I would research the best Aussie homeschool curriculums and go with one of those.From being there and staying with and seeing different people, the bullying seems to be more an issue in the outlying areas (?) and not so much closer to the cities... just my opinion. We went into my cousin's son's school and it was beautiful. They are very into promoting empathy and teaching kids to understand and cope with big feelings and respect each other, and in that school at least, it seems to work well.Our friends in Melbourne did have problems with bullying with their middle child and decided to pull him out of school. They say in hindsight they should have been closer to the city and focused more on the areas around the great schools. That said their eldest got into a select entry school and is really happy and doing well, so even in one family it can be different for each child.Good luck everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronwyn&Co Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 I am increasingly becoming worried about the schools in Australia, especially primary schools in Canberra. The more I read, the greater the worry.It seems that the disrespect for other people is worse in Oz than SA, which follows the trend of Britian, which is insightful. And the website comparing primary schools in Canberra is also very good reading, but the schools I initially sort of "targeted" as possibles, now look as if they dont perform.And you simply wont know what kind of pupils are there and how bullying is treated unless your child is enrolled there.I never thought Id say this, but I think I'll investigate home-schooling a little closer http://www.saaustralia.org/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/smile.gifWow this is an old post. How are you feeling about schooling now Toitjie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodz Posted April 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2014 Just to put it into perspective, my son, because of his disability, has always been a target in every school he has been in. He has had a very bad run. From Townsville, Mission Beach,Tully,Tannum Sands and the last at Ormeau here on the Gold Coast. At every school we confronted the teachers and we got absolutely no support from them. My son was so humiliated he wanted to kill himself. The filth that spews out of these kids mouths is sickening. What the school said "Ah we'll speak to the kids involved and their parents".So for the 5 schools in total, i can safely say, without generalising, that all those school kids were rude and had zero, absolutely zero manners. The teachers are like putty in these kids hands. How a grown man can stand and allow a 7 yr old to tell him to "get ******"!! In saying that my daughter has had zero issues at school because she doesnt have disability issue to worry about.Good luck to yous who don't have kids with disabilities and whose kids are in great schools. Im really happy for you's but please consider the rest of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronwyn&Co Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Rodz I'm really sorry for your son's bad experiences and I'm sure you've made the right decision on his behalf now. I hope things get easier as he gets a bit older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodz Posted April 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Rodz I'm really sorry for your son's bad experiences and I'm sure you've made the right decision on his behalf now. I hope things get easier as he gets a bit older.Thanx Bronwyn. He is much happier and definitely in a better place. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel-B Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 (edited) Sorry to butt in, but regarding ACE, my daughter is attending an ACE school in Pretoria. She is 6 and in Gr 1. The ACE workbooks are quite nice, I have no problem with them.I work for a curriculum developer and I have extensive experience with lower grades (gr 1- 3) myself. I have no experience with the higher grades regarding ACE. I do however still supplement after school, on days when she asks me to school with her. I use my own curriculum from the company I work with, as well as easy peasy that is online and free. From my experience there is not one whole curriculum that would be enough or sufficient for a child. If your goal is to just go through whats subscribed and do no more than pick any official curriculum - it will be fine. If your goal is to do more and go deeper and take the education further then you will have to combine several resources. Use the government outcomes of whichever country you are in to asses your child and make sure that that is covered as a minimum. There are fantastic online resources that are free and priceless!!Now back to ACE: I love that it teaches basic Christian principles in stories and colouring pages. My daughter is learning about the Bible at a rapid pace while learning to read and I love it. We do Bible study at home but you can only spend so many hours a day on reading and teaching. There needs to be time for playing and arts and crafts and exploring the world too, as well as sosialising outside the home/school and activities. Being able to learn about the Bible while you do your curriculum is important (to me). If it is important to you, then its a great benefit.I have seen online that there is quite a large community talking badly about ACE. It put me off as well for a time, I was anxious about where to school my child. I would love to home school her full time but she refuses and wants to go to school. We ended up trying the ACE school due to having no other option (only Eng school in our area), and I am glad we did. After enrollment I realised that my cousins friends matriculated through this ACE school a few years ago. The one is a doctor and the other an attorney. So really, how bad can it be?Stay involved and make sure your child works as it is intended. I don't think a curriculum can be blamed for poor results of students. At my company students vary from failing badly (not many though) to getting almost full marks across the board gr0-12. Same curriculum, very different results. It really depends on parent involvement when you home school.And those who want to home school: good luck! It is a privilege to be able to school your child, and I hope you are blessed by your decision and never look back!! I hope your kids flourish Sorry for babbling, I could write 100 pages on this topic! Edited April 21, 2014 by Mel-B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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