Sophie2007

Hi!
My husband has been offered a great job in Wellington and after a lot of agonising we have decided to go for it. Our 4 year old has a language delay and I'm wondering what additional educational support is available in Wellington primary schools for non residents and whether this may effect our chances of perminant residency in the future? Any experience or advice from families who have made the move in similar circumstances would be greatly appreciated! Thank you 😊

BEVS

Much will depend on the level of support your child may need.
What does the consultant state regarding educational development.

MrsFychan

Help for students is down to individual schools who assess the need for a child and decide if the school will apply for help for that student.
Its all very hit and miss and down to the individual school - I know of a Head that did not believe that dyslexia was a real condition so any children at the school with it never got any help.

You would need to check if international students are covered - if that is going to be your child status to enrol, and then find a school that would actually apply for help or have the help in place.
If you do find a school that may help I would suggest you try to speak to any parents who have children at the school that has assistance and see how their experience has been. My understanding is that there are a number of agencies that need to be involved with the school for funding.

MOSO

Not true, some children enter school with support and funding already in place from either their Kindy, their pre-school checks or through the parents having taken them to see the GP/paediatrician or through their medical backgrounds. Teacher aides are usually allocated to individual children and their hours depend on funding allocations. You can also access SPELD for dyslexia testing and educational psychologists as required - but it all comes at a cost (no NHS here!). As your child is 4, and won't start school until they're 5, make sure you find and discuss this with a GP as soon as you get here. The highest level of funding is through ORS. You can check out the funding criteria here: https://www.education.govt.nz/school...education/ors/

Each school will have a teacher who has the responsibility of being a SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) and they can guide you through the process and get speech therapists or other professionals or funding in place. It would be worth chatting with the SENCO when you look at schools in order to make them aware of the situation and to help you. It can be quicker to go straight through your GP as there are waiting lists, and sometimes schools are limited in the help they can give before child is 6.

BEVS

Stop. Just stop.

This person is not NZ resident.

I could write a WHOLE LOT about dyslexia in NZ & the absurdities but that muddies the waters for this family.

I love your lovely posts MOSO but I have to challenge this. It is not altogether the case. Perhaps where you are but not everywhere.

I've done teachers aide . It is very hit and miss. My thing is dyslexia, autism, asperger. I do know my stuff on this. The school thought that would be fine for Downs Syndrome. "Special Needs" - same umbrella. * Give me strength* .

Really. If we are to be responsible , this family need to look long and hard and carefully.

Best start is that one knows what the UK educational physiologist consultant has to say.

The one thing I will agree is that one needs to know what funding there is for a particular school. Jacks of all trades are not good for kids with individual needs. Parents turned teachers aides are not good for children with individual needs.

Clag

Hi Sophie,

I can't help with the question itself I'm afraid, but I am happy to provide you with a friendly face when you arrive message me for contact details if you like

MrsFychan

Not from my experience, I know a child that was fully funded in Kindy but the school refused to get funding for him when he started and took the parent 2 years to get 15 hours support. The teachers aid was also not funded to the child and was shared around with other children in the school and the parent was told that the teachers aid was just that, aid for the teacher. This has again has been given to me in the last month that teacher aids are there for the teacher not necessarily the aid and that was from another school than the first one with another child. I won't go into details on what was explained to me on this second child but if they was mine I, again, would be contacting the Education Minister to lay complaints.

As I say the OP will need to check every schools stance on special needs funding and then speak to any parents with children receiving it.

Sophie2007

Thank you all for your replies. Very interesting to read your different experiences. Our daughter is going to be assessed again by an Educational Psycologist before we leave so hopefully we will have clearer idea then. We deferred her out of cohort here in the UK as she is July born and was nowhere near ready to start school at just 4 😞 It's great that kids start later in NZ. I'm waiting for a reply from Ministry of Education re what we are entitled to on a work to residents visa/students visas. We are paying for our daughter to have private language therapy here anyway due to the long NHS waiting lists. She is meant to receive funding at her pre school but they are still yet to receive it! So the only support we are currently receiving is our private Speech and Language Therapist who has been fantastic. It's sad you get what you pay for here... especially if your child is not severe but still in need of help 😞

MrsFychan

you will find you will be saying that a lot once here

BEVS

For the purposes of visas and possible NZ residency what this chap states in his/her report will be very important.

What is the current thoughts on her educational development. I don't ask to be nosy. I ask ref. NZI policies.


Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean for NZ? It doesn't really work like that here - plus - take a care. NZ is a bit canny about costs.

Someone else may have more knowledge but I would suspect that you would still be paying privately. Yours will be a balancing act.

In old fashioned UK terms - has your daughter been 'statemented for special needs ' then please?

BEVS

OK. I hope not to alarm or dampen but I shall quote a part of the NZ Immigration Operations Manual regarding ORS (click link) which I believe may well be relevant .

In simple terms ORS is about funding & support for those with education needs.

As an aside I will say that teachers aides at a school local to me is funded by donations. Those aides are, in the main , parents taking up part time work . They may receive bits and bobs of training but will not have attained quals for educational support work before taking up the part time post. ( i.e. - dyslexia was treated as worth just a 2 hour power point presentation)


Please note that visas are granted case by case. Both parents may have their visas approved but the child with Ed Needs has their visa rejected.

Sophie2007

Thank you again for your replies. Our daughter was assessed 4 months ago as having mild to moderate difficulties with her learning however has progressed greatly since this (the assessment didn't truly refect her abilities as she was poorly and also rather uncooperative!!). Our speech and language therapist feels she has only a language delay mainly receptive. I don't feel she would qualify for ORS from what I can see. Thank you for the link 😊 We would be prepared to fund her ongoing Language Therapy in NZ.

We keep agonising over this huge decision to move and although we at times feel like throwing in the towel, something keeps telling us it is the right decision...I guess I need to start another thread 😁 Thanks again everyone. Hope life in NZ is working out for you!

BEVS

Morning Sophie.

I just want you guys to be prepared.
Your daughter's language/educational development delay would have to be declared to NZ Immigration.
The NZ Immigration officer would require the consultants/ed.psych reports and prognosis. Likely the case would go to an NZ Immigration Assessor.

It isn't so much whether you feel your daughter would or would not qualify for ORS. It is whether the NZ Assessor flagged there could be a possibility she would cost the NZ Ed system money. It would be up to them as to whether it was felt she passed the requirement or not so line those ducks up.

BEVS

For some reason the sys is not allowing me to edit my post.


I wish to be clear that whether you guys are able to privately fund ongoing therapy here in NZ has no bearing on her visa application.

It will be about the consultants report & evaluation.