County School Visit

Tim and I along with Leah and Quinn left early Friday morning for the County from Toronto. We arrived under a deluge of rain and gray skys at Quinn's soon-to-be school. We walk into the small school and turn into the office where we see the big white board with the important news and up coming events on it. There right in the middle in Bright orange marker is "Friday Oct 20th - Quinn's visit". The secretary and principal and Quinn's soon-to-be teacher rush to greet us and tell us all about the school.

It's in the middle of lunch hour with an indoor recess because of the rain so it was a bit noisy and the principal (we got to call her Pooky!) kept appologizing since they've had 4 days straight of indoor recess because of the lousy weather. It really wasn't that noisy, I've heard way worse at Dovercourt in a lunchroom with the kids.

Quinn got a book from his teacher with all the pictures of all the kids in his class with their favourite things listed and a bit about how many people are in their families. Then his teacher introduced him to the class and showed him where he will sit and had a girl stand up and tell Quinn that she had moved here also from Toronto. Then she had a girl named Lucy stand up and say hi because her grandma and Quinn's grandma are friends and know each other.

We then left for Leah's school 5 minutes further down the road. Quinn was clutching his book and looking for Lucy's picture and asked for a pen or pencil, or anything quick! He quietly wrote his name and put a heart with a happy face and an arrow pointing to Lucy in the picture. He showed us and told Leah not to tease him but he loved Lucy.

Leah's teacher was away but she got to see her class and check out the kids and see the HUGE computer lab. There is one brand new computer for each kid when a class goes in to use the lab.

Quinn's class is SK grade 1 split with 22 kids and every other day when the SK's aren't there, there are only 18 kids. Leah's class is a grade 4 and 5 split with 22 kids in it. Nice class size or what!

In the 20 minutes that we spent at each school the secretaries and principal and even the special needs teacher had double checked on the special FM system and phonic ear that Leah needs for her Auditory Processing Disorder. They are hoping to maybe even have the classroom wired and set up for when Leah arrives. This is completely shocking for us! Toronto school board told me it would take a couple of years probably to get this system for Leah. Too expensive, not a strong enough need, she isn't hearing impaired, blah blah blah.

Pooky kept saying we will do our best but no promises but the secretary Brenda just laughed and rolled her eyes and said don't worry we'll get it all set up. Pooky said the school board would of course have to approve the expensive of the system so that's why they can't promise anything.

We shall see what happens but I'm certainly more hopeful at this school then I ever was in the Toronto Board. Like I told Pooky and Brenda "you've done more for us in the last 20 minutes than the Toronto School Board has in 6 yrs".

Wahoo! I love the County!! The kids seem like they are happy with what is to come now and Quinn seems less frantic about what the new school will be like so all in all a good trip.