Cyprus-Forum.com

[LENA]

Lena, you are totally wrong........the school supports inclusion 100%, I have been there and seen children with disablities playing alongside children non disabled children.

The school asked for donations because the people who set it up used all their own savings to help children with handicaps, which is rare in Cyprus. I understand there is a high number of special qualified staff, to every 5 children, and the owners themselves are voluntary.

Perhaps you should get the facts before you start putting people down as greedy and expensive. I think the school is amazing and they have helped my child big time.

PS......donations always welcome whether you pay a fee or not in any school......Paphos International School hold fundraising days.....I rest my case

Dear Song Bird...as far as I remember I read somewhere in the site that they have children’s classes for special need not that they support inclusion. Also they wrote that they have classes for children (with ages above 6) with handicaps. Why those kids cannot go to a normal school? Inclusion is not separating children according to their abilities but mixing them no matter what eg children with autism or on a weal chair or any kind of «abilities» and not «disabilities» included in a class with my child my neighbors child your child who are considered «normal» not in different classes in the same school. Well 100% inclusion is that. If is that what is happening then I apologize and they need to change the site. I have not visited the school since I was away and it is quite far from where i live.

I am glad that somebody visited the school and tell us what is going on there. I am glad that the schools like that start to have their own space here in Cyprus as well. It was about time people to do that. It is expensive to run such a school pay the stuff and get the equipment. Generally to build a nursery school it is expensive so this kind of school is even more.

I had the honor to visit a school like this one here in Nicosia which according to what I heard it cost a fortune and to run this school is expensive as well. The fees are high but the school has really good reputation from what i heard. So they manage to keep that school alive, I worried about the school in Paphos because according to my friends the Paphian people look for the cheapest and not the best. If only children with handicaps go there....the school will end up being another institution and not a nursery school for inclusion.

By the way I never said that they are greedy. I said that is expensive for Paphos area. I am a nursery teacher and I do know what is going on around my area. You are right I didnt have any ideas about the school and I am not saying that they don’t help those kids or generally that they dont do a good job. As I said from the look that I had from the site looks a good idea and its good that people start caring about those kids.

As for the donation part. Yes donations are welcome in every school not just this one. If you really read what I wrote above you will see that I used to work in a «normal» nursery school and we used to get old toys, old computers and everything that parents didnt need any more. We kept things that we needed in the school and the rest we gave them to organizations for donations. I am sorry if you felt offended but that was not my intention. I am sure that they can get funding from government anyway. I study the laws for this kind of schools and inclusion. I didnt not open my mouth to get fresh air.

By the way I am glad that your kid loves the school and got help from them.

[halil]

Donation for the government schools are looks o.k for me but not for the private schools.İn Northern Cyprus all the private schools has got all the facilities we don't have to pay single penny.but we do for the goverment schools.İn every schools their is a family unions they works with the school adminstations to find out the school needs.they organised lotteries,meal, during this time we do our donations for our schools. may be u can organised kind of parties to get donations and inform the students parents. with this activities u can able to established the tree angle between SCHOOL, STUDENTS and TEACHERS........

[LENA]

Halil such events are organized here as well but this school is quite unique for the Cypriots standards and we were discussing about the inclusion which this is something else.

[song bird]

Hi, yes thank you for your coments, I asked and the school does not get a government grant, they rely totally on the £80 the parents pay per month and fundraising. Your comments on inclusion and ability are interesting, what I meant was all the 2 year olds are together and all the 3 year olds are together when they do group work, however, they all mix and match for many other things.....I think unless you are part of it you can not really comment in the same way, and we are getting confused. The school is private but non profit making at the moment, its all a very interesting story.

[LENA]

Hi, yes thank you for your coments, I asked and the school does not get a government grant, they rely totally on the £80 the parents pay per month and fundraising. Your comments on inclusion and ability are interesting, what I meant was all the 2 year olds are together and all the 3 year olds are together when they do group work, however, they all mix and match for many other things.....I think unless you are part of it you can not really comment in the same way, and we are getting confused. The school is private but non profit making at the moment, its all a very interesting story.

Song bird...why the owners do not apply for funding from the government? Not only they can get money for the school but also might help the children with handicaps to get more attention, money and help from the government. I do know that those kids might need extra classes or afternoon classes or physiotherapy that organizations that are funded by the government help those kids ad families. really if you are interested I might go back to might papers and find the name of the organization and details ... I work in this area few years ago and i really have a bad memory. But I do know for sure that the laws and the organizations do exists.

You are right I am not the right person to judge the school since I didnt see what is really going on in there.

You said that kids are together according to their age when they do group work or other activities but you imply that they are not in the same classes all the time. Is that a fact or I didnt get that right?

You can pm if you want to.

Regards Lena