Hi, my name is Gundula! — Scope | Disability forum
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Hi, my name is Gundula!

Gundula
Gundula Community member Posts: 2 Listener
Hello,
I am a mum in Germany. I have a 13 years old daughter. She has cerebral palsy. She is a triplet girl and has had a brain blooding during the pregnancy. Now she is visiting a grammar school with her sister. As they came home today, she asked me, if she will be able to take part in the pupils exchange programm and if the school or we will find a host family for her. So I had no idea and was searching in the www for schools in Britain which educate handicaped and not handicaped children together and may be looking for exchange host families, too. But I did not find any. May be I haven't had the right key words. But I find this site. Maybe there would be someone who could help? Lisa use a wheelchair but is able to do stairs, if someone is going by her side. We live on the first floor. She needs some help with dressing, espacilly with her ortheses and her boots. She loves laughing and being together with other children. Thanks a lot Gundula

Comments

  • RubyNatasha
    RubyNatasha Community member Posts: 3 Listener
    Hi Gundula, it's just a thought but have you thought of contacting schools directly many schools in the UK support children with additional needs and most schools should say on their website what there SEND practice is Special Educational Needs are dealt with by this panel or you could speak to a schools SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) who can advise you. If you speak to the organisers of the trip you may find that they have supportive provisions from her school who would assists? I am from Bath and I find that it can be a bit of a nightmare chasing these things.. Particularly from abroad. I don't know if that helps at all? Ruby
  • Gundula
    Gundula Community member Posts: 2 Listener
    Hi Ruby, thanks a lot for your helping information. You gave me a lot information where I can start to ask. It is really difficult from abroad and the next thing is, it is difficult, because I don't know how schools are organized in Britain. So your information are in many ways helpful.
    In Germany, espacially in this part where we live, Lisa is one of the first handicaped children, which are allowed to go to a normal public school with other not-handicaped children. So the teachers have no knowledge, how to organize an exchange with her, like we, too. The exchange should be in two years, the girls told me. I don`t know why they were talking about this point last week. May be they talked about the class trip which they will start in September in our area, and then they were talking about the other trips who may come in the next years.
    So you live in Bath. It is a beautiful town, I like the buildings with these bright stones. We visited England two years ago and stayed on a farm in the New Forest for three weeks. It was so wonderful and amazing. I showed our children all the villages and little towns where I was as pupil or later as student. A lot of mornings the children were moaning, but when they saw the villages, the castles or whatever we visited, they were excited. And I infected them with the "England Virus". So I live in Dresden since 14 years. It is also a nice city with beautiful buildings, even if it is sometimes difficult to live here, since the pegida demonstrations began.
    Again, thank you very much, Ruby.
    Whole-hearted Gundula

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