Hannah's schooling

James and I seem to be having a crash course in French bureaucracy and French law with trying to get Hannah into the international school.  We received a letter last week from the school board saying that Hannah's application was rejected but we could reapply when we had suitable one to one teacher aide.  We thought that I could volunteer as the teacher aide until we found someone so wrote a letter back asking if I could volunteer.  We got another letter back saying that under French law even though IST is a school it is considered a business and under French law it is not possible for someone to volunteer in a school.   Both James and I thought this was rather strange as in NZ we have parent help and volunteers in schools all the time.  We have later found out that in France they do not have any parent helpers ever as the theory  is that if you need to get some to volunteer to do a job you could be employing someone so therefore someone is being done out of a paid job.  I think in NZ if we did away with volunteers in businesses the whole economy would collapse!

At this point we were both getting fed up with email so decided to go and talk to the school.  Basically they said that we need to find a teacher aide, probably through an agency would be easiest then James' work can employ them through that agency and they can work at the school.  This is probably easiest for everyone as that way if the person doesn't work out the agency can replace them.  Also, I was worried about James and I employing someone independently when we have no idea how to do that in France.  At least with an agency they will handle all the taxes etc for us.  It was a good meeting and I feel we are moving forward.  The principal is lovely and I do think if it was up to her she would have Hannah there in a heartbeat but we just have to go through the process that has been set out for us.  We are use to this as in order to get funding for special needs children in NZ you have to also go down all the proper channels.   Apart from socially I don't feel like Hannah is missing out educationally.  The work from the correspondence school is fantastic and she works really well at home and is making progress.  She is such a hard little worker and is a bright wee button especially with her maths and spelling.  Yesterday when we were walking to school I asked her what her favourite part of the morning was Maths, spelling, reading or writing and she said morning tea - so she's just a regular kid really!!

There are still no guarantees she will be accepted into IST but if we find a teacher aide we like and then still get rejected we will use that TA to support Hannah at home.  It would be great if Hannah can go to school even just half days.  We are trying to get 15 hours a week and then hopefully when she's in the school and they realise she doesn't need full time support she can start staying longer.  We just need to get her in the door!!

It is another beautiful day here so I guess our PE lesson will be swimming!!  Hannah has come on so well with her swimming and is swimming lengths now - little superstar!