Our school is currently in its last semester of the second year of official operations. It is amazing that this much time has gone by! Our last blog post two years ago before website reconstruction was to announce the formal registration of our very own ‘alternative’ school. We have now run for two years with the support of Abia State Ministry of Education, and seen drastic improvement in our children’s lives.
We have also grown from a start-up staff of 3 teachers and 1 Ed Admin, to a staff of 5 teachers, 1 Education Assistant, 1 Speech and Language (SLP) Assistant, 1 PE Teacher, and 1 Ed Admin and Principal. We also have 1 practicum placement university student and two day a week Nigerian Youth Corper (NYC) volunteers. We have PreK, K, Gr 2A, Gr 2B and Gr3 classes. We have 3 children doing SLP 3x a week, with an additional 2 children starting next year. We have 2 children on either modified or fully modified Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and basically all other children on behaviour/social/emotional adaption IEPs. Both outside school time as well as during classes, various therapeutic interventions are implemented in an on-going basis. Our teachers have staff trainings 1-2x a month, as well as weekly dialogue meetings.
It is for all these reasons that our school is becoming more noted by both the community and state government officials, and namely that our children are positively moving forward in all spheres of their life. The Christmas holiday at starting at the end of the second week of Dec, will mark the close of the 2017 calendar year of Homestead Alternative Academy. We are so excited for the new year of 2018 and the joys and growth it will bring.