#49 - Student Voice - Claire & Althea’s Lived Experience

Host Leisa Reichelt is joined by  18-year-old Althea and her mum, Claire to talk about about Althea’s School Can’t experience through high school in Melbourne. 

After early positive years at school COVID stuck, meaning much of Years 7–8 were done on Zoom, disrupting connection and engagement with school. By Years 9–10 sensory overwhelm was escalating but getting accommodations involved battles, meanwhile academic pressures and worsening mental health led made it harder and harder for Althea to attend school. 

Following ADHD and autism diagnoses, Althea and Claire explored alternatives and ultimately were able to do homeschooling with a part-time (dual) enrolment so Althea could continue VCE Outdoor Ed and stay connected to friends and meaningful roles like library volunteering. Working with educational therapy and towards the Big Picture learning credential, Althea pursued interest-based learning, fundraising, conferences, and career exploration, and has now started TAFE study in Allied Health Assistance. 

This is a hopeful story that shows how by finding the right path rather than just pushing on with mainstream approaches, our young people can overcome extremely difficult experiences and go on to thrive.

People & resources mentioned in this episode:

• Althea’s Macquarie Island Conference Presentation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hpMILLuykU
• U&I Educational Therapy - https://www.uandi.com.au/educationaltherapy
• Mitagundi Outdoor Education Centre - https://www.mittagundi.org.au/
• Wollangarra Outdoor Education Centre  - https://wollangarra.org/
• Big Picture Australia - https://www.bigpicture.org.au/
• Big Picture International Learning Credential - https://www.bigpicture.org.au/what-international-big-picture-learning-credential

Transcript

Leisa Reichelt 0:05

Hello and welcome to the School Can't Experience Podcast. I'm Leisa Reichelt, and this podcast is brought to you by the School Can't Australia community. Caring for a young person who's struggling to attend school can be a stressful and isolating experience, but you are not alone. Thousands of parents across Australia and many more around the world face similar challenges and experiences every day. Today we have a Student Voice episode, which I totally love and I know you will too. We are gonna be talking to 18-year-old Althea and her mom, Claire, about their School Can't journey over the past few years and how they have emerged triumphantly out at the other end having carved their own path through it. It is such a delight to hear young people talk about their School Can't experience in their own words, and I'm sure you're going to love this conversation. Claire, Althea. Thank you so much for joining us to tell your story on our School Can't Experience podcast today. let's start by getting to know you a little bit. Tell us about who you are, where you are, your family, what do we need to know about you?

Althea 1:08

So I'm 18. My name's Althea. I use she/her pronouns. I'm autistic and I've got ADHD. I currently live in Melbourne with my family. I have my mum who's here and my dad and my two younger siblings, who can be very annoying, but also very nice. Depends on the day. I've been a girl guide for 10 years now, and I do a lot of hiking and outdoor education stuff.

Leisa Reichelt 1:34

Althea, how long have you known that you're autistic?

Althea 1:36

Well I found out, beginning of year 10 and that would've

Claire 1:40

Yeah, I was gonna say year 10, so like 15.

Althea 1:42

so that was, hold on. beginning of 2023. So it's been almost exactly three years.

Leisa Reichelt 1:50

Claire, tell us about you.

Claire 1:51

I dunno. I'm a mum of three. lovely but sparkly kids. We live in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and, Althea is not our only School Can't child. We are just doing the best we can.

Leisa Reichelt 2:06

What do you do to sort of refill your cup?

Claire 2:09

I do quite a lot of craft stuff. I enjoy seeing my friends. I go to the gym. I try and, do things that fill my cup. I had three kids that are really poor sleepers. so, I'm still recovering from 10 years of sleep deprivation. Yeah, and I also do really like the outdoors and I was involved in guides and scouts as a child and I did a lot of hiking and travel in my twenties, But, yeah, I guess I'm really enjoying seeing Althea discover the outdoors and do all those sort of adventurous, fun stuff that I used to love as well.

Leisa Reichelt 2:40

Let's if we can find roughly where the beginning of this whole School Can't journey starts.

Althea 2:46

I just want to give a little background to my school journey. So, I did, prep and half of grade one here, in Melbourne. And then we moved to Seattle, or near Seattle for my dad's job when I was six. So I did grades two and three at one school there. And then I got switched to another school and I did grades four and five there. And then we moved back to Australia and I had half of grade five again, so I'd be in the same year level. And then continued on from there.

Claire 3:16

And then she was a year seven in 2020.

Althea 3:18

Yep.

Claire 3:19

and of course we're in suburban Melbourne, so, she did so much online school in year seven and eight. There was no year seven camp or year eight camps. There was no musicals. There was none of that stuff to really pull you in. And it was learning at home. And I would say that's where things really started to fall apart. Because, we were trying to essentially online school three kids who were struggling. I had one who was in prep who couldn't read and needed a lot of support. I had two other kids that found it really difficult. I was trying to keep my job. My husband was trying to keep his job all at a very small house, and it was horrible. And it was not at all engaging. So year seven and eight were struggle town,

Althea 4:00

Yeah.

Claire 4:00

I think we sort of thought that that was the conditions. But, the struggle kind of continued in year nine.

Leisa Reichelt 4:08

Before we get into year nine, like if you

Claire 4:10

yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 4:11

in retrospect, were there any clues at all? Like Althea, did you enjoy school up until year seven?

Althea 4:17

I did. Yeah, so I, I always felt a bit different especially in America because I was like the Australian kid. And I had people ask me, do you ride kangaroos to school? And I unfortunately said no, because I was like, I have to tell the truth. But I wish I had lied to them thinking back on it now, would've been so much fun. And then I also kind of, so we lived on this small island, or actually quite big island had three primary schools and then they had such a big population that they built a fourth one. And when they built the fourth one, they transferred everyone to their closest primary school. This was why I switched schools halfway through because there wasn't actually any places available in the one that was closest to us, when we moved there. And then they moved us back. So they moved us around. I remember quite liking, school in the US. I remember feeling a bit different, but I always chalk it down to like, I'm Australian. These kids have been together since prep and I haven't been there. And then we moved back, and I was in grade five and everyone recognized me because I went back to the same primary school I started at. And I didn't recognize them very much, but, I immediately became friends with, like very quickly became friends with this girl, who's still my best friend to this day. And then year six was, I think probably my best year of schooling ever.

Leisa Reichelt 5:29

Wow.

Althea 5:30

So I had, I had a great teacher. It was his first year there. He was amazing. I had all my friends in the same class. There was like six of us and we had this table that was just us and it was a grade five, six composite class. And they taught the same curriculum for both grade five and grade six. So I'd done half of it already. But they'd introduced a bunch of new things this year. So it meant that there were some things that I was used to and were very easy for me. And then there was a bunch of new exciting things. Like they did this whole inquiry project where we had to make video games And then everything else that wasn't new and exciting was kind of what I was already used to. So it was, it

Leisa Reichelt 6:04

Yeah.

Althea 6:04

it was a really great year.

Leisa Reichelt 6:05

When you think about that teacher, you said he was amazing. Why, what made him amazing?

Althea 6:10

I can, can I call him by his name?'cause I feel like it's not that. it's a pretty common name.

Leisa Reichelt 6:14

Well, it sounds like you're gonna say good things about him too, so I think, yeah, if you want,

Althea 6:18

His name's Mr. Smith. And he's actually left the school now, he's moved somewhere else, very sadly. But it was his first year at the school. and we were all like new teacher's, gonna be a bit weird, but he was just so welcoming to everyone and he made up all these fun games. And one of the things I remember is we did, like a mock like law court and he let us put him in contempt of court. And he let us do all these crazy things. Like he was very like, you know, we still have to do work. We still have to do everything. But he let us, we had like a class mailbox and people could write letters that he would read out and we had all these really fun things and he just made it so much fun.

Claire 6:54

I think we've definitely learned this with our other child as well, that a teacher can make or break a child's school experience and a good teacher just naturally gives accommodations, naturally connects with kids. And all those things are so protective of the kids being able to do school in that environment. And in some ways you have no control over who your kid's gonna get and the experience they're gonna have. So, some years can be fabulous and some years can be terrible.

Leisa Reichelt 7:21

It's like a lottery really, isn't it?

Claire 7:23

Yeah, it really is, the teacher just makes or breaks the school experience for kids. And if you get a neuro affirming teacher, they just, it's fantastic.

Althea 7:31

And you can, like, never tell who's gonna be neuro affirming and who's not, because there's some people who are naturally supportive of everyone, and some people who just have that internalized, ableism where they don't want to, they want everyone to be doing the same thing, if that makes sense.

Claire 7:46

The connection, it's so protective. It sort of enables learning, and if you don't have that,

Leisa Reichelt 7:51

yeah,

Claire 7:52

it doesn't work.

Leisa Reichelt 7:52

from the wonderful Mr. Smith into year seven lockdown Zoom land. What a contrast.

Althea 8:00

So I was set up at a camping table in the lounge room, and my siblings were at the kitchen table, in the family room. I was immediately very jealous of my siblings because I would've just started high school. In primary schools you have one teacher. And the way that my high schools did it the way most high schools did it, you still to attend every single class. They were just online now. My siblings, however, had like a, here's some tasks, do some tasks, then you're done. And they finished by, like, twelve. And also mum was having to help them'cause my sister was in prep, so she couldn't read yet. Struggling. My brother was also struggling. And so I was kind of left to my own devices. Also because I had a lot of guidance from my teachers and like, here's what you're meant to be doing. But I really struggled to focus. And I really struggled to enjoy it. I think it was, do you remember when it was in year seven, mum, got put on that reduced learning plan. I can't remember

Claire 8:54

Yeah, we, we requested a reduced learning plan'cause she just couldn't do it. And they did do that, but it didn't really fix the problem of the lack of connection. And also I think the problem was she just started year seven, so she hadn't really made a connection with any of the teachers or any of the classes. Like it happened in March. and there just wasn't that chance to build connection to the school.

Althea 9:16

Yeah, I had on the reduced learning plan, I had three classes. I had English, Maths, and then I had to choose one of Science and Humanities. I chose Humanities because I remember when we went back to school, the school basically kind of just chucked me in the deep end with my classes. They just kind of chucked me back into science. They were in the middle of a topic that I hadn't studied any of.'cause I was on the reduced learning plan. and they were just like, here, join the class, do all the things. And I was like, I have no idea what to do.

Leisa Reichelt 9:42

So you said, Claire, that you thought this was probably just circumstantial and once we get back to school

Claire 9:48

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 9:48

proper, it would all be fine.

Claire 9:51

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 9:51

But I'm guessing that's not what happened.

Althea 9:54

I think in a sense it was definitely better when I was at school. Once I got back to actual school, I definitely think I struggled a lot less.

Claire 10:00

Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, and she did, you know, look, I'm not here to bag this school. They did try and, you know, in year nine she did a term at the School for Student Leadership Alpine School, where she was away from home for nine weeks, playing and doing a lot of outdoor ed stuff, which was both hard and good, and the school gave her that opportunity. But I think by the end of year nine, beginning of year 10, it was really starting to get hard and of course, Althea didn't have a diagnosis. She didn't have any additional support.

Althea 10:32

I had an ADHD diagnosis at that point. I remember I got about halfway through year nine because I remember going to Alpine School and asking for support because I was struggling and then being like, well, do you have a diagnosis? And I was like, I'm getting one.

Leisa Reichelt 10:44

What was it that was towards getting the ADHD diagnosis?

Althea 10:48

I think, at least from my point of view, my dad had been diagnosed with ADHD and we kind of went like Althea very similarly to her dad. I wonder if there's a reason behind that.

Claire 11:01

I think it was definitely a cascade in our family because the thing is what's normal for your family is normal for you. You don't know that that's different. It's not until you're put in a situation that's very challenging that you start to realize that perhaps what's normal for you is not normal for everyone.

Althea 11:16

Yep.

Claire 11:17

But I think like when school started getting harder for Althea, in year nine and 10, we started trying to find out why she was struggling and why it was so hard. And it's where the school started to push back because I think they'd seen her as a normal kid who could cope with normal stuff and they didn't understand why she needed any accommodations and things like, she was beginning to find the noise. And it's a very large public school and it has like very noisy, crowded corridors, and so the sensory environment is very difficult. Althea wanted to wear ear defenders, like, not even headphones, just like literally ear muffs. And the school said no. So we went and got like a OT report and a sensory assessment, and then they were like, oh, well I guess maybe, but we'll write to all the teachers and say that

Althea 12:03

Like

Claire 12:04

they can decide,

Althea 12:05

Yeah.

Claire 12:06

you know, when it's appropriate and when it's not. And it just, everything was like such a fight.

Althea 12:11

Hmm.

Leisa Reichelt 12:11

If you go back to that time, Althea, where things were getting really difficult. What was it like to live a day as you, like, you'd wake up in the morning and

Althea 12:19

Here's the thing is all my friends were at school I had classes and teachers that I really liked and I had extracurriculars that I really liked. So I looked forward to going to school, but I also was so scared of being like, not allowed to wear my earmuffs and of being told like, you can't wear those. And by the way, they were bright yellow. Like they looked like the kind of thing tradies would wear. But, I'd go to school and people would tell me, like, teachers would tell me random teachers who didn't know me, who didn't know my accommodations and my needs would go, like, you can't wear headphones. Like you can't listen to music. Other students are gonna get distracted

Leisa Reichelt 12:54

gonna wanna listen to their music as well.

Althea 12:56

like they don't look like headphones. And even if they were, if some student went, Hey, why does Althea get to listen to music? The teacher could just say, well, Althea needs those like to cope.

Leisa Reichelt 13:07

Hmm.

Althea 13:07

I had some teachers who were really lovely about it. I have one teacher as my English teacher that year. She was amazing. I think she got the email from the head of year nine at that point and just kind of ignored it. And she was like, Althea can just wear her headphones. And she told me this at the end of the year and she told me that she'd seen that I needed them and she just kind of ignored whatever that teacher sent her way because this year nine head of support teacher, she was, the main person we had to fight for a lot of this. And so I had some teachers who would tell me not to wear them. And I was really struggling and it was like the locker rooms were insane. It's this big open classroom with like 200 kids in it at once and they were all talking really loudly and I could not cope. And it was like, I remember like we didn't have a sensory room at that point in the school. we had a kind of one for a little bit in year 10, and then it got requisitioned to being in office, so

Leisa Reichelt 13:57

I would love if you can like dig more into this quandary of your friends are at school. There's a lot of stuff that you wanna do at school, but,'cause I think this is something that people don't understand

Althea 14:09

Mm-hmm.

Leisa Reichelt 14:09

when they see kids who are struggling and who are like, no, I can't do it. They're just like, oh, that kid doesn't wanna go to school. But this dichotomy between like really wanting to be there but also finding it like incredibly difficult and overwhelming. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that feels?

Althea 14:26

It was so stressful and I was exhausted every day I'd come home, I'd be so exhausted, I really wanted to be there. I wanted to be with my friends. I wanted to see everyone. I wanted to do all the work. And I'd also put a lot of pressure on myself, at least to get onto a certain level academically. And so like, I didn't wanna fall behind. I didn't want to, I was, but it's just like I would literally run away from this teacher if I was wearing my headphones. I would ask my friends to look around a corner and see if she was there. Like, it was really stressful. And I'm so lucky that I had my friends who, despite not really understanding exactly what I was going through, supported me. And also I was a very outspoken kid. Like, I was loud, I've always been loud. It's the ADHD. I've always been very outspoken. Teachers know me as outspoken. I did the shows, I did the musicals. I did all these clubs. But outside of those things that I actually enjoyed, I was so quiet and I hadn't been up until that point, but I was like receding into my shell. Like, I didn't wanna raise my hand in class. I didn't want to draw attention to myself in case people would ask me to take off my headphones. it was so stressful and so exhausting. Just being at school, and like I enjoyed all of the other things. I enjoyed the extracurriculars and the school play and the clubs and stuff, but I didn't enjoy like the classroom learning

Leisa Reichelt 15:44

Say more about that. What was it about the classroom learning that was challenging?

Althea 15:49

I liked most of the learning. it was, there was so much energy going into processing all of the noise. And working so hard to be seen as normal and to, get to this certain level of my grades and stuff that I wasn't really enjoying it. We were learning about fun things and I had moments where I really enjoyed the learning. Where I got those moments that I remember were moments where I got to kind of make it my own, like where me and my best friend, instead of writing an essay about Greek and Roman mythology, got to do a short play on it and write our own play and do costumes, things and that like we kind of got to make it our own and that was really fun. But the kind of like really structured learning really didn't work for me.

Leisa Reichelt 16:32

Yeah, that makes tons of sense. Claire, what were you observing at this time?

Claire 16:38

Yeah, I would say that all the stress of school was having a mental health flow on by this point, and that was really hard. And it was really hard to see Althea so distressed and so struggling. And, I really didn't know what to do about it. But there were parts of school that were working and, you know, school's a community and she had a great group of friends. Unfortunately, the school decided to separate her from her home group friends in year 10, even though we, you know, got psychologist letters and all the stuff to say these kids are providing a heap of informal supports to Althea. And, you know, her best friend kept her on track with homework. But the school decided to split her up at year 10. And, they did some really stupid stuff like Outdoor Ed's, her special interests, and she loves it. And they put her in an Outdoor Ed class that only had one other girl in it. All the rest were boys. and that girl didn't like Althea very much and let that be known. And then Althea didn't feel comfortable going hiking and camping without any social support. So, there was just a whole bunch of things that kind of, I just wish could have been better. That could have been better.

Leisa Reichelt 17:39

Was that just thoughtlessness and lack of consideration?

Claire 17:42

I just don't think they think about it in terms of accommodations and disability support. I think schools are just very structured places and what Althea was saying was that she likes it when it's flexible and she can make it her own. And that level of choice and control is really, as we have discovered through our journey, really important to her. And I just don't know that schools can even offer that. Like that's why the individualized learning has worked so well for her.'cause she does have choice. She does have control. She can follow her passions. That sort of structured, you're gonna learn this today and you're gonna learn this tomorrow and we're gonna do it in exactly this way. I think just didn't end up not working for her. No.

Leisa Reichelt 18:17

Yeah. And how was Althea at home during this time?

Claire 18:21

Really sad. It had a flow on effect, you know, things like Guides, which she loved when she was so sad and so struggling, so exhausted from school then she was not able to do the other things that she really liked. So, I mean, she was seeing a psychologist and we got support for her, but it's a really hard road to try and get yourself out of that hole once you are in there. And so it was really hard. Of course it was really hard.

Leisa Reichelt 18:44

Yeah. And year nine is a notoriously tough year as well,

Althea 18:47

well that actually wasn't the worst of it. Year 10 was definitely my worst year.

Claire 18:51

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 18:52

Let's get into year 10. Talk us through it.

Althea 18:54

Well, so to start with, everyone tells you that the jump from year eight to year nine and year 10 to year 11 is the worst two jumps. Those are the, like, the biggest change. That, at least for me was not true. It was year nine to year, 10. Because you kinda go into that pre like high school certificate phase.

Leisa Reichelt 19:12

Final exam type situation.

Althea 19:13

So instead of doing like, you know, math, you're doing pre methods, pre general. and so the workload was just so much more. But something did happen in year attendance. I started VCE Outdoor Ed.. I did it early entry and I loved that right off the bat. I had a class of eight people, even gender split with my two closest friends in it. And a great teacher and I loved it. But in almost every other respect I was struggling.

Leisa Reichelt 19:38

Is that like a more advanced class?

Althea 19:40

it was outdoor ed, it was early entry.

Leisa Reichelt 19:42

Oh, outdoor ed. Okay, cool. but it's at the VCE level, so it's like more senior.

Althea 19:47

It was outdoor environmental studies. it was an amazing class. And I loved that class. And even though some things are hard with it, like taking so many notes and doing exams, I wanted to do it. I wanted to put that effort in to get a good score in that class. I really just didn't really care about any other classes. Like I wanted to, I did care, but like, I just, I didn't have the energy and like, maths was the worst.'cause I was in Pre-Methods it was just like, they went through everything so fast and there was no time to explain it properly. And so I didn't understand it and I was kind of like guessing. It was so hard. And so I got moved from Pre Methods to Pre General and then, I think we pulled maths entirely about halfway through the year Continuously through the year, I just kept taking out more and more classes and I was doing less and less.

Leisa Reichelt 20:35

And my sense is that you're an intelligent woman who sees themself that way as well. So that must have been very challenging for that to be happening to you.

Althea 20:45

I didn't like feeling like I was dumb. Like I was stupid, but I just, I wasn't coping. And it was around this time when I was struggling so much, that we started looking at alternative methods of schooling.

Leisa Reichelt 21:02

Were you're still going to school most days when this was going on?

Althea 21:06

I was trying, but I had a lot of days where I just couldn't go. And I had to take a lot of mental health days, and my attendance during that year was shit.

Leisa Reichelt 21:15

What do you reckon it was like percentage wise? What would your guess be?

Althea 21:20

Well, for Outdoor Ed, it was like, 95%, for everything else, 40%

Leisa Reichelt 21:27

Yeah.

Althea 21:28

maybe. Like, it was not good. It would be this whole cycle of like, I'd be in class and I get super stressed because I felt like I was behind. And so like, I just couldn't do it. And I wouldn't go to class the next day because I just couldn't focus and I couldn't get it done. And then I would come back to class and I would have missed stuff. So I was so stressed. I would get even more stressed that I'd miss stuff and I was even more behind. it would just be this whole awful cycle.

Leisa Reichelt 21:51

must have felt very hopeless.

Althea 21:53

it really did. That was probably the darkest place I've been in my whole life.

Leisa Reichelt 21:59

What were you thinking about yourself and your future then?

Althea 22:03

I had no idea what my future would look like. I couldn't even really think about it. I couldn't even picture it because I was just so caught up in the now and everything's so stressful, and I just need to kind of take my brain away. Like not think about, I need to think about other things. I need to read books. I need to like, watch tV shows and just not think about my own life and how shit it feels right now. Can shit?

Leisa Reichelt 22:24

Yeah, go ahead. That's fine.

Althea 22:27

Sorry. I don't wanna swear if you don't want

Leisa Reichelt 22:28

I have no dramas with it. You're good.

Althea 22:31

But yeah, I had such bad mental health. I had the most meltdowns I've ever had in my life. I was having one like a week and it was not good.

Leisa Reichelt 22:40

Are you comfortable to talk about what a meltdown looks like for you?

Althea 22:44

Um, yeah, I can talk about that. In the most general terms a meltdown for me will often look like I will like, so usually like flapping my hands like this, I'll get super stressed. usually it's a small thing. it's that the stress of been building and building and building, and then something small happens and then it'll just break the camels back. Like, I remember once I'd been super stressed, I'd had a really stressful week and I'd come back and I was like, I'm feeling sweaty. I'm gonna take a shower. And then my dad was in the shower and he was like halfway through the shower. He'd be out in five minutes, but I'd planned to have a shower, like right then. I hadn't told anyone, but I planned to have a shower right then, and that just like completely

Leisa Reichelt 23:19

Ruined everything.

Althea 23:20

Everything took me out of it. And so I usually end up sitting on the floor in a chair and I'm like rocking back and forth. Like often I scratch my nails at my leg or like hit myself. That's the most common one. And often I'm repeating like a word over and over again. Sometimes it's like, stop, or It's mum or it's no stuff that.

Leisa Reichelt 23:40

Have you done this a lot through your life, or is this something that came up when you're dealing with this stress at school?

Althea 23:46

I think it started looking more like that specifically around this time, but I'd have to ask mum about that, whether I've had kind of similar instances before that.

Claire 23:56

I think the first that you're in such a dark place, definitely brought it up more. I'd say that, you've always been a sensitive and emotional person. But I think we just all thought big emotions were a normal part of life and you just deal with them. so yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 24:13

Okay, so we're in year 10. Things are looking pretty grim. Meltdowns are increasing. Have you been identified as autistic at this stage or is that,

Althea 24:23

it was early year 10.

Leisa Reichelt 24:26

How did that land with you, Althea?

Althea 24:31

I kind of felt relieved. I think the ADHD diagnosis, I don't really remember how I felt about that. But I remember with the autism diagnosis, one of my younger siblings got diagnosed autistic before me, and I felt that I was so different from them that like, I couldn't be autistic. I was like, but also I felt like maybe it was like I was very uming and arring about it, and I was like, I don't know. I don't know. And then I got the diagnosis and I was like, oh, I actually am that, like that actually is me. Once I got diagnosed, I started looking into the more female presentation of autism. that really helped.

Leisa Reichelt 25:03

Okay, so we're in this like very difficult place with school. School is not necessarily being hundred percent helpful. Maybe despite trying, what do we do? What happens next?

Althea 25:20

Well, we toured a bunch of different schools.

Claire 25:22

Yeah, we looked into, alternative schools, and we visited a few, Althea even did a trial day at one. But I think the problem was our closest sort of alternative school didn't have a place for her in year 10, which was when she really needed it. And frankly, Althea didn't wanna leave her Outdoor Ed class and she didn't wanna leave her friends. And, you know, she was volunteering at the library, which she really loved. And so there was a lot of things keeping her at school, but the learning wasn't working. So we were definitely looking at a lot of alternatives. We couldn't find something that was a really good fit. At that point we started looking at homeschooling. And in the end what we decided to fight for was a dual enrollment. I know a lot about education policy now. So in Victoria we have a policy where government schools must consider a part-time enrollment for homeschooled children. Not that they must guarantee it, but they must consider it. And so we asked the school for part-time enrollment so that she could finish off her Outdoor Ed subject in year 11 at the school.

Althea 26:18

And they said no.

Claire 26:20

Yes. Anyway, so then I appealed that to the Department of Education Disability Unit, and then eventually the school said yes. So apparently that policy only applies from foundation to year 10, but they did grant it for year 11 and 12. And we are very grateful. So, we've registered our year for homeschooling. We made up a plan.

Leisa Reichelt 26:37

This sounds like a lot of work for you. you are also doing full-time work and parenting three kids

Claire 26:44

yeah, I work part-time and yes, I'm parenting kids. But you know, it was worth it. We couldn't keep doing something that wasn't working. We couldn't keep doing something that was making Althea so unhappy. She needed something else and we had to find it. I mean, yes, it was a lot, but it sort of in some ways relieved the pressure that we weren't still trying to do the same stuff that we've been doing before. We weren't trying to fight the same fights all over again. And in some ways it was exciting. We were gonna make up a new program. We were gonna do stuff that actually worked for Althea and You focus on her interests. And, we did have some support. Althea's psychologist recommended U&I who do educational therapy and they do a Big Picture learning credential for their older students. And so Althea had a session with an educational therapist once a week who oversaw part of her education. The thing is, with homeschooling, you can employ tutors, you can have educational therapists. You don't have to deliver all the curriculum yourself. And there was no way we were gonna homeschool, as in I was teaching Althea VCE Maths that was not gonna work for us. But I facilitated her learning the things she wanted to learn. And she had two different educational therapists who were fantastic. And they guided her through the process of having much more control over what she was learning and following her interests and exploring career paths. And in fact, the fact that she was able to have a part-time enrollment at her local high school meant she was able to continue her VCE Outdoor Ed class the next year. She was able to, she had five hours a week of volunteering in the library with the librarian. That school was fantastic and a great connection to Althea, and that gave her a lot of meaning. She was still able to see her friends, and in fact in year 12 she was able to do a VET subject. So. Here's another area where education policy falls down in Victoria. Home Educated students find it very hard to access Vocational Education Training subjects.'cause what's happened is that TAFEs don't really teach those lower level Certificate One and Twos anymore. It's delivered as vocational, what's called VET DSS. So Vocational Educational Training Directly to Secondary School students. But the problem is that homeschool students can't access it. So because she was still enrolled at the school, she was able to access a VET subject. So she, caught the tram off to another school to learn through a her bus in then tram was a lot of commuting. But you know, she got a taste of that Vocational Education. And even though she's decided that's not the path she wants to go down, she got to learn that weeding is boring and you know learn about, that kind of physical work with some different kids. And not everything through that part-time enrollment was successful. I mean, you know, in year 12, Althea said, you know, I don't think we're doing enough numeracy in homeschool and I want to do a numeracy subject at school. And that was unfortunately a very bad learning environment'cause it was a class full of really disengaged kids and teacher with poor class control. And, that learning environment was not conducive. But we have, you know, figured things out along the way.

Leisa Reichelt 29:47

The other thing that I keep hearing here is that all the way through this, Althea wants to learn. She wants to be schooling, she wants to be engaged. it is not a lack of interest or enthusiasm on her part at all.

Althea 30:00

And I've, I've done

Claire 30:01

no.

Althea 30:01

much through homeschooling that I would never have been able to do through, mainstream schooling. So once I started homeschool, I did the end of year 10, I had the last term. I think I only did Outdoor Ed and my library volunteering and Guides, and I didn't do any other schooling. and

Leisa Reichelt 30:15

needed a bit of a break. Yeah.

Althea 30:17

I needed a break. And then I had that summer, which was great. And then I got settled right into homeschooling for year 11 and 12. And I have done like even though my friends have all got their VCE and they've done their exams and stuff, I've done stuff that they haven't done and I've done like really interesting things. So for instance, Macquarie Island, which is one of my special interests, I, wrote and then presented a short five minute conference talk on Macquarie Island at two different conferences.

Claire 30:42

And she volunteered at two conferences to learn to do AV. And she's learned a whole lot about technical theater and, painted sets and, directed things on and off the stage, and a whole lot of learning that she just wouldn't have had time for if she was sitting in a classroom all those hours. She's gone to Girl Guide Jamborees, she's done a heap of Mittagundi and Wollangarra programs. She's done fundraisers and all sorts of things. It doesn't have to look like sitting in a classroom learning, and I think it's been much better for her not to be sitting in a classroom and following her interests.

Leisa Reichelt 31:16

The kinds of things that you're talking about too sound to me like very good preparedness for life learning, which is often what people are like, well, they don't go to school, they won't be prepared for the real world. It sounds like you did a really good job of preparing yourself for the real world.

Althea 31:28

So what my week usually looked like is, it's Thursday mornings. Unfortunately, it was out in Gisborne, which is like a 40 minute drive, but thank you mum for driving me to Gisburn every week. So I went out and I saw my educational therapist for an hour, and they would basically, so there was this rubric and it had, instead of like, you know, your English, Math, Science, whatever it was, like Knowing How to Learn, Quantitative Learning, Qualitative Learning, like Empirical Reasoning, things like this. And they would basically like go, here's where you're at on the rubric. Here's where you need to be. So you need to do more stuff in these areas. then we'd kind of go, here are my interests. Here's the stuff that I need to do to like, get a certain, like get high enough on my rubric. And then we'd kind of match them together and find like a task that I, I'd enjoyed. So I did a lot of stuff. I organized, my own trivia night and I ran it and I, booked the hall and I got my dad to mc and do the questions and I made food, which I sold, and I raised, was it$1,500 from that?

Leisa Reichelt 32:19

Wow.

Althea 32:20

I've done two Biggest Morning Teas. My best friend at her house, I think the most recently, we raised$800 from that. And then I also did, this was 2024, I did Australia's Biggest Bush Walk, which is basically for the month of May, you just walk as far as you can, you can ride, cycle, roll, whatever works for you, but is basically getting outdoors and then people will donate to you. And I raised$500 from that.

Leisa Reichelt 32:43

Wow, that's very impressive.

Althea 32:46

Yeah. that was actually my social action project, which is part of my International Big Picture learning credential. From those three fundraisers, I raised a total of$4,800.

Leisa Reichelt 32:55

Tell me a little bit more about this Big Picture learning credential.

Althea 32:58

So basically it's very interest based. So that's what the rubric was for. So I had all the different rubrics, and I'd get assessed against those. And then, at the end of my last year, so this is year 12 for me, I did a social action project, a senior thesis project, an exhibition, and a video profile, and a portfolio. So the social action project was you had to do something that brought, social action for an interest of yours. So you could like, volunteer or you could it was really whatever you wanted. But I did those three fundraisers I made a video profile, which was basically about me, and then I had to make a portfolio. So I made a website and it's got all of like what I've done. I've done like hikes, I've done jamborees, I've done all sorts of incredible things. They're all on website and I spent a lot of time editing photos for that. And then, my senior thesis project is probably the second biggest part of this. So you have to pick an area of interest and you have to do a big project on it. You could write an essay, you could make a video, you could give a to, it could literally be anything, but you just have to focus on an area. I chose Macquarie Island because,

Leisa Reichelt 34:04

I thought you might.

Althea 34:05

And so my senior thesis project was a mix of that conference talk, and I also did a whole bunch of research. So I have, a lot of pages of research about the flora and the fauna of Macquarie Island, and I did a lot of in depth version to the history as well. I made a timeline. I hope to all compile that into like a travel guide style book someday. But I'm, quite busy at the moment. So that's on the back burner at the moment, but hopefully someday. And then instead of having exams, I had an exhibition. So basically I did a 20 to 40 minute talk on basically everything that I've done. And I had themes for my learning. I presented this to the head of Big Picture learning credential, my therapist, my parents, my educational therapist and the head of U&I. And so my themes were future focus, adventure, leadership and giving back. So at the beginning of year 12, I also got part-time job, which I've had since then. As a physiotherapy receptionist. So, I was also doing that on the side and we were kind of looking into like, what I want to do this year and like, did I wanna do uni? And we've decided, like, we've kind of found out that I don't particularly think that uni learning style will work for me very well. So I'm gonna do TAFE this year. I'm doing a Cert Four in Allied Health Assistance, Which is kind of, it's the pathway into nursing. And so at the end of the year I'll be an Allied Health Assistant

Leisa Reichelt 35:30

Wow.

Althea 35:31

That'll allow me to get, a new job, like a better paying job. And also, there's placements in this course so I can decide if I actually wanna continue in nursing or whether, I wanna focus on something else.

Leisa Reichelt 35:42

So you sort of potentially see a future in the helping professions as something that you'd like to do.

Althea 35:48

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 35:50

That's amazing. I was, it was either that or like outdoor adventurer. I wasn't sure which way you were gonna go.

Althea 35:54

I kind of had three, pathways I was interested in and that was, nursing, outdoor education and technical theater.

Leisa Reichelt 36:01

Amazing. Well, I mean, you can always try all of them and see which one lands the best, can't you?

Althea 36:06

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 36:07

It sounds like you've had an amazing last couple of years.

Althea 36:11

There's things that I realized didn't work. One of the main things that I realized didn't work is that people have this idea of homeschool where it's like you're either at home all the time like your parents teaching you or you're doing mainstream schooling and you're at school all the time. And neither of those really worked for me.'cause I remember in year 11, I had one day a week, it was Wednesdays where I had nothing on all day and I'd just do my homeschool work. But I was at home all day and that was the day I felt the saddest and I felt the worst.'cause I was at home all day. And so I've kind of like worked around it. So for instance, like I did girl guides, so I had girl guides some nights, and I did volunteering some nights and I had all these things like throughout the week where I was actually going and doing things. And that helped me so much because I found that I need a certain amount of structure. But if I'm just constantly at school every day, it's too much structure. Like, I need time to breathe.

Leisa Reichelt 36:55

The self knowledge that you have is going to be extremely helpful for you in the rest of your life, isn't it?

Althea 37:00

Yeah.

Claire 37:01

She's done a lot of reflection over the last two years, and I think that's what's been really good about the program. She's written so many reflections.

Leisa Reichelt 37:08

You know, Again, a pretty good life skill though, isn't it? To be reflective.

Claire 37:13

Yeah.

Leisa Reichelt 37:14

looking back on the last few years, what are your thoughts and reflections?

Claire 37:19

I feel really grateful that we found a path that worked. I feel really grateful that Althea has had the opportunities to follow her interests and that we didn't just keep trying to make the full-time in-person school work for her'cause it wasn't working. And so I'm really glad that she was brave enough to say, yeah, I can do homeschooling. I can choose what I'm gonna learn and I'm gonna, you know, be self-motivated to learn it. I think, you know, we got through and she got her Big Picture learning credential, which she wanted. I mean, you could have done homeschool without that.

Althea 37:48

Yeah.

Claire 37:48

I think it made Althea feel like it brought together all the things she was doing into a sort of single outcome. And I think it gave her motivation to see it as a whole, as a real education. I think one of the hard things is people don't think homeschooling is a real education and what's gonna happen to your life, but I just feel grateful that Althea had the confidence to say, no, it is a real education and I can do it and I'm gonna follow my interests.

Leisa Reichelt 38:14

I think anyone who's listening to Althea now has no lack of confidence in her ability to put together an amazing life. She's clearly an exceptional human.

Althea 38:23

Thank you.

Claire 38:25

oh, we think so too.

Leisa Reichelt 38:26

Yeah. And had an exceptional mum helping her along through the journey, driving the long drives, researching and, providing that support as well. I'm sure it was a real team effort.

Althea 38:37

I would not have been able to do this without mum and the support that she gave to me. There were points where I couldn't, like even really think about my future because I was just so stressed, I needed to kind of escape and think about anything else. But obviously being stuck where I was, wasn't helping me and I needed to kind of get out of it. But Mum was the one who found other schools and found the tours, and found the information nights and researched everything and like got me to go there and got me to like think about all these different things that I could be doing and really help me to find a pathway that I actually enjoyed.

Leisa Reichelt 39:10

Alright, let's wrap up. I would love to finish by having you think about what you would like folks who are listening to this to take away, what's one message that you would really like to share to everyone who's listening, whether they're parents and carers of kids who are going through a School Can't journey, or professionals who are trying to support families who are, experiencing School Can't. What do you think is the one thing that people really need to know and understand?

Claire 39:40

Prioritize mental health, follow your kids' interests. And it's okay to take a different path. It's okay to find, it's a path that works for your kid and it's gonna be different for every kid. And why it might be easy to just be able to put your kid in school and for that to work. If that's not your kid, that's okay. You can do something different. It'll be fine. Your kids will learn, they'll be okay. It's okay. And, you know, I never saw myself ever as a homeschooling parent. It's not something I had philosophically seen for myself. But, you can do it. I could do it with support.

Leisa Reichelt 40:13

That's great.

Althea 40:14

I think something that's really important to me is that your homeschooling is not a cookie cutter, like it's e everyone has different ways of doing it and everyone has different interests and they have different needs. So I know that I don't cope well being at home every day, but someone might thrive doing that. And you need to focus on what your kid can do. And also that, your kid wants to learn. Maybe they just don't wanna learn what they're learning at school, but they do want to learn.

Leisa Reichelt 40:42

That's a really great observation and I think that's just come through so clearly in talking to you as well, it's like even though school was often a really difficult or even kind of a hostile place for you, your desire to learn and to do well has just been so clear all the way through your story.

Althea 41:01

Thank you.

Leisa Reichelt 41:02

Thank you so much for taking the time to share so openly and honestly with us about this. I really, really appreciate it and I know lots of people who are listening will really appreciate it as well. Thanks so much.

Althea 41:12

Thank you.

Claire 41:13

Thanks Leisa.

Leisa Reichelt 41:14

Well, what a delightful duo and such a wonderful story. And I am sure that Althea is going to go from strength to strength and so much of what she has learned from outside of the mainstream school experience is gonna stand her in great stead for the future. And what a wonderful job has Claire done, supporting Athea to find her own way. I hope you can take some inspiration and some reassurance from their story. If you have found this podcast helpful, I would be so grateful if you could take a moment to subscribe or give us a rating or a review. This really does help us get the podcast in front of more people who have School Can't kids, and who haven't yet found our School Can't community and all the information that we share. If you have some feedback for us or perhaps a suggestion for a future topic or guest, or maybe you've been inspired to share your own lived experience story, please drop me an email to schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com, and I would love to hear from you. If you are a parent or carer in Australia and you are feeling distressed please remember, you can always call the Parent Helpline in your state or call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Thank you again for listening and we'll talk again soon. Take care.