[upbeat music]


- My name is Leigh, my son
Reuben is in Year 1 at St.
Joseph's school.

The school has paid a major
part with Reuben's progression
in learning.

He has learned to engage with
other students, his daily
routines and to be safe
and happy at school.

- With the parent, it's great
to at the start of the year,
I guess build that bond with
them and you know, we're
working together as a
team, I think that's really
important, so we set that
at the start of the year,
we had a meeting together
and came up with common goals
that we all wanted for, you
know, it's the best interest
of the child, communicating
regularly, so phone calls
made regular, phone calls to
the parent and also at pickups,
drop offs, always do, you
know, if there's anything
pertinent.


So we've got that communication
consistently throughout
the year.

- The school shares information
everyday with me about
Reuben, whether it's in person,
by phone, or by the Seesaw app.

- So the parents can see
photos straight away of their
child, videos, anything
that happens during the day
and it's instant,
straight to their phones.

So it's a really good resource.

- It's very exciting just
looking at him having a good
day at school and what he's been learning.

All the different stuff,
what he makes at school and
that there.


My advice to other families
is to talk to the school,
to build a relationship with
the school, so they can be
on the same page to achieve
the best outcome for the child.

- So one of the things
we use is social stories.

It's a great communication
between home and school.

So an example is, at school
we need to keep our hats on.

And then our friends might
get sad and we make sure
we put the visuals in so
there's that understanding
this is what happens if we take them off.

And then the issue was,
'cause I wanna play chasey,
but if we wanna play chasey,
we can just ask our friends
and they're gonna be so
happy to play with us.

So when we use a social
story, we use it at school and
we always give the parent
a copy and explain the
situations.

They're a really good
communication thing and they
work really well, parents love them too.