Shakira's Story
"The school started a school choir last year and Shakira put her hand up to be in it as soon as she heard about it. The choir performed at church and at the end of year Christmas carols, and she loved being in it.
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Shakira has had an eventful 2020 as far as her education goes. One of the benefits of teaching her during the lockdown was that I could see very clearly that her old school was not meeting her significant educational and social/psychological needs. She was also extremely unhappy there. I moved her to a different school after the first lockdown and it has been a fantastic move for Shakira. She is like a different child - she has friends and often has playdates, her teacher (who will move up throught the school with her). She has been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder she received govt funding for treatment
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Last year we applied for a grant to buy an Ipad from the Foundation. I intended this to be for reading apps so that we could help Shakira with her reading & we used it for this until the lockdown started when it came extremely handy because I was trying to teach her at home. We are grateful to the foundation for their continued support of Shakira's education. It is financially so helpful but it is also great to have the support of an organisation that believes in closing the gap and is willing to help parents and carers in such a practical way. I feel like closing the gap is possible but we as a society all have a part to play in it - carers and parents. Unfortunately we can't do it alone.
I really like that you have streamlined the grants application process and are trying to a find a way to do it that is faster and gives carers/parents control over where grant funds are spent. thanks for all your hard work"
