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(Background chatter)
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(Background chatter)
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My name is Sharon McKennay and I'm Skye's Mum.
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Skye was basically born completely profoundly deaf.
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A week before her first birthday,
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she was given the cochlear implant
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and from that she has just gone on with the cochlear
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and been given the opportunity
to hear and speak and listen.
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I think school is great and it's a lot of fun when you're around your friends.
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Skye has been here since she was three and a half.
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The support has been amazing.
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Basically anything that Skye has needed,
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she's been given.
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The support from teachers, visiting teachers
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and teachers' assistants,
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it's just been a wonderful, very positive experience.
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It's been fantastic.
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I've been working with Skye now for 2 years.
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Initially we were coming twice a week
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and we've gradually, as she's developed her listening and speaking skills
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we've been able to reduce that service because
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she's becoming more and more independent.
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Basically, it's as the first day of high school
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so they'll learn to meet new friends,
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and there's also going to be lots of challenges
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along the way so in terms of the activities going on
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(Background chatter)
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I'm really excited and nervous.
- Yeah.
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It's very scary at first
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but once you get into the rhythm and stuff
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you feel happy and have fun around everyone.
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Everybody's breaking into groups now
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so we're doing some search and rescue or flying fox
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and there's even a rope climbing course inside.
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So all the kids are about to do that
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which they're really looking forward to.
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I think it's great so you can meet other kids
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with the same things and make new friends
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and they all have the same, we're all in the same boat.
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So it was put together because next year
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there's going to be two different cohorts of students.
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We wanted to organise something about transitioning
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because kids with a hearing loss have some
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special needs that need to be addressed
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so we thought it would be
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a great opportunity to bring all the kids together
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and have a bit of a chat with them etc.
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It gives everybody the opportunity
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to meet each other and then grab some
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contact details and phone numbers
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and support each other afterwards.
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A lot of the kids are mainstreamed
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which means they're the only student
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in the school who has a hearing loss
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so this is one of the very few opportunities
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where the kids get to come together
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to meet each other and talk to each other
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and realise that they're not the only person in the world with their special need.
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I think it's going to be really fun and also I'm going to be a bit nervous.
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It's really exciting and it's really different to what I expected.