gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
gwunspoken: Beyond the Plan
Hear the person beyond the plan.
This podcast is where NDIS participants, families, and supporters reclaim their narrative. We dive into life beyond the diagnosis, beyond the reports, and beyond the plans—exploring identity, strength, and voice.
Whether you're a parent seeking connection, a support worker craving understanding, or someone walking their own NDIS journey, this space is for you.
Because labels don’t define people—stories do.
gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
Reconnecting at School: Arie's Journey
A powerful reconnection unfolds as Arie returns for his second school-based podcast recording, revealing remarkable progress in his educational journey. The conversation captures a genuine moment between mentor and student as they explore Arie's recent experiences and the motivations behind his behavioural improvements.
The warmth between them is palpable as they discuss Arie's extended school attendance—now staying until 1:30 pm—and the factors driving this positive change. With refreshing candor, Ari reveals his dual motivations: anticipated trips to Melbourne and Holland, and the simple joy of spending more time with friends at school. This moment beautifully illustrates how effective incentives and social connections can transform a child's approach to challenging situations.
Family transitions take center stage as Arie describes helping his father pack for an upcoming move while his brother remains engrossed in gaming. His weekend adventures include an unexpected train breakdown that led to an impromptu bus journey—a story he recounts with surprising enthusiasm rather than frustration. Throughout the conversation, Arie's technical aptitude shines as he demonstrates podcast setup skills and expresses interest in potentially interviewing his supportive teacher aide in a future episode. The podcast concludes with heartfelt affirmation of Arie's progress, celebrating both his behavioural improvements and his willingness to help during family transitions. Join us for this touching exploration of growth, motivation, and the small victories that make a big difference in a young person's development. How have you celebrated progress in the children in your life? We'd love to hear your stories.
Welcome to another edition of GW Unspoken Beyond the Plan on behalf of EngageU. And I'm here with my little mate Ari. How are you, mate?
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:Where are we?
Speaker 2:At the school again.
Speaker 1:We're at the school. This is like the second podcast at school.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, I just did ask you off our little air here, but can I ask you this question again? Yeah, have you listened to your last podcast when you were at school?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What did you think?
Speaker 2:It was amazing.
Speaker 1:I think you're amazing. I think you speak so well always on the podcast, don't you? And you do a really good job. Yeah, now I haven't seen you for a week, but let's check in. Are you feeling good today? Yeah, you're looking good today. Is that a new uniform?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Well, it looks pretty cool on you. Do you think it would be weird if I had one? No, I could walk through the school and people would think I'm a student. Yeah, maybe a bit too old for a student, maybe a teacher. What do you think? Yeah, so you feeling good. What's something you're thankful for at the moment?
Speaker 2:What are you happy about?
Speaker 1:What's that?
Speaker 2:That I get to see my friends.
Speaker 1:Get to see your friends. I just saw one of your friends before who wanted to come in with us.
Speaker 2:Who was that Lachlan?
Speaker 1:Yeah, lachlan wanted to come over too, didn't he? Yeah, was he saying he wanted to come in here? Yeah, that's cool. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to get parents' permission for that. That's the only thing, but it would be good to have him on the show too, wouldn't it? Yeah, maybe we'll have to ask one of your learning support teachers if they'll allow him to go and chat. Yeah, what do you think? So, yeah, now I haven't seen you for a week, I haven't seen you for a whole week, and it was really hard leaving you last time because I went, hey how are you going?
Speaker 1:We spoke for an hour. Next thing. I went see you Last week. Yeah, was there any problems? No, was there any naughty behaviours? No, was there good behaviours? You were well behaved.
Speaker 2:Did you have any bad hard days? No, Didn't you.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes you have hard days. I had a couple of hard days last week. No, they're okay, yeah, okay, cool. And what's happening at home? Has Dad moved in yet?
Speaker 2:Has Dad moved in yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's moved in a new place.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, or no In two weeks.
Speaker 1:Two weeks now, yeah.
Speaker 2:And when's your? Birthday Two weeks, that's right because there's any movie in the day before doesn't?
Speaker 1:he yes. Well now, last time we spoke on the podcast, you talked about how you're with your man and you're packing boxes. Yeah, have you started packing boxes for Dad yet for his move?
Speaker 2:Yes, have you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is he starting to tidy up all his place? Yeah, cool. And then what?
Speaker 2:Is there much more to pack up?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is Okay. Well, tell me what did you do on the weekend, because it's Monday, so what did you do on Saturday, Sunday?
Speaker 2:I did. Who's your housekeeper, mum or?
Speaker 1:dad, dad, how day is Sunday, my day.
Speaker 2:Who's your house with?
Speaker 1:mum or dad, dad, okay. So what did you do at dad's place at Northgate?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What did you do I?
Speaker 2:packed more stuff. You packed yeah, yeah, and you like packing don't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you do anything else? Did you go and see your friends, or did you like packing, don't you? Yeah, did you do anything else? Did you go and see your friends, or did you go out, or did you do anything else?
Speaker 2:I went out to go on a train. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? What do you mean?
Speaker 2:by crazy, because the train went on special and then all the passengers had to go out because the train wasn't working.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you had to get off a station, did you?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I got on the bus.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know what it means. So the train broke down somewhere on one of the tracks. You had to get off one station and catch a bus instead. Yeah, where were you going? Doobin oh, what's at Doobin? I don't know it. Doobin, oh, what's a Doobin? I don't know. It's just houses. Oh, okay, looking at houses, yeah, yeah, cool, do you know? Here's something really weird, what? I caught a train to Doobin on Saturday night, and then what happened? Well, my stepson wanted to watch the rugby, so he went to this hotel, hammerson Hotel, to watch the rugby with him and have a big steak dinner. But the train station worked. The train was working then, and then I walked from there to where we got to the hotel. It was like a 25-minute walk in a city. I had to put my navman on in case I got lost on my phone. I started walking in the wrong direction straight away I went uh-oh, I'm going the wrong way.
Speaker 2:Now, what are you looking forward to this week? Packing more stuff.
Speaker 1:For dads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so are your dads this week now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice, okay, so packing more stuff and helping dad move you're a good boy doing that, and does your brother help out a lot too, or not? Or doesn't he like packing? He games a lot, he what, sorry.
Speaker 2:He games a lot.
Speaker 1:He games a lot. Has he been gaming instead of helping out? Hmm, so you and dad doing most of the work.
Speaker 2:Me and Dad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and you are looking forward to the new house, aren't you? Yeah, it's not far from Mum's at Banyo. Yeah, that's cool. I bet Dad's looking forward to move too. All right, now we've got another question for you, ready. What about your teacher who's about to have a baby? Is she back now? Yes, Is that good? Yeah, very good Now. Are you back into full school now, or still only half timetable?
Speaker 2:I'm at 1.30.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you're going home at 1.30. Now it's a bit longer. Yeah, that's good, and there's been no issues. No issues. If I went to your teacher and said, has Ari been behaving himself until 1.30 each time? What would she say yes. If I said, has Ari been very naughty and been disruptive? What would she say no, I'm so proud of you. What makes you stay on track now? How do you stay on track, like, how do you keep behaving now? What's your secret? Because before obviously something happened you didn't want to talk about. Yeah, but when you've come back, you've done a really good job. So what's changed?
Speaker 2:Because I want to go to Holland and Melbourne this year and next year, mm-hmm, not Melbourne next year. This year, melbourne, mm-hmm, and Holland next year.
Speaker 1:Holland. Who's in Holland?
Speaker 2:Peter.
Speaker 1:Who's Peter?
Speaker 2:My dad's friend.
Speaker 1:Oh, so let me get this right, see if I'm hearing you correctly. So what you're saying is mum and dad said you have to behave at school or you're not going to go to those places.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's making you do the right thing at school. Yes, that's called like an incentive. An incentive means that if you do something, you might get something else.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I reckon there's another reason why you're behaving at school. Why Could it be that you like being in school with your friends?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You don't like being in different schools or going home early because you get to miss out on seeing your friends. Yes, and I think deep down, because you're a very intelligent guy, I think you actually like learning some subjects too, don't you? What's your favourite again? What's your favourite? Maths, maths. You're good at maths aren't you.
Speaker 1:And you're good at memory. You're good at remembering things Like my password on my phone. You seem to remember. Oh, oh, no, no, don't tell everyone we're gonna make trouble if I hear everything you can remember to get in my phone and 77777. 077. Just to say that that's good. Also, I noticed today that when we started setting up the podcast on a laptop, you knew how to set it all up and you had your own microphone and you had your own headset or headphones and you knew how to plug it all in. You knew how to open up the system. Yeah, I think you should maybe do your own podcasting. What do you think? Yeah, I just had an idea. Do you know what would be really cool? How would you feel about one time not now, but one time we come and do the podcast? You set it all up and set up mine as well, but you podcast one of your teachers. Yeah, how would that be? Who do you reckon you'd podcast?
Speaker 2:Which one they want to be in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but which one would you like to put? Which teacher would you like to put on the podcast first? Miss Speedy, Is she your normal teacher?
Speaker 2:No, she's a teacher aide. Oh, miss Speedy, I know normal teacher. No, she's a teacher aide.
Speaker 1:Oh, Miss Speedy, I know who you're talking about. I wonder what kind of questions would you ask her.
Speaker 2:Will you do a podcast?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, good. What if she was actually here right now, if she was me and she's on a podcast, write pictures that are on her. What would you ask her? I don't know, we'd have to plan that, wouldn't we? Would you ask her to sing on a podcast, like you do sometimes? No, that'd be strange, wouldn't it? It'd be interesting for your teacher to sing on a podcast. That'd be funny. Yeah, now, what's the best thing about her? What's something nice about her that she always lets me do stuff? I met her last week. She was very lovely to you, wasn't she? She's very kind, very kind to you. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And what's the best thing about your current teacher, your classroom teacher? What's the best thing about her?
Speaker 2:Miss Billing, yeah, Ask him, teacher, what's the best thing about her? Miss Billing, yeah that she lets me go out.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we need a break. Yeah, okay, that's good. And is there anything that you're really looking forward to this week at school? No, just normal school. Yeah, seeing your friends. Looking forward to seeing your friends this week? Yeah, yeah, cool, all right. Well, is there anything else you want to talk about in the podcast? You've already spoken over 10 minutes again.
Speaker 2:You're a legend. Yeah, anything else you want to?
Speaker 1:talk about in the podcast. You've already spoken over 10 minutes again.
Speaker 2:You're a legend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anything else you want to talk about? No, I believe that I'm going to smash you in a game of Connect Four. Is that right? I'm going to win? Yeah, am I. Are you going to try and win? How dare you? Yeah, what colour are you going to be? Are you going to be yellow?
Speaker 2:or red.
Speaker 1:Red. Okay, well, before we go, can I say this yeah, I'm very proud of you about how your behavior is improving and how you've challenged yourself to do the right thing in class, and that you're getting more time in class now with your friends and learning, because learning is so important, because your brain actually loves learning. Yeah, and I'm also proud of you because you're helping your father move, and getting some help from the kids is really, really important. So well done, yeah. Yeah, you're a good boy, all right. Well, enjoy the rest of your day and I will talk to you again next week. You.