BLENNZ Assessment Services

Duration: 7:43

National Assessment Service film description

Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand BLENNZ National Assessment Service

The following description has been prepared using the images and information contained within the short film about the National Assessment Service.

As the film itself does not contain sufficient gaps to provide verbal descriptions, the visual information from the film has been described separately to give you an overview of what you can expect when you attend your assessment at BLENNZ Homai campus.

The descriptions of the different areas are provided in the same order they appear in the film.  It is recommended that you read or listen to the description first to enable you to follow the information provided by the voiceover provided in the film. 

The two children who appear in the video are a 22 month old girl and 6 ½ year old boy who were visiting the BLENNZ Homai Campus with their families for assessment in the week the film was made. 

The film begins with a sweeping view of the curved front of the Homai campus building.  It has red walls and green glass that shows the stylised eye-shaped koru of the BLENNZ logo.

There’s a large green and silver upright sign outside with the BLENNZ logo on the top and the words ‘BLENNZ Homai campus’ beneath.  Tomokanga – Entrance is the turquoise sign on the front glass door into the main reception.  As you enter through the automatic doors, there’s a reception desk on your right.  Ahead and to the right there are sofas, and to the left there are book cases.

Inside there’s a large space with lots of low red and black sofas. 

The walls are brick and there’s a golden plaque that reads:

‘BLENNZ Homai Campus opened by Hon Hekia Parata, MP Minister of Education 17 May 2012.’

There’s a big turquoise map on the wall that shows the location of BLENNZ teams across the country.

The first person interviewed is Karen Stobbs, BLENNZ Principal.  She sits in front of a glass cabinet that’s full of equipment like the Perkins Brailler.  As she talks the view sweeps back outside to show a signpost with arrows pointing to all of the other BLENNZ locations across the country.  There’s lots of green space on the campus – the buildings surround an outdoor learning environment.

The film talks about the option of being met at Auckland Airport, and shows a family being greeted by a staff member driving a red van who helps to strap a young boy into a car seat. 

Another family arrives at Homai in their own car – parking opposite the reception and receiving a friendly handshake and welcome inside. 

Family accommodation is in another red brick building with a sign saying ‘Nikau House - Whare Nikau’.  Inside there are bedrooms with beds, wardrobes and hangers, extra blankets and pillows.  The kitchen has a fridge, microwave and zip water heater, tea and coffee supplies.  There’s a washing machine, dryer and a rotary washing line outside. 

The lunch table shows plates laden with cold meats, salads, bread, fruit and vegetables.  A small boy eats a bag of chips and someone peels vegetables preparing another meal. 

There is a large indoor swimming pool along a concrete path not far from the accommodation.

In the functional vision assessment space, a teacher shakes a silver foil blanket in front of a giggling child.  Another child picks up coloured circles on a magnetic wand then looks at coloured pictures through his purple-framed glasses. 

The teacher presents a sparkly gold disk the size of a side plate in front of a small girl’s left eye, then a red one in front of her right eye using a slight wrist movement to move the discs. Then he encourages her to tap the silver foil blanket that’s placed on her lap by tapping it gently himself.  The little girl grins up at him.  The teacher discusses the girl’s responses with her mother. 

Demonstrating orientation and mobility (O&M): A young boy with a white cane crosses a zebra crossing in front of the main building, then makes his way downstairs followed by his instructor.  She watches him as he explores a playground climbing frame, then his dad lifts him up to some overhead bars so he can reach them with his hands. 

In Te whare pukapuka o Homai mō to hunga kāpō the Homai Special Formats Library there are shelves containing large print, braille, audio books and collage books with tactile pictures.  A child explores a tactile book that has raised furry fabric for the bear. 

Watched by the Strategies and Tools for Learning teacher, a young boy uses large print coloured dominoes, threads colourful cotton reels onto a string, interacts with a colourful counting game on a tablet, and a computerised jigsaw of an elephant, then he throws a ball at brightly coloured skittles. 

In the Adaptive Daily Living room a small child practices cutting snakes of bright pink playdough with a knife and fork, then pours from a large jug. 

The speech and language therapist interacts with a small child who is lying on her back. 

The physiotherapist encourages a barefoot young boy to stand on one foot, raising the other in the air, then touches his feet, and gets him to jump.  

In Puna Pūoru, the music centre there are guitars, ukulele, keyboards, drums and shakers.  The music therapist plays a drum and then sings to the guitar and watches a small girl’s reaction. 

The Mātanga Tamariki or paediatrician speaks to a parent as her child sleeps.

The Kai Matai karu – the ophthalmologist uses an indirect ophthalmoscope mounted on a headset to examine a child’s eye, and then holds up a red soft toy, striped fabric and a moving cartoon image on a smartphone to assess the child’s eye movements. 

The Kaiwhakamatau karu - optometrist examines a pair of glasses through a magnifier, then gives a child instructions while doing fields testing in a darkened room. 

A parent talks to a smiling psychologist while another staff member rocks her child in her pushchair.

Nicola McDowell, a Resource Teacher Vision provides a final summary of what a parent can expect to receive following the assessment process, and the image cuts away to footage of a boy playing with colourful building blocks, teachers interacting with a little girl, and a close up of a tactile book.