So, after weeks of preparation, the "big day" finally arrived. Our littlest chap started his first day at school. All the checks had been done:
- His new school had received the all important handover file from Nursery before Christmas, this included his Individual Education Plan, progress to date, an "all about me" summary sheet - everything you could possibly want to know about him.
- We'd been looking at pictures of the new school and using these to ensure he understood he wouldn't be going to nursery anymore.
- We'd been practicing saying "Good Morning Mrs (new teachers name)"
- His uniform had been purchased and clearly named.
- Everyone had been speaking positively about his move to "big school".
Ummm, how about the fact that his new teacher was actually one of two (a job share) and that neither of them had received his file. I kid you not.
Luckily for our little chap, if there is one good thing that has come out of the last few months it's the fact that Mummy has learnt to take NOTHING for granted. A very dear friend advised us to "be a nuisance" as it was one of the only ways to get things done and this has become kind of ingrained in any dealings with the authorities.
His first day consisted of two hours in the afternoon so I "popped" into the office in the morning to ask if I could have a chat with the classroom teacher or the head teacher, just a quick catch up before his first session.... Which is when I found out that his file hadn't been passed over - it was still in the envelope I had hand delivered it in.
You can imagine how mightily unimpressed I was with this news.
When presented challenges you have to face them head on and figure out how best to deal with the situation. So, I took the file up to his new classroom and sat down for half an hour with his (Monday to Wednesday) teacher. In fairness, she asked some good questions and as time was short I encouraged her to read the "all about me" overview as this would be the best tool for her to use in the early days of her time with him.
I asked her to set up a home-school diary, she readily agreed to do this stating that it wouldn't be written in everyday, just if there was an incident to report... I'm happy to say that once I clarified that due to his main issue being one of COMMUNICATION I was looking for them to log things which I could then use as tools to facilitate communication at home and encourage him to recount his day i.e. a book they have read, an activity they did, a song they sang etc.
So, whilst not at all happy with the situation, I was at least confident that our boy would walk into an understanding environment.
As it happens, this wasn't the case, but luckily for them a fabulous little girl from his nursery (who has been somewhat motherly towards him since they first met) also joined and she very firmly took him by the hand and forcefully led him into their first session. I will be forever grateful to her.
My next course of action was thus:
- booked an appointment with the School SENCO
- called the SALT to explain the situation and ask her to be mindful of the fact there are two teachers involved in his case
- called the area special needs teacher requesting she get into the school PDQ
- booked an appointment to see the Thursday-Friday teacher
But I'll still be keeping my appointments at the school, and will most likely be making a lot more inquiries than I would had this situation not arisen, the school has a duty of care to every child it teaches and I will be giving them a LOT of support and encouragement when it comes to mine.
One of my friends said "He's lucky to have you fighting his corner", I don't look at it as a fight, I think it's more like a journey. He's a tourist and I'm the tour guide responsible for showing him the sights, sounds and customs of this foreign culture he's found himself living in.
--Mum of Tok
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