This is how September Should Be

It's been a while since I've blogged.

I was in a fog and family life, my mental health and the real world kept me away. I would type a post then bin it, positive that nobody would want to read my drivel anyway.

Then yesterday on my memories on Facebook an old post popped up; This Isn't How September Is Supposed To Be and I remembered that as lovely as it is to have people read a blog post, it's ultimately more therapeutic for me and I was inspired to write again.

So we are now a year on from that blog post. A year on from daily tears, daily battles to get into school, and daily battles to stay in school for more than 2 hours and I can quite honestly say in the terms of school it's been a bloody fantastic year.

J has been in his school for one year now. Full time.

The school don't have your typical year groups of Reception, 1, 2, 3 etc although they are loosely based around those ages they also focus on abilities so there are some children in J's class that are a year older and some that are younger.

J initially started in a lower class as they had no educational assessments to base his levels on as he wasn't accessing learning in mainstream.

Part way through the year he changed classes to the next one up. The original teacher couldn't keep up with his thirst to learn.

From a child who hated school my boy had suddenly become one who loved to learn.

He settled into his new class brilliantly, forming some fantastic friendships and developing a fondness for his teacher Amanda - whose name we had many a jestful argument about as J would always pronounce it with an H. On school reports and parents evening she would rave about what a kind, caring young man he is. How settled and focused on learning he is despite his issues.

When I talk to the staff at J's new school about how he was in mainstream  they are always shocked, because it's something they have never witnessed themselves. J in a SILC is completely polar opposite to the J that was in mainstream and that's a great thing not only because my boy is doing so well but because I had to battle my own thoughts regarding sending him to a SILC as for a while I felt like I was writing him off and that hasn't been the case. We've allowed him to flourish. He is in the best possible setting he could be.

Academically in terms of reading, writing etc he's still majorly behind the level his peers are at but he is making such fantastic progress that I'm not worried anymore, I used to think those things would never happen but now I know they will. He has developed my addiction for notebooks and pens and always has one to hand to draw in, or do math, or try to write words.

His drawings are brilliant, he used to struggle with even a simplistic stick man but now they have so much detail and he spends time colouring in too, focussing on not going over the lines. For a child who can never sit still to find something he is so passionate about that his brain bypasses the urge to move and fidget is wonderful. (It's also good for comping as he now loves entering the more creative comps and has even had some fab wins from them!)

I had a wonderful summer holiday with him that I genuinely dreaded him going back to school in the fear that we would have undone all the good progress of the past year but I needn't have worried. The days are long for him due to a change to school transport (thanks Leeds City Council!!!) so he leaves the house at 7:20am and gets home around 4:40pm but so far so good.

He's always eager to go to school and he's always eager to tell me about his day.

He came home with some very exciting news yesterday. He has been put forward for Class Rep on the School Council! How cool is that?

So yes, this is how September should be.

Danielle