Tiptoes!

Like I said before, David was ok at his first school in reception classes, he

was always on the go but he was a happy little boy. He reached all his expected baby phases around the right time and although quite active it was always crazy in our home with 5 boys. When David was born I had 5 boys under the age of 13 so there was movement and noise 99% of the time. But it was normal and I can honestly say I had no idea that things would go so frustratingly wrong.

When I moved him to another school things started to go pear-shaped, I know it was now year 1 but his new teacher insisted he sit still for what was obviously to long for him and he was always getting told off . He had trouble keeping up with the work but he did try but they also didn’t seem to acknowledge this in any way. At his old school they frequently gave praise and little notes or certificates even for the small things. He also had difficulty in the playground and making friends. He would get into trouble for silly things,  one day when I collected him he was very upset because he’d lost his Golden-Time because he hugged a little girl in his class  because she was being nice to him but he was told off for intruding on her personal space. Now I understand this but they where 5yrs old and one thing he has always been is very loving. Things trudged along going from one thing to another and he started not to be bothered about getting in trouble. His mechanism for coping made him act up as much as possible, most of the time just to try to make people like him by being funny. In years 3-4 the school did put him in for extra help with his maths and reading and he got on much better on a one to one basis or just a small group. Things got so bad that even when we went to a park very near the school at the end of the school day, any kids from school where there they would give him grief and call him names.  Sometimes the other kids mums where there and if they where watching they could see that it was their kids starting the trouble but they did nothing, So we stopped going. At home things would be bad if he had a bad day or week. On the weekend things would calm down slowly but sunday night ment monday morning and here we go again! The holidays were the best especially the summer hols and within a few days we’d see a different David, the one I knew was the real David. He’d relax and become more receptive to everything, he’d smile more and stop being on edge all the time.

Well when we moved here christmas 2010 I hoped for a fresh start for all of my boys but within two weeks in became apparent that it was only going to get worse, still no friends/mucking around/getting into trouble etc. We frequently had to go in to help try to sort things out and then this old school record was bought up about his problems there and they too seemed to think that he was just bad boy who needed discipline. They did involve him in a community group that was supposed to help youngster with these problems but he just got picked on, even hit around the face on a couple of occasions because the kids that they sent him with just did not want to give him a second chance. After a while It came to light that it wasn’t always David’s fault and that some of the other kids were trying to get him into trouble to get him excluded. One child whom sometimes was his friend! even said so to me on the way home one day. We kept in good contact with the school always going in and supporting what needed to be done and got on well with his headteacher and his teachers in his year as it was becoming quite apparent even if David was out-of-order sometimes that some of the other children where not going to give him any chances. We expressed that we where concerned about what to do next and if there where any other underlying problems that weren’t helping the situation.

They agreed to get in an educational psychologist to see him which took a few weeks to sort out and then a few more weeks to get the report back. She observed David in the class and playground, then she spoke with him on his own for about an hour . Then she talked to me for about the same amount of time and also his teachers too. She viewed his school records and then went away to make her report that is also looked over by another professional educational psychologist. Well I was shocked and relieved by what the report revealed, she even noticed that David walks on his tiptoes which he has always done. This was the end of January 2012 and now David is being home educated/schooled which ever you prefer and I’m very sorry that I put him through the ordeal of school in the first place although maybe if his old school had been bothered to find out if they were any underlying reasons for his behavior and reactions then maybe he would have got the help he needed a long time ago!

“Happy Now”

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