Today was our Parent / Teacher / Pupil Consultation Day. Children only attend school at their appointed time, with their parents.
15 minutes of talking about a child's progress maybe isn't long, but it's an eye opening experience and about so much more than talking.
It's about watching these small individuals, children who you know so well, with their carers. It's about listening and observing behaviours and interactions between parents, children and siblings.
It's about sitting back, taking on board, putting school into a 'life' context and finding that Dad can't read, Mum and Dad have split up, Mum's got an eating disorder, Mum can't read English, the family is under social services supervision, Nan's moving away, the family are in temporary accomodation, Dad's working two jobs.
Maybe it puts our day to day routine, targets and projected levels into perspective, but more than that it reminds me how much I just need to love these children and just like most of these parent's want 'more' for their children, so do I.
4 comments:
Ahh, the BIGGER picture! Sometimes it's just too bright isn;t it?
and in case you can;t read that it says : Ahh the BIGGER picture. Sometimes it's just TOO bright isn't it?
Yep, sometimes, ignorance is bliss. (and I think it's my fault for having such a big title!)
dawn i got that feeling not long ago aswell, bassed in a high school we get to build relatonships with loads of kids and some of them seem troubled and others don't but when your prayer walkig an estate and you see those very kids being chucked out or see the people they spend time with out really late at night or the dad of some of them with other women or the state of the houses they go into after school really opes your eyes and can give you so much empathy. what i havent worked out is if it is right to love that person a little bit more and do that little bt more for that person because you have a glimpse of what they are going through??!
hope your ok m8
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