Thank heaven for angels! Long, but lovely...

[moremerlotplease]

Just felt the need to share my huge gratitude.

After a year and a half at a preschool that I had originally been very happy with, my gorgeous, amazing DS 3 (no dx, but convinced he has AS) was withdrawn, anxious, angry, unpredictable and very very sad. The whole family were walking on eggshells constantly and I was at breaking point. I stopped sending him and he really calmed down. He was still very quirky and reliant on routines, but could make it to breakfast without a two hour meltdown; things had improved so much.

Understandably, I and the rest of the family were very apprehensive at his entrance to nursery in September. We know the school, and have a very high opinion of it (DD goes there), but with SEN, and no dx, you never know what might happen. The experienced (highly regarded) nursery teacher has taken a year off and the new nursery teacher is newly qualified and very young.

Within two weeks of DS starting, the new nursery teacher had dealt with major (for a school, but pretty run of the mill for him) meltdowns. She had set up strategies for getting him into nursery, adults for him to approach when he's feeling anxious and pushed for him to be seen by the senco. She regularly rings me to discuss ways of supporting him, or dealing with his anxieties , and makes a point of telling me how well he's doing in other areas. She makes the effort to understand his outbursts as his way of coping with a situation that he finds frightening, rather than seeing him as a naughty, aggressive little boy.

On Friday, I picked him up and found out that tomorrow the usual routine will be disrupted for a special event. When I mentioned it to him, he immediately tensed up and I could see how anxious he was. On Monday, I thought I might send a message (I don't drop off or pick up on a Monday) that he was feeling a little bit anxious about the event, but am very wary of seeming like a neurotic, over-protective parent, so didn't in the end. I needn't have worried. His teacher had picked up on his tensions on Friday, and had written a long note explaining exactly what was going to happen tomorrow,the parts she was expecting him to cope with, and suggesting the parts he might find too challenging and gave alternatives. I used her ideas to prepare him for tomorrow and he seems (fingers crossed) not too worried now.

Having been a hard working teacher myself for the last 15 years, I know that this level of care and understanding does exist, but is rare, and the added time his teacher must be putting in to meet his needs is not insignificant.

I cannot believe how lucky he is to have such a wonderful, caring teacher. She feels like an experienced, wise professional. He even told me the other day that he 'nearly likes nursery now' Not a sentence I EVER thought he'd come close to saying. Not only has this amazing angel of a teacher had a drastically positive effect on my DS, but the whole family is benefitting as, if DS is happy, the rest of the family (tends to be) happy. Of course, he still finds the world very confusing, but he is so much happier.

So, thank you angel of a teacher! I hope many many children are lucky enough to be taught by you. And I hope the rest of the profession sees people like you, and does their utmost to emulate you as closely as possible.

I will be forever grateful for the start in education that you have given my son - he's worth it - I'm so glad you can see that too.

Aw, how lovely. There are some great people in the world and often experience counts for much less than the right attitude.

That is so lovely, I am so pleased for your ds and thank you for reminding me that there are teachers like this out there.

My ds was lucky enough to have one last year and as a result, had the best year of his school-life to date. She just 'got it', 'got him' and did what was needed naturally. Like your ds's teacher she is young, not quite nqt, although relatively new to teaching, but what she lacked in experience she made up for in caring, enthusiasm and as Ellen said, having the right attitude. She was always willing to come to us for advice and to ask for help from other professionals if she was at all unsure and I'm pretty sure she did some fairly extensive reading and research on ds's SEN, both before and during the time he was in her class as well.

As you quite rightly say, when you come across one you really do feel like they are angels in teacher form and I made sure I told her so before he moved up a year.

Love this - there were two teachers that were absolutely outstanding with ds. When he finished at the infants I wrote two letters for each if them respectively, to go on their employment records. Both of them burst into tears that I'd bothered to do it.

It's so refreshing to know there are teachers (& other professionals) out there who really do care about every pupil, and who truly make a difference.

So glad DS's experience is, although infrequent, not isolated and other children have had met similar 'angels'

Our first teacher was like that, she was amazing and so interested in DS. Also very young - it does give me hope that teacher training is improving actually, as very often I would compliment her on a particular strategy and she would just airily say 'och, that's helpful for lots of children who learn in a particular way.'

DS insisted on buying her a Hot Wheels car when he moved up because it was 'her favourite'. When she opened it she burst into tears and said 'I can't believe he bought me that, he knows it's my favourite.' God I loved that woman.