Lilli is finally loving school.
It was a shaky start - from the second day she was reluctant to get up in the morning. By the second week we were having full on tears and needing to physically pull her clothes on her while she fought to keep them off. It was horrible.
I spoke to the teachers and principal. I felt that as the oldest child in the class and only one of two that spoke English as a first language that perhaps she would have benefitted from the next class up. I still think that, but apparently the cut off date for class placement is the 31st August, so she misses out by 3 weeks - I guess she will always be the oldest in the class while we are in the Northern Hemisphere.
By about the third week things had calmed down a bit but it was difficult hearing her say she didn't want to go to school everyday. So unexpected, there was never a day at Mikayla that this happened.
During breakfast one morning she happened to mention that she didn't want to go to school because some girls had called her "the ugly girl" and had chased her. Despite my wanting to go out and physically maim the offenders, we had a good talk about bullies and their low self esteem etc, gave her some coping strategies and later informed the teachers. It seems to have done the trick and she keeps me updated on what the ''bulls'' (her term) are up to. I did some face painting the other day at the school and was able to have a quiet chat in a couple of the "bulls" ears.
Interestingly I got blasted the other day at a roundabout when the driver behind me thought I should have been pushing into the traffic - one of the ''bulls'' was standing up in the back seat - like father, like daughter. One of the other bulls mother has quite a strong presence in the PTA and is lovely. She would be mortified.
Since then, life at school has improved and Lilli races to hug her teachers (1 main - Ms Marazanne and 2 support - Ms Carol & Ms Sam) in the morning. She has a little French girl, Lise, come and play sometimes and has a crush on the PE (or EP as she calls it) teacher Mr Eric.
Don't you just love it.. "EP" and "Bull's"... Some of my fondest memories of my girl from when she was younger was her saying words the way she thought they were said. It would always bring smiles and chuckles.
ReplyDeleteShar, I can relate to the experience with Lilli not wanting to go to school.
Jenna and I moved state from Vic to Qld - and Jenna hated her school so much she'd beg me not to take her. She was utterly traumatised. Stressed/anxious to the max when I left her and just as much when I picked her up. The school even rang me once as she was inconsolable. In front of me the principal actually rebuked her and told her she was wasting my time with me going up to the school. (She was in Grade 3 level in Victoria.. Grade 4 in Qld). And to make matters worse her teacher was a battleaxe and would tell the kids they didn't have brains. Other teachers were the same and the principal wasn't interested either. This was a an exclusive-ish Catholic school too. It was so different to the duty of care approach her former school offered --as standard.
Our nightmare encounter with that school ended when my father died suddenly 2 weeks after we arrived. All-in-all we were there a month.. so she came back to her old school and we built our life again here in Victoria.
I'm so sorry you went through that experience of Lilli hating school.. but it's such good news to hear that things are improving and she's even hugging teachers :-D !! I hope she continues to make friends and feels completely "at home" there soon.