On the road of adoption

I have been reading a lot of discussion on Twitter about the governments announcement this week on testing times tables for 8/9 year olds in all schools in England in 2020. Once again I am frustrated by yet more standardised testing of our children particularly as my son will be the year in which this happens. He has already ‘failed’ his phonics test in year 1 due to not liking made up words. He scored 20 which coincidentally is the number of real words in the test. He is also by the way reading fluently and at gold level which in my understanding is more usual for the year above him – and this is a summer-born child. He can happily count up and down in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s but as yet has to get the leap to understanding this to be his times tables. Learning by rote as I did is not coming …..

Continue reading “Testing in schools and all that”

Somewhat late as we are 2 weeks in but life is life at moment. This year is shaping up to be interesting as we have made the decision to move close to where I now work which is next city over. Walking distance is what we are hoping for as will bring many benefits to all three of us. T & I will get more time with Sqk and we are hoping to reduce the childcare needs down to 4 days in holidays and 3 after school sessions a week. Big difference from 4 before & after school as we are at moment. Our house should be going on market very early Feb after we have had the lounge re-papered & painted along with bathroom so we have it looking good for photos. Mum & I do not know how long current paintable wallpaper has been on but was on when they moved into house in March 1997….

I have opened up communication with two schools close to campus and am hopeful over our preferred one as had contact from SENCO directly. This is a school that attended AdoptionUK conference in November and specifically mentions attachment in pupil premium document. Hoping to visit it soon and if I get a good impression and indication they will accept Sqk to submit in year transfer form with aim of Sqk starting in September. Even if we haven’t moved I work so close we can manage…. prefer to avoid move early in new school year due to my own issues with that.

We are looking at houses and have a viewing arranged at one in a fortnight – yes early but really to look at space as often one on market so gives us idea of whether that style will work or not. Hoping it will as about 5 minutes walk from my office – I have been taking a lot of lunchtime walks as part of the #AdoptionFitClub on Twitter which seem to have been exploring area round the campus.

I am typing this laid in bed in our caravan which is on a early seasonal pitch which is about 45 minutes from T’s work. Doing lots of stays in it here and in its next seasonal pitch to get Sqk secure in the new caravan before we up end his secure home base. We are dealing with on/off wobbles over moving which we expected and are coping with. Still waiting to see if LA are going to assess for an EHCP but as SENCO said yesterday 6 weeks tends to be ignored so although request went in 6 weeks ago could be a wait yet. One thing I will discuss in visiting the potential new school as well…..

So 2018 starts with us in one place with Sqk at one school and will hopefully end (if our house sells) with us in another place entirely. I know this is the right decision for so many reasons but I do have a real connection to our house and indeed the town (with village mentality) where I have lived for the majority of last 26 years. Even when I spent 3 years in my first house in other side of city I came back regularly to see my parents. Will miss the closeness of family when we move – my parents now live ain’t the same place and both my siblings are local as well. We are only moving 10 miles but still….

Four years ago at this time we were sat on our settee with my camera on its tripod taking our first photos as a family having picked Sqk up from his foster carer’s house at around 9.30am. Following 12 bizarre days as we went through Introductions we brought home a little boy who was to become our son. Now the little toddler is a happy confident year 2 school boy – although he reverts to baby at times. Particularly as his childminder (of nearly 3 years) in August started looking after two babies. Continue reading “4th Family birthday”