This week marks back to school and nursery for many of our kids and as much as we may breathe a sigh of relief for a moment of quiet for us and return to some structure and routine for them, many of us will also have reservations about how they will cope with it all – particularly as things look different; what will their support look like? Will they cope with, or have an understanding of the new measures put in place?
Sarah and Becky share Zephy and Esther’s experiences of return to nursery this week. We will be sharing more of our members experiences of returning to school and college over the next couple of weeks on social media, take a look.
‘Zephy has been attending a mainstream nursery for nearly 2 years. He was going 3 days a week until March when lockdown happened and he was suddenly home full time for the next 4 months.
He had a socially distanced visit from one of the nursery staff one day where they brought him a bag of some of his favourite toys there to have at home and some activities to do. Zephy progressed a lot at home during lockdown in many ways. His speech has developed and he is communicating more.
He restarted nursery at the end of July and were were so worried as to how he would resettle, would he want to even go etc. As soon as I told him it was nursery day his face lit up and he was so excited to be putting his shoes on and going in the car. He carried his back pack and walked though the front door himself. He is still going one day a week at the moment and he loves it. All the staff are happy to have him back and say he has grown so much over the summer!’
‘Our little one has been back at nursery for several weeks now and despite my concerns she walked in and didn’t look back! We have found her a lot more settled since going back, somewhat of a return to normal. Over lockdown nursery staff did their best to keep in contact with the children, videoing story times, songs and setting activities for them, something we really appreciated and has paid off. It melts my heart watching her toddle off with her backpack in the morning!
She starts pre-school next week – a new, more structured environment with new staff and children. Unfortunately she has only been able to meet staff over Zoom – which she has absolutely no interest in at all and understandably we cannot go into the building for drop off.
Not to be defeated by a 3 year old who won’t engage with a video call, they sent us a book of Makaton symbols about starting at pre school, with pictures of all the staff and classroom; to see the effort they put into making it and trying to help her settle in has put me at ease straight away.
For us this term also marks the beginning of our journey to getting an Educational Health Care Plan, the process is something I have been dreading for a while and the pandemic has made a bit trickier due to a lack of face to face assessments. However, we will take it one step at a time, and do all we can to get her the education she deserves.’
So this back to school time will be different, for sure, but our kids are no strangers to challenges, hopefully they will take it in their stride. We are so grateful for the support of their teachers who are striving to do their best and going the extra mile.