School Daze

Those of you who know Olivia will know this picture is a fake.

Of course it is Olivia, but Olivia could never sit unaided on a step or anywhere else for that matter.

We took this photo last week on her first day at (pre) school. I recall my own “first day at school” picture (but of course I was standing) and when I saw that Rob had cleverly doctored this picture to show Olivia as independent, it made me so very upset to see her as she should have been at school age. It is yet another example of what is for me, a very painful milestone.

That aside Olivia did indeed start school. I’ve barely mentioned it out loud since we chose her school as I was in disbelief it may ever happen (in truth it almost didn’t..) We looked around the school at the beginning of the year and to both our surprise we really liked it. It’s a school that takes a wide spectrum of children, not just the very profound like Olivia and that is reflected in the atmosphere. It was noisy, it was colourful, the staff were delightful, the facilities impressive, she’ll get physio, music, sensory input, classmates, noise and many other things we don’t have the expertise or energy to give her. Before we knew it we had put her name down and had started the ball rolling.

As usual we’ve had an endless checklist of things to be done as kids like Olivia don’t just “start school”. The school needed to know that the ridiculous statementing process was underway (it is), there were pre meetings, and more pre meetings involving us and a whole host of people in Olivia’s little world. Reports were photocopied, spreadsheets produced, care plans were written and by the time we got to her start date we had spent almost six hours in the school getting things right.

Of course her start date slipped by a week (something about the physiotherapy department…) and then another day (Nurse requiring a letter for a hospital) but last week we finally got everything place (cutting it fine with barely an hour to spare) and Olivia started (pre) school. Well, two mornings a week for now.

And it went well, really well. The icing on the cake was to read in her home school book “A really happy first session for Olivia, she seemed to find our noisier children very funny! She’s been an absolute delight and a huge hit with the staff and kids”.

I know this picture of her was only possible by the magic of photo editing, and she’ll never look her proud Daddy in the eye whilst having her photo taken. But that day I couldn’t have been more proud of her. Sending my child to a school for profound and multiple learning disabilities, was not the school I had wished for, but as I pushed her into the classroom I felt myself beaming at my beautiful little girl. For now Olivia has gained some true identity, and has her own place in the world.