It’s a soggy day in Birmingham this morning. As my daughter, Phoebe, says “it’s an average British day”. Yet, there’s a buzz of optimism in the air. Phoebe is…happy.
As you might already know, we took the decision to begin Home Education at the beginning of January this year. It follows a very long battle with trying to get Phoebe used to the school system. Sadly, it turned out to be an epic fail. From the very first days of nursery, Phoebe hated school. She loved learning, but couldn’t deal with any other aspect of being in a school system.
The worst part of it all was that Phoebe struggled so much, and nobody seemed to believe her. We were fighting a battle every single day and nobody seemed to care. It took some pretty serious incidents before she was even referred. All I ever got was ‘she’s fine‘. She. Was. Not. Fine.
It all came to a head towards the end of last year when Phoebe wasn’t eating properly, had insomnia, wasn’t interacting with anyone and was just permanently unhappy. We had a series of in depth discussions about her future and what she wanted. She wanted to be happy and not to feel how she was feeling all the time. She no longer wanted to be having doctor’s and hospital appointments trying to determine the causes of some of the strange symptoms she was experiencing. Turns out, those symptoms she was experiencing were a physical manifestation of stress in her body because of school.
Fast forward to now; Phoebe attends a Home Education pottery and art class twice a week, run by the most amazing people, and I watch Phoebe create. She doesn’t stop smiling, and her work is fantastic. She is focussed, relaxed, and happy. That’s something I really thought I’d lost with her, and I couldn’t be happier that her spark has returned.
With the latest government drives on maths and local government cuts to services, it really makes me feel sorry for the children out there in schools that aren’t going to get to experience half the things Phoebe now has the opportunity to. Cuts to children’s services and the arts mean that the first things to go are things that actually help and nurture children’s mental health. The ‘big wigs’ that run the country do not seem to understand that children learn so much more productively when they’re happy!
I’ll write to update in a few months, once the ‘honeymoon period’ is over- although I’m fairly certain Phoebe will still be far happier than she ever was in a school setting.
Laura x
