– I sent a child to the office in the morning. She had a 102 fever and threw up. No one could reach her parents the entire day. They never came to get her after school. The receptionist walked her home and the parents didn’t even come to the door to find out why.
– A previous student from last year visited me during lunch. She told me all about how her cousin was murdered last night. Everyone is crying and sad. They’re going to see the body today. She spent her lunch and my whole lunch break with me just chatting.
– One of my students and his mother were kicked out his aunt’s home and had to move into a bed sit.
– Another student showed up in the same white shirt 3 days in a row, which by yesterday, had turned gray with grime. Thank goodness our school has extra clothes to give him and a shower if it comes to that.
– A different student’s father didn’t show up to chaperone for our school trip like he said he would. The child was sick with worry because his dad left angry the night before and never came home. He’s still not home. A trip to the counselor helped him out a lot.
– On the coach to said school trip, another student told me all about his secret money hiding space under his bed. He further explained that he has to hide his money because his granddad steals it to buy cigarettes. He now hides his money in my desk drawer because granddad found his new hiding place (it’s only £5).
– A little girl asked to grab 2 pears instead of one because she worried her mum was too tired to the food shop again. I gave her a bag of extra food and snacks that the school keeps around. Good thing we give all of our students free breakfast and she gets free school meals from the government.
– A little boy showed up with a shaved head. He was so embarrassed that he refused to take his hood off his head. Eventually he told me his mum shaved his head because his aunt has nits so badly that you can see the bugs jumping around. He was terrified of the nits crawling into his ears and getting into his brain. A little research together during lunch put his fears to bed.
– Another student shared that, when her dad gets out of jail, he’s bringing her to a skating rink. We started her a countdown on our class calendar.
– Her story prompted another boy to share that his dad is going to get his ankle monitor off soon so they can go for a bike ride this summer. Of my 29 students, I know of 5 who have a parent that has recently been or still is incarcerated.
Keep in mind that these are just the events of ONE week in ONE classroom. Are we actually surprised that so many of these kids can’t read or add? Is it really schools that are failing kids? Maybe schools have to be more than a place to learn for some kids. Teachers are doing more for kids than you can even begin to understand.
The government needs to stop with the constant testing of primary age children and look at the bigger picture some children need support in other areas other than reading and writing, many need a friend, a role model and a bloody hot meal.
When a school is only classed as good by the exam results we are failing the children who need the most helped.
