What can a typical day look like?
A day in school. Up at 5.00am, breakfast and shower. Play with Nala my Husky. Check my box of tricks, add lunch, load car, and get gone by 6.30am to Reading, a school I have worked in for some years now. The trip is usually around 70 minutes, but I pull over near the end of the trip to call my son in Australia for 20 minutes. Speak to my gorgeous granddaughter of6 months. In school for around 8.00am.
Get through the security gate only to find I now need a pass to get through the door. Use the other entrance! On to my room to set up for the day. First student due at 9.00am…oh! he is on a field trip today.
Next. A student I have seen a couple of times. Last time he was late as he was fighting. He broke his hand and attends wearing a hand brace. Good lad, a bit cocky…but he listens, and we do some good work.
The third student has very poor attendance at school and again I have seen him a couple of times, he has missed many sessions and the session is mostly a refresher of work carried out earlier.
Lunch, a pasty, a Mr Kipling almond slice and a drinkable yoghurt. Yum.
Now a group session, a very mixed group for social and anxiety skills. A student with gender issues, foreign student with poor communication ability, a school non attender (mostly), an autistic student. This is only the second session, so the group has yet to ‘gel’. Hard work for me to keep them all on track and engaged.
Final session with very intelligent autistic student. We discuss why he gets taunted as introverted or a loner when he seeks his own company more often than that of his friends.
Early finish as a student was able to move their session to fill in for a non-attendee. Home trip in torrential rain. Joy.
Once home it is email responses, phone calls to families that have called during the day or responded to Facebook advertising. No further appointments. Reports to write up from the day at school. Lots of coffee (and chocolate). Wrap up the day 8.00pm.
My school days are long but satisfying.
