Isabelle: Growing up, moving on.

Schools, even if you work in one, are frustrating for parents. There is perhaps always something more you want them to be doing or saying or showing…. but largely, they do their best for the children in their care and do an amazing job.

I read this morning someone saying about a departing teacher ’I’m sad she’s going, she gave my children the gift of learning’. It made me realise what a wonderful thing that is.

I don't have a rose-tinted view of her primary years - it's been really hard for all of us at times - but that's the reality of schools and of bringing up children.

Isabelle has, in the main, loved her Primary School experience. She has been fortunate to have some incredible teachers, some remarkable TA’s and has been supported so well through what, at times, has been very difficult.

However, there have been countless friendship issues, some of which will never be resolved, some of which will perhaps go unmentioned and some for which time will be a great healer. She has dealt with her mummy and daddy no longer being together in the best way she could and with care and love and attention from many at school and outside. She has struggled at times with the pressures of  growing up and the responsibility that brings but she has come out the other side not unscathed but knowing where she stands and, as I witnessed this morning, knowing what she wants...and doesn’t.

She isn’t alone. Other girls and boys in her class have found the primary ages hard too.

This morning, I watched her class of 32 children push any problems they've had to one side and celebrate all they have done, all they have achieved and all the opportunities they have been given, sought or earned…and it was beautiful.

I’m going back later to be there as my little girl leaves St Mary’s - a school which gave me the best start in my life I could ever have wished for - for the last time as a pupil. It’s a big deal for many reasons. Not just because she’s taking the step up to secondary but also because she and Emilio, who are very close, won’t be in school together again until he is in year 7 and she in year 11. They have been used to getting brief moments together in the playground or saying hi to each other. Isabelle has looked out for Emilio and he for her. 

She will walk out of the school, t-shirt emblazoned with the signatures and messages of her class and teachers, the medal she received this morning for her work on the school council will be hung around her neck, her Prefect badge attached to her chest. Her eyes, like mine, will be tear-filled in that moment but her head will be held high and memories of SATS and other worries will, if they haven't already, slowly dissipate. 

Above all and regardless of the situation between us, her mummy, daddy and little brother will walk out with her, we’ll take the summer to rest and then together (albeit not completely) we all go on the next part of her adventure with her.

I am sorry that, at times, things have been harder than they should have been at school and in her life but I’m grateful for my little girl’s resilience, her love and compassion, kind and caring nature and for continuing to try so hard at absolutely everything she does.

Thank you St. Mary’s, particularly Mrs Furness and Mr Sloane, for guiding my baby so delicately through the last couple of years. As the assembly said this morning: If you dig deep enough foundations, what gets built on top has no limits.