Back to school!

It's been an odd 24 hours. In my last blog I talked about Jolyons troubles at school. Of course, every story has more than one side. Jolyons reaction to alot of what has been going on hasn't been as peaceful as we'd hoped. So now all the teachers and parents are getting together to try and 'rearrange' the dynamics in the classroom and the school. This meant that today I spent the whole day at school with Jolyon. It was an interesting experience. The woodwork tables are smaller than I remembered them! There were some minor issues but all in all it went really well and I am so proud of Jolyon and his work. It comes down to keeping him occupied, which can be hard for people that don't speak english to the extent needed.

To work with kids you need to be able to speak their language to the extent of being able to delve deeply into the childs emotional issues. You need to understand the subliminal messages the child is sending out. You need to tie the childs words with the childs body language to get the true picture. This is impossible if your understanding of the language is only basic. And as Jolyon has had such a rough time, his interest in learning Icelandic is zero. I'm not saying it's the teachers fault because no-one can be expected to speak a second language to the same extent as their native tounge. But I can't help to think that something could have been done sooner, maybe even at his first school. In the healthcare system you have the right to a translator if you don't speak the language. Why not in the educational system? That could have made the difference. I know ... it's easy with 20-20 hindsight.

Anyway, I enjoyed school today and am very proud of my son. Now we need to keep this momentum going. That said, Joanna intends to give him two mornings of home teaching which will serve two purposes. It will take the pressure off him (and school) and it will better prepare him for the academic challenges that lay ahead in a new, english school.

I'm sounding all ohh so caring about school and the other children but the brutal fact is that we have such a short time before leaving that all I care about is Jolyon. I care about him having some closure in this matter and sorting out his issues before we go. Otherwise there is a risk of him taking alot of this stuff with him to England and all of us going through the same things again. We want to leave the bad memories of Iceland in Iceland and take the good memories with us. There's a few of them in between, as well ... it's not been all bad ... it's just been all hard ...