Finally today, after just over a month of trying I finally got someone from my sons school to acknowledge me!
Callan moved to his dads last year to begin his GCSE years, believing grass is greener and all that.
A year on and clearly it isn’t. He has struggled academically, witnessed the breakdown of his dads marriage and wanted to move back home with me for good but as he is in the middle of his GCSE’s he has to stay put.
His end of year report was a bit of an eye opener and it was very clear that Callan is struggling in the areas where he lacks confidence – especially English. Over the summer holidays I took it upon myself to buy revision books and utilise BBC Bitesize to help him catch up, which was painful, but I hope very worth it.
I had been getting no communication from his school, and just assumed that Callan’s dad was getting it, but it turned out that the letters and progress reports mysteriously kept disappearing, so at the beginning of the school year I contacted the school to arrange an appointment to speak to his teachers and come up with a plan.
I received a courteous call from the school secretary confirming she had my email and she would pass it on to the relevant teachers, then nothing……….so I chased, and chased and chased some more.
One of Callan’s teachers finally asked who I was (he has my maiden name) and then contacted his dad to confirm that I was his Mum. Talk about insulted – my name should have been all over his registration paperwork and it does make me think what his Dad has been up to (there has been talk of changing his name, which I strongly disagree with).
So finally I have access to his results and his teachers are keeping me in the loop about his progress so I can help him as best I can when he is here and I finally have a parents evening to go to next week, providing I can arrange cover for my mindees!
So, Operation GCSE’s has now started…..wish me luck!
Best of luck with that and I really hope your plan works. I had similar problems with my two older kids when my marriage broke down so I understand your frustration.
Thank you!!
Wishing you luck. My eldest son will be starting secondary school next September. I have a feeling he may want to move in with his dad one day in the future, I have a 21 month old and 3 year old now too and he gets annoyed with them, especially as we live in a fairly small house. I hope everything goes well.
That was part of the problem here, plus the fact he had to share his bedroom!!
Oh and PS, my eldest son is at present with his dad and stepdad and a friend at Go Ape with the voucher I won on your blog in the Summer!!