It never occurred to me that I would not put my child through state education. As it was, he lasted just one year: the head of the school declared in writing that he was “posh, solid and wore glasses” and that was why he had no friends. No attempts were made to understand his behavioural problems. The borough offered no real help for children with special needs.
Eventually, I worked out that my son’s vision was very limited and few messages were being sent from his eyes to his brain. I found a therapist who understood how to correct his developmental problems and, under her direction, we worked daily on exercises that took him from developmentally retarded to able. It broke my heart to see students in the state system frustrated out of their minds by their learning difficulties.
There was nothing I could do in that system, so I gave up and took a job in the private sector. There, the school gives me the time to write up all that I know about what schools can do to minimise learning difficulties through PE and early years education.
There are far more wicked things in this world than teachers trying to stay in a system that they know does not work, Ms Levenson.
Charlotte Davies, Croydon, Surrey.