Since the last post about settling a child into the class

Since the last post about the child struggling to settle into the class, I am happy to say that he has transformed himself. It is almost like he is a different child now. He loves to come to school with a smile on his face and actually does not want to leave the class in the end of the day.

On the last day of the term, we sadly did not have an assembly, but I gave him a toolkit award for his developing independency, being able to manage himself in the classroom, and making friends.

During the term 1, I have developed some strategies to support him.

The first thing was it was important that his mum does not stay too long in the classroom so that it does not give him too much anticipation for him. When mum come to drop him off in the class, she says a simple goodbye, and a hug, and tells him that she will be back. Although he used to cry when mum left, but it did not take much time at all for him to engage in something.

I have made a book for him to take home. The book was consisted of things that he was doing at school. I had photos of him and simple sentences of what he was doing. I had one in the classroom so that he could have a look whenever he wanted.

With another teacher's suggestion, he brought a soft toy of a panda bear everyday. It was important that first he develops a sense of belonging in the classroom. When there is no sense of safety or security, children do not learn. I asked if he wanted to bring a small soft toy or something that belonged to his mum, he chose his item of the panda bear. It was really nice to see the panda bear always sitting next to him giving him emotional support everywhere.

One of the things that he struggled was coping during morning and lunch break. It must have been quite an overwhelming experience as a number of children play in the playground and the court. I made a chart of duty teachers as he kept asking who would be the duty teacher for a break/lunch break. I could see that he was worried about it so having a visual chart helped him cope with his anxiety and calm him down a little bit. He would hang out with a duty teacher rather than children, and it took a while until he made his own friends and started to play together. Thanks to all the children who have supported him settle into the classroom, it encouraged him to develop really good friendships with his friends.

When he first started, he would use words like "I can't do it", "I want you to stay here."  It seemed like he wanted all my attention, and he felt just uncomfortable or not able manage his feelings when he was doing thins on his own. I would tell him that I need to spend time with other children too, so I would come back in 5 minutes and have a look at what he is doing.

Now, he is able to work individually, and he spends a lot of time on a task that he was given to achieve high standard work.

A lot of efforts went into making such big changes in his life. Lots of practices of many things like coming to school, sitting on a mat, playing together, managing his belongings, working together, getting to know other people in the classroom, and trying something new.

I am so happy that he is now settled into the class, and I hope that he can support new children coming into our class next term.
We often talk about how it felt on the first day of school, we might feel scared, nervous, or shy, excited....whatever we felt, it is ok to feel that way, and we are all here to be kind and support each other.