Lady_Brit

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Latest post on 30 July 2017 - 10:41

It sounds cliche, but I am sure everyone has had an experience here in Dubai with teachers informing parents that their child is showing 'abnormal' behavior. My son is turning 4 and was 3 years old at the time he attended FS1 at Safa community school last September. He is a happy, sociable child who was a little delayed with his speech and loved attending big school for the first time. During the second week at Safa, I started getting calls from the management staff informing me that my son was showing abnormal behavior, not following the curriculum, and that a shadow teacher was the only option if I wanted to keep him at the school. To elaborate, he didn't want to always go toilet when told, he did not want to change activities as he loved playing with the toy cars, and he liked to take off his shows at time. Oh and not forgetting that he liked to touch the carpet which the staff implied he had some kind of censorial issues. Sounds like normal behavior for a 3 year old if you ask me, and I am not exaggerating at all. It even got to a point where my son had to stay home for 3 days as a punishment or 'time to think' as he decided to knock a chair over when another boy took the toy car he was playing with. Not forgetting when he spent 2 hours in the principles office twice that week so he can further 'think' about his behavior. I of course took him to an occupational therapist as I became very paranoid as it seemed the story of my life became meeting the FS management team to discuss my abnormal child. The outcome was that he simply needed some speech support but socially and mentally he was fine and fit for school. The team at Safa of course disagreed and I received a call informing me that my son cannot come back to school. My point in sharing this is to inform every mum that sometimes, the pressures of Dubai and the schooling systems here leads to us preventing our children from simply being that: A Child. A teacher's/school's role (along with roles of us as parents) is to nurture and develop our children and accept that every child is unique, and some may need further support compared to others. Our kids need to tick certain boxes before being 'accepted' or else, let's just get rid of them, as there are many kids on the waiting list wanting a place at school. I dont hold a grudge, but every time I look back at what I was told by the Principle, the FS1 teacher and even the learning support teacher, I remember again that Safa Commmunity School is not what it makes out to be. If you have a perfect child - great then he/she will be accepted: they fit in. However, any signs of teachers having to work a little harder to support or develop your child, then sorry they will need to go else where. "We do not not have space for 3 year old who will not follow the curriculum."

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Lady_Brit

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