Wagging School @ Age 5!

Stella is wagging school and her parents are helping her to do so. LOL. She isn’t the only one from her class doing it. Another child, one of the New Gang of 5, is also wagging school for the same reason as Stella. Nope, she is not wagging to go shopping with her mum and nope she isn’t going to Europe for a holiday. It was however a fact that she was to wag in August to go to Beijing with her parents but that idea had to be shelved back in June because her dad couldn’t get away from work. So what is Miss Stella up to or should the questions be: What are these parents up to? Why are they encouraging Stella to wag?

LOL. Stella is not exactly wagging school. She is testing out another school. Her friend is also testing out yet another school. Fed up with the lack of support at her current school and tired of mingling with people with more money than sense, it is now almost certain that Stella will be attending a new school next year. The school they have selected for her this time is an alternative school known to offer an excellent academic programme in a different way that also allows her lots of room to grow. This school had accepted Stella last year but her dad backed away because he wasn’t familiar with alternative education. I think Stella’s mum was also put off by the school’s distance from their home but after nearly 3 terms of lousy service, they have had enough. Stella is now getting ready to move. Arrangements have been made for Stella to visit the school between now and the end of the year – a transition process to prepare her for full time attendance next year. I wonder how her parents got her accepted when such schools usually have long waiting lists.

Stella went with her parents for a short meeting after school a couple of weeks ago. She told me that the ladies were nice and how one of them reminded her of her favourite Kindergarten teacher, Miss F. Miss F was just a trainee teacher who was at Stella’s Kindergarten for a term when the Supergirl was 3. The relationship between the two must have been very good because the Supergirl still likes her very much.

This last Friday, Stella wagged school to attend this other school. She had a great time and told me all about the things she could do at the new school. She was also inspired by a discussion on mammals and begged me to go online to look for pictures of mammals with her. She had wanted to write a book on mammals.

I don’t know how the arrangement for Stella to ‘attend’ two schools will work out in the next term. There are always a lot of events scheduled for the fourth and final term of the year. I do however hope that the new school will live up to the family’s expectations next year. I really do sincerely hope that they have found Stella a learning community she can belong to. Children like Stella are often misunderstood and are sometimes deliberately ‘forgotten’ because their needs can increase the teacher’s work load and drain resources/attention planned for the rest of the class. And in some rare instances, not to say that this is happening at Stella’s current school, people with insecurities of their own are also intimidated by people like Stella. If I have a magic wand, I too wish to say a spell and get her out of her current school ASAP.