A magical encounter

Posted on: 06/06/2016

Apologies for the lack of updates, it's been a difficult few weeks. Ava is very well, but unfortunately our battle to keep her at Francis Holland School seems to intensify every day. Ava is doing well in the classroom, however her physical limitations are proving to be extremely problematic. Her teaching assistant is no longer confident to handle her on the stairs, so since her form room is on the first floor, she is now restricted to spending most of the day in a ground floor teaching room, separate to her classmates. It certainly eliminates risk of falling, but it's obviously not a long-term  solution, as Ava is lost without her friends. Frustratingly, our offers to fit stair lifts and stair climbing equipment are continuously met with 'health & safety' opposition. To further complicate the situation, Westminster council are involved because of our Education & Healthcare Plan application (to secure funding for Ava's teaching assistant) and have ruled that they will offer Ava the plan IF we move her to a state school 45 minutes away, because it has a lift. Their reasoning is because transitions take too long in her current school, yet they are happy to add 90 minutes travelling time to our day. So much for logic. As you can imagine, the endless conversations back and forth are not fun. Thankfully we have had a few lighter moments to counterbalance the strain, including a few days away at Soho Farmhouse, to attend the wedding of lovely friends John and Victoria. Ava enjoyed being in the countryside and seeing horses, chickens, rabbits and the magician Dynamo! Dynamo did some awesome tricks for Ava, including a keepsake card trick for Angelina who was away on her school trip to Cornwall. If only he could work his magic on our school situation...