Hoping for a quiet 2016!

It has been a month since I last found the time to write a blog post. One very long, sleepless and stressful month.

We moved house 22nd-24th October and were very fortunate to have lots of help from my aunt, uncle and stepdad. The children were off school so my in-laws very kindly had them to stay in Suffolk for a few days. It made things so much easier.

Our new house is much smaller than we had beforehand and despite clearing out a lot of stuff it's still a tight squeeze. The garage is full to the brim with boxes I can't get to, let alone unpack, but the house itself is pretty much sorted.

The children are slowly getting used to their smaller bedrooms, but the dining room is a decent toy room for them and we're spending more time together in the cosy living room. We have a roof over our heads and that's the most important thing. Lack of space we can cope with.

Our tenancy at the old house finally ended today. We had hoped for it to end a few days after we left but the landlords wouldn't answer us over a request to a pro-rata rent refund so we lost 3 weeks worth of rent, which would've come in really hand with the expenses of moving home.

Two weeks ago the house went back on the rental market which was a real kick in the teeth for us and has led to feelings of anger, disappointment and almost betrayal, particularly as they saw us two days before it went back on the market and didn't mention it and we found out by accident, but honestly, I'm glad we're out of there. I think we'll be much happier here.

We've had numerous problems with fixing a couple of things around the old house. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get people out to quote for work, let alone actually come out and do the job! Hubby has lost a number of working hours and days chasing up incompetent tradesmen, while also trying to appease the landlords.

I didn't sleep properly for 2 months and I really don't know how I kept going. It just shows that sometimes, when horrible stuff is thrown at us, it really does make us stronger. A few years ago I wouldn't have believed in that at all and would have just collapsed.

Anyway, we're in and we're happy with our new home.

The stress didn't end there though. As some of you will be aware Harry has speech and language difficulties and we and the school have been pushing for more assessments as he's not making sufficient progress. Every time there's an assessment there's a new SAL therapist who doesn't know Harry well enough to assess him thoroughly and we felt that we were getting nowhere. Another new therapist came out in October and I expected much of the same but Harry's new Year 1 teacher was determined to pin her down and get a decent action plan into place.

The day before the appointment was parent's evening and Mrs B was full of praise for Harry's attitude towards learning but pointed out how he was really struggling in all areas and was in various intervention groups. Me & Hubby had seen, or thought we had seen, a marked improvement with his reading and writing since September, but clearly it wasn't enough. All of this still didn't prepare me for the news I was given the next day.

Mrs B had spent a lot of time with the SAL therapist and they had agreed that there were serious issues that the school could not deal with, particularly as the therapists only visit every 6 months or so. Harry has complex and specific needs and requires intense therapy, which means he is being referred to a Specialist Resource Base (SRB). I said, in our brief conversation, that we would agree to whatever was needed to help him and bring him up to speed but I wasn't entirely sure what it entailed so I would look into it. Later that afternoon I did a little research.

An SRB is a small class of 10-14 pupils who have similar speech and language needs to Harry. They have intense therapy sessions and weekly/twice weekly visit from specialists. It would be for a minimum of 2 terms up to a maximum of 4 terms. Harry would spend 4 days a week there and 1 day a week at his 'home' school. What hit me most about this was that just a few weeks ago we had to constantly reassure Harry that moving house did not mean changing schools and losing his friends. It worried him a lot. How on earth do I tell him that he's going to a new school, miles away from home, for 4 days out of 5?! Short-term it's going to be a nightmare for our family because we don't get funding for school transport so I have to get him to/from school myself but I also have the other two children to think about. It's a pain having 3 children in 3 different schools at the moment, especially with after-school clubs to organise, but they're all within walking distance to each other. I can see that I will be calling in a lot of favours! Hubby is also concerned about the cost of fuel, uniform etc but in my mind if it's what Harry needs then we'll find the money somehow, somewhere.

The panel who decide on Harry's place will sit again in January and once the decision is made then he will be moved after February half-term or Easter. The SAL therapist has spoken to one of the panel members and he has a strong case for a place and it will go ahead. From our point the sooner the better as he'll be starting junior school in September 2017 and we'd like him to get as close to his peers as possible before then.

We're keeping it quiet for now as we don't want to tell him until we know exactly what's happening and when. He's a fairly happy-go-lucky lad and makes friends easily so I'm hoping it won't phase him too much. He'll still have one day a week at his current school and some of our friends have already said that they'll make an extra effort for us to all meet up so he spends time with his friends out of school. My children have been through so much over the last 2 years and they've coped really well, so I'm hoping this latest bump in the road won't cause too much stress.