Yeah, our visit is over! I can't explain how stressful I found it getting ready for this visit. I had sleepless nights and worrisome days; my friends [and my poor husband] couldn't believe I was so stressed over this visit and no matter how many wise words and wonderfully kind things they said I couldn't seem to calm down. I had spent years and years dreading this day and it was showing. Needless to say my fears were completely unfounded and a waste of energy but we won't mention this any more OK.
Our inspector was lovely; she put me at ease straight away and was almost apologetic about all the paperwork she needed to complete. Sprite had made her some cup cakes which put us in her good books straight away LOL. Our hour long meeting stretched to over 2 hours as she took time chat to all the children and look at their lapbooks and project work. She has a love for art and loved their mixed media art journals and their sketch books. She was very pleased with all their progress especially Lego's and gave us some alternatives to his IGCSE plans - which we won't be taking on this occassion but it's great that she had so much information available for us.
She was great with Sprite as she had experience of teaching dyslexic children and was able to give me lots of advice and put him at ease too; it was good for him to hear from someone else that dyslexia didn't mean that he couldn't follow his career dreams. After she left he said 'I am so happy, I didn't think that I could be an architect or an engineer' [two jobs that she thought he would be great at]! She is going to push for him to get a formal assessment with the LEA; she said that even if I had a private diagnosis it wouldn't be accepted by the examination bodies for him to get a scribe or additional time for his exams...he would need an assessment by the LEA! However, dyslexia isn't considered as a 'special education need' [not sure if that's a national opinion or a local one] so there may not be much help available for him via the LEA, especially as he is home educated but it's good to have her on his side. She seems quite determined to get him some help!
All in all she seemed impressed with the children, our plans and what we have done so far; I thought she was really supportive of my method of teaching and she loves the whole lapbook thing. So that's it for another 12 months! PHEW! Just the report to wait for now. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a special lunch to celebrate.
We're all off for an early night to catch up on my sleep as I have my course to go to tomorrow inshaAllah.
Sweet dreams!
