Marital separation and its effects on children

This week was hassling due to the things I had to do. Parents, student problems of whatever kind, form assembly, meeting parents are some of things I did this week. Time really seems to fly by!

I am today going to focus on one case in point, which remains imprinted on my mind. One day of this week, I phoned a parent of a Year 9 student because his son was misbehaving at school. He had also disrespected a teacher. The father is very willing to cooperate with the school SMT. In fact, when I phoned him, he offered to come to school on that day since he had a day off from work.

We soon realised that he wants the best for his unruly son. However, behind this man’s exterior, we could realise that there was a broken person. Slowly the  story of marital separation began to emerge.

As SMT, we decided to confront the boy in front of his father. The boy was surprised when he was summoned from his class to the headmaster’s office, and saw his father there. The boy’s mother is nowhere in the picture. The boy is also broken by his past, he needs professional help and the school will be providing this service.

At our school, we take the pastoral care of our students very seriously. We want their well being and we also want to ensure that they are emotionally and mentally stable so that they can focus on their academic endeavours.

A day at school

This October is really flying by so fast! It is already the middle of the month. Last Monday we had mass to commemorate the beginning of the scholastic year. This was held in the parish church, which is a stone's throw away from our school. 

I walked it to church with my year 9s. Next to me, I had Peter ( not his real name). He has a plethora of problems at home which overspill into his academic work and how he behaves in class. It is a new school for both him and me, as our school caters for year 9, 10 and 11. After the weekend, Peter came to school highly energetic. He could not stay still and I immediately smelled trouble. Whilst walking to church, I tried to distract him, by encouraging him to talk about his weekend, hoping that his tensions would diffuse. But it was to no avail. 

During mass itself, he continued with his misbehaviour, even though he said that he was an altar boy. He continued to play with the stress ball, sometimes throwing it in the air, and he was moving from one bench to another when I went to another part of the church to see that all the classes were in order. This caused disruption during the service as the students were turning round and looking at him. Some of them were even laughing and I had to tell them to turn and face the altar again.

After mass, we returned back to school..... time for a cup of tea! That is what I thought! However, it was not to be! The college prefect of discipline, summoned the previous week, came in the office. We started discussing Peter's behaviour and how best to handle him. We also summoned him in front of us. However the meeting ended abruptly.

The girl who had a fit some two weeks ago, had another one. By the time, the fit ended and her parents came for her, I was exhausted! 

The afternoon brought the usual trickle of students, some of them saying that they were feeling sick and so, I had to phone home. Others came to talk and ask for advice about this and that. It was truly a remarkable day!