It's Monday morning and the children have arrived onto the playground.

 

Alyssa was chatting to Tilly about what she did over the weekend.

 

 

A few moments later, Arjun came up to both girls and shouted "boo!" The girls both jumped and chased Arjun around the playground.

 

As the bell rang, the children waved to their parents and went into school.

 

Sat comfortably in their seats, Alyssa, Tilly and Arjun chatted away until their teacher greeted the class.

 

"Good morning children," said Miss Humphries with her usual warm smile.

 

"Good morning Miss Humphries," replied the children with lots of energy.

 

After registration the children started their work. It was maths first which was not everyone's favourite subject!

A few moments later there was a knock at the classroom door and Miss Smith walked in.

 

"Good morning Miss Smith," said Miss Humphries.

 

"Good morning Miss Humphries," replied Miss Smith,with a smile. "I'm here to help Alfie," she added as she walked over to him and sat next to him.

 

 

Miss Smith is Alfie's new teacher as Miss Kaur has gone on maternity leave as she will be having her baby soon.

 

Alfie needs extra support at school because he is dyslexic and Miss Smith will be helping him.

 

In his Reception class, Alfie's teacher started seeing signs of his dyslexia as he was struggling with phonics. He was also having some difficulty in reading and writing.

 

Dyslexia is a learning disability people have as they are not able to identify speech sounds and are unable to connect them to letters and words.

 

Alfie's parents had been into school several times to speak to the school's Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator to understand how he was doing at school. This also gave them the opportunity to ask any questions about how they could support Alfie with his school work.

 

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator always said what a lovely well mannered boy Alfie was and that he tries hard at school. They said due to his dyslexia he got confused by words, numbers and letters and also struggled to remember information he sees or hears.

 

After Maths it was break time so the children quickly ate their snacks of fruit and ran onto the playground.

 

Tilly and Arjun decided to play basketball which was Arjun’s favourite sport. He had played basketball at the park with Tilly and Tom and saw that Tilly enjoyed learning a new sport although her favourite sport was tennis.

 

Alfie and Alyssa regularly played hopscotch and the first time they played Alyssa noticed that Alfie got a little bit confused with the numbers. She slowly explained the numbers to him and they both had so much fun.

 

As break time finished the children returned to their classrooms.

Alfie was telling Alyssa that he liked his new teacher Miss Smith, and that she understands that he reads and writes slowly, gets confused with letters in words and that he had wrote the letters b and d the wrong way round.

 

"That's good Alfie you like Miss Smith,” said Alyssa, “because Miss Smith is here to help you. We are here to help you too so don't forget to ask your friends for help."

 

"Thanks Alyssa, I have the best friends at school who help me and understand that I struggle with my work," replied Alfie.

 

 

“You helped me with my artwork Alfie,” said Alyssa remembering back to the time Alfie had helped Alyssa with her drawings.  “It’s what friends do, we look out for each other,” she said as they arrived in their classroom.

 

Alfie had helped Alyssa with her drawings for art a few times and had enjoyed helping her. 

 

Alfie also took part in the school’s Artist of the Year competition.  He was so proud to win first prize and have his work displayed in the local library.

 

Alfie’s parents took photographs when he was presented with his certificate at the library and his school friends also came along.

 

 

Although Alfie struggles with numbers, words and letters he is very creative and brilliant at art and often helps his friends with their work.

 

Miss Humphries set work for the children to complete which took the rest of the morning to finish.

 

Soon after it was lunch time. The children who were having school dinners went to the hall first followed by children who had brought in their packed lunches.

 

Alyssa, Tilly, Arjun, and Alfie sat together to eat their packed lunches.

"I'm going to the park after school," said Tilly. "I'm going to play on my new scooter which I had for my birthday. Do you think your parents will let you come to the park?"

 

"I'm staying in after school club today, said Arjun with a frown, "my dad is finishing work late."

 

"I think I can come," replied Alyssa. "When my mom comes to pick me up I'll ask her and tell you."

 

"Great," replied Tilly. "What about you Alfie?"

 

"I will ask my mom when she comes to pick me up," replied Alfie. "If she says yes then I'll bring my scooter too and we can have a race."

 

"Yippee!" shouted Tilly doing her little wriggle while sat down.

 

After eating their lunch, the children went onto the playground and played with their friends. As the bell rang they all returned to their classrooms.

 

The afternoon went very quickly as it was PE. The children did their warm ups first.

“1 2 3 4 5 clap your hands and touch your toes

6 7 8 9 10 turnaround and stretch your arms

Let’s jog on the spot

And be a robot

Now that we’re all done

It’s time to have some fun.”

 

All the children enjoyed PE because keeping active is fun. Tilly was quick to get a skipping rope as she enjoyed counting how many skips she can do.

 As the home time bell rang the children lined up and Miss Humphries let them go to their parents and families one by one.

An excited Alyssa asked her mom if she could meet Tilly at the park and Alfie asked his mom. Both parents spoke to Tilly's mom and agreed to meet at the park at 5.00pm.

 

"I'll bring my scooter too," said Alyssa excitedly.

 

Waving goodbye to each other, the children left with their parents and looked forward to having a good time at the park.