First Day of School

Suri had his first day of primary school this week, and what a change it is! He now has this 4-layered uniform, homework and full days every day. He has after-school clubs, playdates, swimming lessons, football, tennis and music. He has a full week!

It feels like he is doing a lot sometimes, but kids do enjoy doing a multitude of activities – and they have so much energy!

In my last post, I had talked about school selection as an important aspect of bringing up a visually challenged child. Each school is unique, each parent has a different set of criteria that is important to them, and we do have a lot of choices in the UK. The criterion that drove my choice was class size. I wanted Suri to feel comfortable to ask for what he wanted in a relatively intimate and personal environment. One thing the doctors keep telling me: kids adjust. They stop telling you when the vision feels a little blurry or if there is a slight pain that could be triggered by a new tumour. You can rarely depend upon them to warn you about early signs (of Retinoblastoma or other childhood cancers). In an intimate and closely monitored environment, you are more likely to pick up discomforts the child experiences.

Another consideration for me at the time of selection was the willingness of the school to accommodate special requests. That was something I need not have even worried about – Rb children need very little ‘special’ help in school – but it is up to the Visual Impairment Unit to watch and decide how much support the child actually needs. My borough sent in observers to watch Suri at school for close to 3 hours and decided he did not need any special help whatsoever. He now receives no special considerations at school. One of my earlier worries was about him being able to read the big screen and write in a legible way, but he seems to be doing fine with both.

And as I have written in previous posts, Suri does everything a child his age does with full vision. He is quite academic (he won an award in his school year), he loves cycling, sports, music, trains and playing video games. He still throws tantrums at eye drops during checkups, but hospital visits are part of the routine for him.

A lot of parents write to me when they are in the early stages of treatment, worried about how the child’s life will be affected, and I always write back to them – they will be fine, regardless of the treatment they have had to endure.