Mummy’s Little Soldier: A troubled child. An absent mum. A shocking secret.. Casey Watson

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СКАЧАТЬ – at least for the morning – was a real plus, as Darryl was obviously happy to have her undivided attention as he sat and worked through his numeracy book. Similarly, Cody was thrilled when I asked her if she’d like to make some leaf decorations for our giant borders, and set to work with both focus and enthusiasm. Even Ria turned out to be reasonably biddable, in that she admitted that she had her geography book with her and would be happy to spend the first period working on the project she was currently doing on waste disposal and recycling.

      With everyone gainfully employed, I then took myself off to my desk, where I gathered both my thoughts and my tattered notebook – one of the staples of my giant satchel – and began scribbling down my first impressions. It was one of those regular parts of my working day that I did almost automatically now, and was the best way to start to build up profiles of the kids so that I could decide how best I could be of service to them.

      It also helped unscramble the muddle of incoming data those first minutes and hours with a new group always brought. And this lot really were a mish-mash of personalities. So, if I were to have any order in my classroom at all this term, I had to think fast about how best to address the problem of fitting lessons in around their different needs.

      Because of all this the next thirty minutes or so passed a lot quicker than the previous ten, and the appearance of break on the horizon (heralded by the sight of Darryl standing up) came as something of a shock to me, having been so engrossed in ‘quiet work’ myself.

      Break being universal, in that every minute counted, there was the usual flurry of frantic activity so that not a single second of it was wasted. Even Darryl, whom Kelly would return to the Learning Support department rather than the playground – not just yet – was happy to be manhandled into his coat. I asked Cody and Ria not to be late back – another autopilot utterance – and was pleased to get a nod and half-smile from Ria in return. Perhaps she’d surprise everybody and have a change of heart about her couldn’t-care-less attitude.

      ‘See you in the staff room?’ Kelly asked as she led Darryl towards the door.

      I shook my head. ‘No, I’m just off to see a man about a new boy.’

      ‘Ah yes. Good luck, then!’ she said, grinning. ‘I reckon you’re going to need it …’

      ‘What??’ I called after her. ‘You flipping do know something, don’t you?’

      But when I got outside, she’d already disappeared.

Chapter 5

      ‘Ah. You’ll be here about Carl Stead,’ Donald said, glancing up and smiling sheepishly as he shuffled some reports on his desk.

      ‘Spot on,’ I said. ‘You’d like me to have him, I hear.’

      He motioned me to sit down. ‘If you feel able to, Casey. I know you’ve got quite a demanding bunch already. Not that I anticipate him giving you too much trouble,’ he added quickly. ‘Yes, he’s disruptive and inclined to fisticuffs, but Julia and I both feel he’ll be a lot less so in a smaller group.’

      ‘That’s good to hear,’ I said. ‘So what’s his background? Do we already know much about him?’

      ‘A bit,’ he said. ‘Truth be known, he did come with something of a track record. He has mild learning difficulties and a penchant for being cheeky, getting into rough stuff in the playground, that sort of thing, but you know what it’s like – sometimes these boys just outgrow their environment, get too big for their boots being top dog in primary …’ He grinned. ‘And being back at the bottom of the heap here settles them down. Which was what we’d assumed might well happen with this lad, so we thought we’d see how we went with mainstream classes, but unfortunately it seems to run deeper than that.’

      ‘But it’s only his third day today,’ I pointed out. ‘Just how bad can he have been, Don?’

      He picked up his glasses and held them slightly in front of his eyes as he scanned the papers in front of him. ‘Let’s see. He was sent out of his registration group on day one, and by the looks of it, he’s disrupted just about every other class he’s been in since.’

      ‘Class clown type of stuff,’ I asked, ‘or worse than that?’

      ‘A bit worse. And, yes, it is more than that, Casey,’ Donald said. ‘It’s also the state he is coming to school in. I know some parents can’t afford the whole kit and caboodle – uniform, decent shoes, PE kit and so on – and Carl’s mum evidently falls into that category. His clothes are clearly second hand, perhaps passed down by an older relative, or maybe from a charity shop, but it’s not just that he looks shabby; he comes to school dirty and obviously having not washed. The things he says, too; inappropriate things – a couple of teachers have remarked on it. I don’t know, Casey, there’s just something. Which is why I want him to spend most of his time with you rather than just going to Learning Support.’

      ‘To what end? Do we have a specific plan? To try to find out if there’s more to it than just moderate learning difficulties? To visit his mum at home? Or just to try to get him into a learning frame of mind and work on his behaviour?’

      ‘Just the kind of questions I knew you’d ask, Casey, and yes to all of them. If there’s something underlying then there would be no point in trying to modify his behaviour to suit us, would there?’ Donald smiled. ‘And I know you have a knack with these things.’

      So that was that. Directly after morning break, I would be taking charge of a fourth child to make my mix of students even more ‘dynamic’ than it already was. That was the kind of result ‘having a knack’ with things got you.

      ‘Settle down!’ I called out as the school bell rang out, and Ria and Cody came flying into the room. Cody was sort of galloping and making loud shrieking noises while Ria – surprise, surprise – was busy egging her on. Kelly and Darryl followed them, in an altogether quieter manner, Darryl close by Kelly’s side and marching in with his head down.

      By now, I had pulled two tables together and placed five chairs around them. I knew that for the time being Kelly would have to sit with Darryl, and I thought the best course of action was to get them all together to start with, and then decide if and when I needed to split them up.

      ‘Just before we start,’ I said, as everyone grabbed pencil cases and automatically went to sit down, ‘we have another boy joining us now. A year 7 student called Carl Stead. Hence the extra chair. Ria, perhaps he can sit by –’

      ‘And what’s wrong with this one?’ she asked, a look of derision on her face.

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with him,’ I said, locking gazes with her. ‘Why should there be?’

      She shrugged, and looked around her. ‘Because, apart from me, miss, there seems to be something wrong with everyone who comes here.’

      ‘Not funny, Ria,’ I said with a warning glance. ‘One of the few rules of this classroom is that we don’t say things that would hurt the feelings of someone else. Now then,’ I added, turning my attention back to the group and handing out blank workbooks, ‘can you all please take out a pen or pencil and write your names on the front.’

      ‘Ah, perfect timing, I see,’ said a voice from behind me. ‘And I see there’s a place already prepared.’ I turned around СКАЧАТЬ