Fosterman’s Blog about Fostering
After the weekend’s excitement it was time to get James (name changed) back to normality and refocused on school and everyday life. I was slightly concerned that there may be some jealousy amongst his friends and that he might get some negativity at school but it never happened.
People seemed genuinely happy for him. However since Sunday I have spoken to him about the need to concentrate on school. Although James’ situation is slightly different there have been so many looked after children who fail education due to the attitudes of parents and their feeling that they are going to fail.
I remember one sibling group I fostered many years ago who had been told that they would learn more from watching TV than they would at school and that school was a waste of time. Those children had that attitude for a number of weeks until we got them into school and could start working with them on a day to day basis. However the eldest child was impossible to talk to and she constantly played truant and was rude and obnoxious in class. Education is a constant issue with fostering and takes a lot of hard work and understanding. However it is a fundamental for every child to have a good education and looked after children are no different.
Fostering Blog
James was a little distracted, which was only natural, but we had a pretty quiet week. I took him to training on Tuesday where he, and the other lad who attended on Sunday, were centre of attention. It was a hard training session but James loved it and really got involved. It was like he felt that he had to prove himself. We had a chat with some of the other dads afterwards and they were all genuinely delighted for James. On Wednesday morning I received a call from a Youth Development Manager at the football club where James had attended the previous Sunday. He wanted to make arrangements to come and meet me at home. It was only me that he wanted to see, not James at this stage. We set a date for the next week. I decided not to tell James until after the meeting and the guy agreed that he agreed with that.
James asked me whether he should play for his club on Saturday as he didn’t want to get injured and miss Sunday’s session with the professional club. I said that it would be best for him to play as I didn’t want him to miss out. However I received a call from his current club to say that the professional club had been in touch and asked them not to select him. He sounded disappointed but understood why. I told James and this made him feel even more excited.
The rest of the week was quiet and I wanted to keep it that way. The football could wait until Sunday and there was still chores and homework to be carried out. I’ll give James his due that he wasn’t distracted by outside events and that he was his usual self with the exception of the occasional quip about what Aston Martin he would buy me when he was rich.
