‘I just sit in the corner by myself,’ my then five-year-old daughter told me matter-of-factly around a year ago when I enquired who she played with at school. It was towards the end of her first term in Year 1 and I was incredibly upset to think of her all alone during break times and not interacting with anyone.
Her dad and I were also quite angry with the school when this came to light. The issue of her being slow to make friends had first been raised by her Reception teacher during the previous school year. She’d gradually started to talk about some other children in her class and we hadn’t pursued the issue further with her teacher because we incorrectly thought that, although she didn’t have a big circle of friends, it was no longer of concern. We thought the issue should have been monitored by the school better, especially on the transition from Reception to Year 1 when the children move to a big playground with all the older children.
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