Looking Back at the First Day of School

Starting School Fears

When my youngest started school I feared for his future. You see the thing is he wasn’t like the other children and showed a Global Developmental Delay. His speech was limited and so I never imagined that he would ever be able to read and write. I worried about whether he would ever make friends (due to difficulties with social skills), his toileting needs and whether he would ever make academic progress. He wasn’t even able to put on his socks and shoes by himself never mind get dressed independently. We were lucky enough to get him a statement of special educational needs and the help of a really supportive school. Looking back I see I had nothing to fear and that with the right help he has come on leaps and bounds. Education has helped him in so many areas of his development – not just academic. It has helped him become a well-rounded and happy boy: One who is able to express his needs, wants and desires.

Not all children around the World are lucky enough to access such a quality education and we feel very privileged and thankful for all the help our son has received. Persil have launched the `Learning for Tomorrow’ initiative in partnership with Unicef. This is the first step to improving the futures of children around the world by giving them access to quality education and helping them fulfil their potential. 130 million children in education aged 9 will have failed to learn the basic reading, math, writing and social skills needed to reach their full potential; and an additional 58 million are without access to even a basic education.

The First Day of School

Thinking back to that first day I remember how comfortable and confident he was to leave me. Secure in the knowledge that he would be okay. That deep down I knew that everything would be alright. It was the first time he had used his Microscooter and his gross motor skills weren’t very good. If you see him now you would never believe it as he maneuvers it from side-to-side with one leg sticking out in the air! All I wanted to hear at the end of that first day is that he was happy. Mothers around the World have the same fears as I did on their child’s first day, and want the same outcomes. But yet things are very different for them. Watch `First Day’ a short documentary where mothers discuss the amazing milestone of the first day of school for their children and what it means for them.

The Learning for tomorrow initiative is funded with an initial €1.4 million donation from Persil and Unilever Global Partnerships. This will contribute to Unicef’s education programmes – providing access to quality education opportunities for 10 million children in Brazil, India and Vietnam. This goes from preschool right up to University. Raising public awareness of the right to a quality education as well as making ways to make quality education possible. Empowerment of children, especially helping girls fully participate and be more involved in the decision-making which affects their lives.

As part of Persil’s partnership with Unicef, celebrating the giving of 10M children worldwide access to quality education, Persil are running a Photo-A-Week challenge. Each week for 4 weeks, you could win exciting prizes! Each week Persil will announce a school theme on their Instagram page (@PersilUK) and ask you to upload your photo to Instagram. Just mention @PersilUK using that week’s competition hashtag

 You may also be interested in Persil and Roald Dahl Estate’s My Messy Adventure an initiative to get kids reading and outdoors.

This is a sponsored post for a topic that I feel really passionately about as everyone deserves an education.