Kadir's story
Case study from November 4, 2015
The Head of Year of an Islington school referred the Khan family to me. Mr and Mrs Khan were concerned because the attendance rate of their son Kadir had been falling. During the Easter Holiday, the family’s home burned down and they lost all of their possessions. They had to be temporarily re-housed in a local B&B, and thankfully the school provided a new uniform and new school equipment for Kadir.
After having gone through so much, the Head of Year and Mrs Khan were concerned about the attendance of Kadir, and about his classroom behaviour and lack of focus on school work. Mr Khan had been out of the country for a while, and as a result wasn’t aware of his son’s absences. But he was concerned about his son’s ability to read and write and requested that he receive additional support with this. Meanwhile, Mrs Khan found Kadir difficult to talk to in his father’s absence – for example, Kadir kept giving invalid reasons for missing school.
After an initial meeting to discuss how to proceed with Mr Khan, I liaised with Kadir’s school to get additional support for his reading and writing. This included getting Kadir a laptop to help with his homework, as he had requested. For this, we researched and successfully applied to a local educational charity for funding.
Since our intervention, Kadir’s attendance has steadily improved, he has been placed in a support class to improve his English and Maths skills, and he told us, ‘Thank you, I’m very happy!’
*The names in this case study have been changed