Wednesday, 28 May 2008
The Situation Room: Current State of PhD Work
I have had couple of papers and a poster accepted/published in conferences. Initially, I had problems with problem-ridden simulator that I was to fix. But thanks God, the confidence is coming back slowly but surely. I am now working on a very challenging work, which I think has a very high potential in the research community. I will have to make a perfect balance of work and plan to make things happen in due course of times. The only worry is that the tool that I am developing has gone to a level of difficulty, which is increasingly becoming hard to manage and slower to execute even with a fast machine. We would have to see the developments in the forthcoming days. PhD is ... sometimes too much hard work, hard play.... and sometimes dillydallying since nothing comes up in voidness of thoughts.
Monday, 19 May 2008
So, That's How Poorly Ms Fox Behaved at Somerset Road Preschool, Southampton?
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing as a parent of Raisa Salwa Ahmed, who had been attending the Somerset Road Preschool (Southampton, SO17 3AA, Ofsted unique reference no: 131558) at Southampton for the last eight/nine months (since Sept/2007). I would like to put forward my following experiences that relates to misconduct and misexplanation from the preschool supervisor Ms Sheila Fox. I find her behaviour different and felt unsafe and unsure about the standard of care as she is also the supervisor of the preschool and decided to withdraw my child from the school.
Raisa attended three to four sessions per week at the Somerset Road Preschool (which sum up about 12 hours per week including lunch club hours). For the last five weeks, she also has been attending childminding and day nursing to make it more than 40 hours per week out-of-home care. I am sure you would appreciate that change of hours in out-of-home care has put obvious pressure on her. As a result, although she was previously learning to use toilet, she has slowed her toilet training recently. Ms Fox had sent me a letter with her concern that Raisa was almost 3.5 years old and it was time that she was potty trained. But the way she handed the letter to me seemed to me to be very rude. I have replied her with a letter saying, it was okay for her to be trained but we would like to make it happen without imposing extra pressure on her. According to her advice, I have also tried to prepare Raisa for the pre-school without giving her any nappies on two previous occasions. But Raisa had fever and cold on both occasions on her return and could not attend the preschool for following few days. I find Ms Sheila Fox’s imposition inappropriate as I would have expected her to make sure proper care of Raisa was taken while Raisa was without her nappies.
On 16th May 2008 morning I took Raisa to pre-school after she almost recovered from fever. I honestly mentioned to Ms Sheila Fox that Raisa is a 'little feverish' but playful and as such had to come in with her nappies. Ms Fox asked me (rudely) to take Raisa back without allowing me to do any further explanations. As I was trying to explain that Raisa was only feverish (my measure of 99 F, 98.4 F being normal) and she was playful and enthusiastic about preschool, Ms Sheila Fox extended no further explanation and insisted that I should leave with Raisa back home. I could see she was angry and rude, the reason of which was completely unknown to me. Her different behaviour to me and my child is increasingly becoming a point of concern and insecurity of my child. On my return I had been able to check with the health and hygiene policies of the preschool with the help of school register. The policies say ‘a child can should not be brought to school, if she has infectious or contagious disease or uncomfortable illness’. Ms Sheila has not allowed me to explain if she was that sick or if she had any kind of contagious illness (Raisa did not have any sign of infectious diseases neither she had any uncomfortable feeling, at all). I find Ms Fox’s behaviour different, appalling and not expected from someone who had been working so closely with children and their parents. I felt unsafe and insecure leaving my child with her (and the preschool) as I could see she has unexplainable anger/anguish she may have grown in and felt the necessity of taking my child off from the preschool. This is obviously a very hard decision for me to take as it is difficult to arrange another but with the given circumstances it was the grave essence.
I would really appreciate if you kindly take appropriate measures in making sure such staffs are responsible, do not make it uncomfortable for parents to talk to, are unsafe to leave child with due to their unexplainable anger and do not impose any rules on their own explanations that they cannot serve accordingly. I understand your organization does the best to make sure every child care provider conforms to your minimum standards and I solicit your highest co-operation regarding this.
I am writing as a parent of Raisa Salwa Ahmed, who had been attending the Somerset Road Preschool (Southampton, SO17 3AA, Ofsted unique reference no: 131558) at Southampton for the last eight/nine months (since Sept/2007). I would like to put forward my following experiences that relates to misconduct and misexplanation from the preschool supervisor Ms Sheila Fox. I find her behaviour different and felt unsafe and unsure about the standard of care as she is also the supervisor of the preschool and decided to withdraw my child from the school.
Raisa attended three to four sessions per week at the Somerset Road Preschool (which sum up about 12 hours per week including lunch club hours). For the last five weeks, she also has been attending childminding and day nursing to make it more than 40 hours per week out-of-home care. I am sure you would appreciate that change of hours in out-of-home care has put obvious pressure on her. As a result, although she was previously learning to use toilet, she has slowed her toilet training recently. Ms Fox had sent me a letter with her concern that Raisa was almost 3.5 years old and it was time that she was potty trained. But the way she handed the letter to me seemed to me to be very rude. I have replied her with a letter saying, it was okay for her to be trained but we would like to make it happen without imposing extra pressure on her. According to her advice, I have also tried to prepare Raisa for the pre-school without giving her any nappies on two previous occasions. But Raisa had fever and cold on both occasions on her return and could not attend the preschool for following few days. I find Ms Sheila Fox’s imposition inappropriate as I would have expected her to make sure proper care of Raisa was taken while Raisa was without her nappies.
On 16th May 2008 morning I took Raisa to pre-school after she almost recovered from fever. I honestly mentioned to Ms Sheila Fox that Raisa is a 'little feverish' but playful and as such had to come in with her nappies. Ms Fox asked me (rudely) to take Raisa back without allowing me to do any further explanations. As I was trying to explain that Raisa was only feverish (my measure of 99 F, 98.4 F being normal) and she was playful and enthusiastic about preschool, Ms Sheila Fox extended no further explanation and insisted that I should leave with Raisa back home. I could see she was angry and rude, the reason of which was completely unknown to me. Her different behaviour to me and my child is increasingly becoming a point of concern and insecurity of my child. On my return I had been able to check with the health and hygiene policies of the preschool with the help of school register. The policies say ‘a child can should not be brought to school, if she has infectious or contagious disease or uncomfortable illness’. Ms Sheila has not allowed me to explain if she was that sick or if she had any kind of contagious illness (Raisa did not have any sign of infectious diseases neither she had any uncomfortable feeling, at all). I find Ms Fox’s behaviour different, appalling and not expected from someone who had been working so closely with children and their parents. I felt unsafe and insecure leaving my child with her (and the preschool) as I could see she has unexplainable anger/anguish she may have grown in and felt the necessity of taking my child off from the preschool. This is obviously a very hard decision for me to take as it is difficult to arrange another but with the given circumstances it was the grave essence.
I would really appreciate if you kindly take appropriate measures in making sure such staffs are responsible, do not make it uncomfortable for parents to talk to, are unsafe to leave child with due to their unexplainable anger and do not impose any rules on their own explanations that they cannot serve accordingly. I understand your organization does the best to make sure every child care provider conforms to your minimum standards and I solicit your highest co-operation regarding this.
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