‘It’ll blow all the progress she’s made’

A MOTHER has claimed she will keep her eight-year-old daughter out of school rather than let her return when her special needs class is axed next September.

Emma Nolan is in third class, but her reading and writing ability is at senior infants level, equivalent to a five-year-old. Since being diagnosed in senior infants as having mild general learning disability (MGLD) — previously known as mild mental handicap — she has now spent three school years in a special class at St Eithne’s Girls National School in Edenmore, north Dublin.

“She wasn’t keeping up and she was spending the day at the top of class with the teacher holding her hand until she moved to the special class. Since then, she has made her own progress and she’s really happy, but she is still mainstreamed with her own age group for sports, for art and religion,” explained mother Gillian Fitzpatrick.