This Jewish mum is so proud of her son’s Jewish pride

As we enter the final half-term of the academic year, I marvel at how far my son has come in his first year of school. To go from being unable to hold a pencil correctly to writing a whole sentence is incredible to me and testament to his excellent teachers.

Indeed, I could never have fully comprehended the patience it takes to be a primary school teacher until I attempted homework with a four-year-old: “Can you try starting your letters from the top and not the bottom?” “No, no, we write left to right.” “That ‘N’ is sideways, so it is actually a ‘Z’.” These are just some of the phrases that I have been using on repeat.

It has been an education for me too of the world of phonics with all of its digraphs, trigraphs and common exceptions. And then there is the bigger picture, the lessons I didn’t expect to be teaching so early: the importance of persistence and of not giving up when tasks seem impossible. It is a constant work in progress, but the payoffs are huge. This year, for my birthday and for Mother’s Day, I received a handwritten card from my son. Their value is priceless.

Recently, parents were invited into my son’s Church of England school to view the work the reception year children had been doing over the year. There were folders filled with completed maths worksheets and handwriting practice, and hanging from the ceiling were hand-drawn pictures of the children’s families, and masks they had painted. Impressive and sweet in equal measure. But my favourite was a big book on the topics the class had covered in RE (religious education), which included quotes from the pupils. A page on Moses caught my eye. Next to a caricature of Moses holding the Ten Commandments, a quote from my son said: “I am Jewish, and I know him.” Commenting on it to his class teacher, she told me: “Oh, he is so proud of being Jewish, all his classmates know about it.” This was balm to my soul. For as proud as I am of all my son has achieved over this school year, it is what he has gained from his education outside of school, at cheder, that has most filled this Jewish mother with pride and joy. Through attendance at Sunday classes and becoming part of a community as a family, my son is discovering what it means to be Jewish, and he is absolutely bursting to tell everyone about it.