September: the month where everything seems to reset and start anew. As I have previously mentioned, G has made the move to a local college to study a BTEC in psychology instead of continuing with her A-levels. She catches the train to college 3 times a week at the moment and following an apprehensive start, has embraced that challenge as well as discovering the joys of travelling by public transport -delays anyone? – instead of simply being able to walk to school.

M has settled well into Year 11 and our delayed Year 10 parents’ evening revealed that he is doing extremely well and his teachers are expecting good things from him with his final GCSE results. He was unsurprisingly identified as being clinically vulnerable and was offered his first COVID vaccination as part of that first cohort, which he was keen to take up as soon as he could. Our GP has been very switched on this year and he has already has his ‘flu vaccination too as has G.  Unfortunately, September also saw M testing positive for COVID and having to self-isolate for 10 days, which was not ideal at the start of his new school year. He has been unwell with it and spent a lot of time either sleeping or coughing without much let up. We’re hoping that the vaccine, which fortunately he did have more than 2 weeks before he got ill, will do its thing and that recovery doesn’t take too long.

There has also been some great opportunities that have manifested thanks to G and M’s involvement with the young people’s forum at our local hospital. M was invited to join the judging panel for this year’s staff awards a few months ago and was later asked to be part of the presentations of some of the awards to the winners. Never one to miss the opportunity to dress up, M chose a brand new suit and wore it proudly into the hospital for both of the presentations he was able to attend. The first recognised the value and compassion shown by one of the receptionists, especially when speaking to bereaved families, and the second was to recognise the hard work and efforts of the vaccination team over the last 18 months. He particularly enjoyed meeting the vaccination team, even if his first question was about when he could have the COVID vaccine – little were we to know that his invitation for it would be waiting on our doormat when we got back home!

And finally, I was invited to become a member of the interview panel for a new clinical nurse specialist role within the gastro department at the hospital. I was super excited to receive this invitation and had a great afternoon turning my interview technique in a different direction to the usual finance-based questions I find myself having to ask. I even got to flex my acting skills as I helped run the role play element of the interview. It was a real privilege to be involved and fascinating to learn more first-hand about the process undertaken to select the right candidate for the job.