So very proud of Murray and Sorcha too!

It's been a very good week and a very exciting week in the House of Clive ....

Three very important things happened .....

Firstly, Murray had his IEP in school on Tuesday and that went so well that we left feeling really happy and extremely positive.  Murray has an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) drawn up once a year in the school in conjunction with his teacher, the clinical team in the school, input from Murray himself and input from us as his parents.

It is a very important day because it sets out the goals for the year for Murray from an educuational viewpoint. There are the school's goals, the parent's goal for their child and the student's goals for himself. We were so pleased that Murray could actively participate so well in this IEP and set out some personal goals for himself. Murray is maturing all the time and learning to become more independent and more confident. It was great to have such a positive IEP and know that everyone is working towards achieving the same goals for Murray.  Wonderful also, to get such positive feedback on Murray and hear about his achievements in class.

Murray showing Clive his medal last night .... (more about that in a minute!)

Secondly, we rushed from Murray's IEP to watch Sorcha play in her school's basketball final.

It was the Leinster U-16 Division 1 final and the girls were up against stiff opposition from Colaiste Iosagain.  It was a hard match but the girls from Loreto Foxrock won in the end. Huge congrats to Sorcha and the girls - Leinster Champions at this age group for the first time in eight years for Loreto Foxrock!

We were immensely proud of Sorcha and none more so when she gave the cup up to Murray to hold so he could have his photo taken with it. He always wants Sorcha's team to win (luckily they do nearly all the time!) and he gets very excited towards the end of the match when the seconds start counting down on the clock. Then, he gets even more excited when the girls get their medals and the trophy is presented to them.  It's not always the easiest thing for a big sister to watch her 'little brother' getting that excited because he can get a bit too over-excited but Sorcha is great with him

It was incredibly noisy in the Oblate Hall on Tuesday afternoon with a lot of schools there waiting for matches so Murray coped really well.  It was not the easiest place for a young man with autism to be - girls are extremely loud when they're supporting on the sidelines!

Murray thrilled to holding the winning cup ....

Thirdly, we had Murray swimming with his school team yesterday in the Dublin Regionals -competing against several other special needs schools.  Murray was swimming in the breaststroke, backstroke and relay. He had qualified from his school swimming gala recently and its not easy to qualify as the school as many excellent swimmers.  We had been delighted with Murray's recent success in the school competition and then to qualify yesterday for the Regionals was an added bonus.

Anyway, yesterday Murray's Mom and Sorcha (yes, she insisted on taking the day off school and coming to support him, and it's not easy for Sorcha to miss a day's school!) went along to cheer on the school. Murray swam very well in both his individual races but although his technique is great after many years of lessons, he still wasn't quite quick enough and he finished 2nd in both those heats. Then came the relay race and we were really worried about Murray because he didn't understand the idea of a relay race at all. No amount of explaining was making him understand the rules ....

The race started and the boys took off from both ends of the pool!!! So, Murray wasn't the only one who didn't quite get the rules. A false start and the race commenced again ...

St Augustine's easily won this U-15 relay race with all the boys including Murray swimming really well (he does his front crawl very fast!!). However Murray did swim an extra lane at the end of the race, (he still wasn't getting it!) but it didn't matter, the boys had well won the race anyway! Murray was still confused at the end of the race - he'd swam three times instead of only once but it didn't matter in the slightest!

He got his gold medal in the relay race with his three friends from school. The boys were great and never said a 'word' to Murray about it! They clapped and cheered for Murray as loudly as they had for any of the other boys! Murray's Mom was so proud of Murray and of the other boys. St Augustine's won a huge amount of medals yesterday, U-15 girls relay, U-15 boys relay, U-18 girls relay, U-18 boys relay, U-18 mixed relay, plus lots of invididual medals. Well done to each and everyone of the students. It was a great day. Well done also to their amazing swimming coach, PE instructor and all the other staff who came along to assist on the day.

We'll still trying to get Murray to understand what a relay race is all about!  Perhaps his swimming coach at his Special Olympics club might have a few suggestions for us  ....

Anyway, that was our week with three fantastic achievements - Murray's success in swimming, Sorcha's success in basketball and getting such a positive IEP for Murray!

We're off out celebrating tonight .....

- Clive & Co