Primary Times - the definitive what’s on and where to go family guide of activities and events for children of primary school age. Things to do with your kids during the school holidays including arts and craft activities, music and theatre for children, parties, competitions, days out, and family attractions along with term time drama schools, dance classes, after school clubs and sports activities. Things to do at a place near you!
Redcar and Cleveland Council - Meet the Porritts – inspired by their working lives to give more
WORKING with children with complex needs five days a week for 20 years and having your own child might lead most people to long for some child free time. Not so Reece Porritt.
“I teach children excluded from mainstream school and it’s very much this that inspired me to think about fostering,” said Reece, of Marske. “I wanted to help the children earlier…sometimes when you work with a pupil at school you think, ‘I wish I could have worked with you just a year or so earlier and not just to teach - I know I could have made a difference.’ Fostering seemed the perfect way.”
Reece, who works at a Pupil Referral Unit, explained he and wife Nicola, 47, who also works full-time, have two children of their own, aged ten and 17, and the whole family has embraced fostering.
“Our first was a 13-year-old girl, for weekend respite, and we were all just devastated to see her go,” said Reece. “The second was a boy who was a bit more troubled and would go missing and didn’t understand why he couldn’t be with his parents. “I ended up staying with him outside of the area for three weeks which was quite something but meant we all knew he was safe. The good thing is we were given a lot of support. There’s your own social worker support, the child’s social worker, the out-of-hours service and then a Foster Care Group made up of other foster carers which we have found really useful.”
Reece explained that the next placement was a teenager who had been discovered at Teesport. “It was an education,” he said. “You don’t know what to buy and there’s language issues and a different religion - but he was really respectful and his smile lights up the room, a genuine lad.”
Would they recommend fostering to others? Both nodded. “People think you have to have lots of time on your hands to foster, but you can make it fit to you,” says Nicola. “There’s different placements; emergency, short-term, respite, long term and different children who need support, e.g., for disabled children, younger or older.
“And, when you see them happy and doing well, there’s nothing more satisfying to know you have helped”
