When I first started at the nursery, Lionel was a very quiet boy. He hardly acknowledged that I spoke to him, often simply staring at me, not saying or doing anything. I could often make him do a painting, by leading him over to the aprons or whatever, but there was never much there.

LE, the person who had been taking my group while they were looking for someone, said he was rude. Even after knowing him for only a few days, I preferred to think he was just shy, even though I felt I had to respect her opinion, and go along with it.

Over the months, he seems to have progressed so much. Smiling at me, the odd one-word answers, occasionally talking to me in play, even if not in group time. When I showed him how to put on his coat by being "Batman" (putting his hood on his head first, so the arms were in the right place), he grinned all over his face. Soon he was putting on his coat without direction. Then he learnt to do it up.

Then the quiet "Good Afternoon" when I called his name in register.

One time he came in crying, which was unusual, and I tried to get him to sit with me on my chair, and was accidentally a little rough with him. He ran off crying to his mum, who'd gone round to drop his older brother off, and he ended up sitting with him that registration. I felt awful. Then after the group time, I had to get him to come outside with the rest of the group, and he looked at me with this expression as if to say "No, you're that horrible woman who hurt me." I thought I'd shattered everything I'd worked up to with this shy little boy.

Persevering, I picked him up gently, one arm under his knees, and the other under his back. I walked to a clearing, and put him down, and luckily, he came with me, and put on his coat. Everything was fine again.

Since Christmas, he came out of nappies (finally), and every time he goes to the toilet he beams all over his face. When I speak to him, he always answers, always cheerfully. I asked him what he got for Christmas after nursery one day, when all the other children had been collected. It took a while for him to remember, and I asked him questions like "Did you get toys? Did you get clothes?" and so on, and after a while, he said to me "I got a bike, a green one! And Kyle (His brother in nursery) got a blue one!" with me repeating bits after him like "A bike? A green one? You are so lucky!"

Last week, when we had to come inside because the frost made it too slippery outside, I was in the art area helping out, and Lionel was painting at the eisel, and I bent down to his level, and said "What have you painted, Lionel? What's this bit here?", pointing at a brightly coloured blob on the paper.

"That's a football." He said, smiling at me.

"And this bit here?"

"That's me."

It was so great when I looked back at when I first came across him. Of course you're not supposed to have favourites, because it's not fair, but I never favoured him over the other children. He has made so much progress in the last three months.

Today I was outside with MS, who has Lionel's brother in her group, and EL came out and said "Lionel's going to another school next week. His Mum's got him and Kyle in."

I was disappointed, naturally, so I thought "I'd better make the most of the next three afternoons then."

Sitting down waiting for the children arrive, up comes Lionel smiling, with his Mum, who then says to me "It's his last day today."

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "I thought he started on Monday."

She went on to explain that although he was starting on Monday, it was to do with the funding each school got.

It was quite unexpected, and since he wanted to do painting, I had to make sure they dried by the end of the afternoon as he wasn't going to come back the next day.

"What's this?" I asked him, pointing to a band of paint, one colour on top of the other.

"That's a rainbow." He said.

"What about this?" I asked, pointing to a similar looking thing underneath.

"That's a rainbow too."

"Oh." I smiled, and went to sit with another girl in my group, writing her name on a drawing she'd done. A minute later, I felt a little tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see what he'd done. The sheet of paper was covered in bright paint, the two rainbows gone.

"That's lovely!" I exclaimed. "Where have the rainbows gone?"

He looked at me, smiled and said, "It's hiding."

It was very cute, I was quite disappointed when he didn't want to hug me goodbye.