We would like to publicly express our heartfelt gratitude for the educational journey that our son, who has just completed his secondary cycle, has had the opportunity to experience at St Michael School, Pembroke, and later on at St Michael Foundation, San Ġwann.

While still at primary school our son was diagnosed with a serious, life-limiting illness involving a severe disability. Although neither the school nor we knew what stage the disease would reach by the time our son would be of school-leaving age, the school principal, Annmarie Carabot, and the responsible team did not for a moment fear taking up the challenge of providing for his education, and insisted that they were more than willing to cater for our son’s needs.

Over the years this has in­volved continuous pastoral care, adjustments on the academic level and even physical demands on the school. We cannot quantify the amount of time and the concerted effort that the staff gladly put into taking care of our son’s needs to access the curriculum and manage his demanding daily medication and care.

Special thanks go to Ms Carabot and her family. The memory of late school director Alfred Carabot is very dear to us.

We are also greatly indebted to Alfred Sant Fournier, headmaster of St Michael Foundation, and to Carina Gerada, senior assistant head and inclusion coordinator. The sense of commitment and dedication of this remarkably hardworking team are admirable.

We would also like to thank all the other members of the management, administration, counselling, teaching, learning support and facilities staff for their constant support over the years.

Each person working in this school, without exception, is driven by a professional attitude and has the learners’ well-being at heart. You will all be greatly missed.