E – Education

One of the things which I am very passionate about is the provision of mainstream education for children with disabilities and it often comes up in conversation with my friend who is a primary school teacher. I was very fortunate, by the age of 5 I was in mainstream education but that fact that I was rested entirely on the fight which my parents had to go through. (As I’ve said in a previous post my determination has come from my parents and one of the many things which their determination achieved was getting me in to mainstream education.) The school in my road refused to take me due to the stairs which they thought I wouldn’t cope with – fortunately another local school saw beyond my disability and welcomed me into their school with open arms.

The BBC ran a story last January (2019) which found that Councils in England have faced an over spend of £324 million in terms of their budget for young adults and children with special needs, with some children being forced to stay at home. One of the initiatives which a school has set up is to have ‘colourful pods’ within their mainstream school. This allows children with autism to spend 80% of their school day in the ‘normal’ classroom, and 20% in an environment which specifically caters for their unique needs – something which I think every school should have.

Although I am fully aware some children have such complex needs and therefore mainstream school would not be a possibility, being in mainstream school was crucial to me being where I am now. I therefore want to use the rest of this post to share my experiences, looking at what really helped me to cope.

At primary school I had a one to one welfare helper who was quite literally by my side throughout primary school. I still remember my first day when she was standing at the door to welcome me in and said ‘Let me get used to holding your hand.’ I was also assigned a ‘dinner lady’ who would be with me during my lunch break. My welfare helper took me out of the normal PE lessons in order to do physiotherapy with me which was great and I know she found it rewarding herself, to see the progress which I was making. The caretaker of the school also helped me by putting up a hand rail in the toilets meaning that I could safely use the toilet. Using the modern-day terminology these Reasonable Adjustments really did help. I found interaction with the other children very difficult, particularly in year 5 on wards, when the children used to bully me and make fun of me. I remember someone asking me whether special school would had therefore been easier, obviously bullying was not nice and I would had preferred not to be bullied but I think it prepared me for the ‘outside world.’ Also now that I work creating Disability Awareness I like to think having me in their class helped them to grow up, knowing people are different but that being different should not be something to be frowned upon.

Due to me having been in mainstream primary school, going to mainstream secondary school was almost a given. My parents and I did look round a mainstream school with a dedicated Special Educational Needs department attached to it. However, when we went to the Open Evening, they segregated me, telling me that I needed someone ‘special’ to show me around. It was at this point that my parents and I knew that this was not the school for me.

My mainstream secondary school also assigned me with a one to one helper and again made Reasonable Adjustments, one being to allow me to opt out of my Design and Technology GCSE. I think a small accident which I had with a hammer gave my teachers a clear indication that I was not going to flourish in a wood work career. (My teacher was helping me to tap a screw into a piece of wood but due to my poor hand-eye co-ordination instead of hitting the screw, I hit the teacher’s finger! Luckily no serious injury was caused.) The school therefore asked my one to one helper to use the time, when I was meant to be doing Design and Technology to work with me thinking of ways I could live independently in the future. During the first ‘lesson’ of the week we would go shopping and buy easy to prepare food (for example, instant mash) then during the second ‘lesson’ we would cook what we had bought.

The other notable Reasonable Adjustments made for me was to do all my work on a typewriter and then for it to be glued it into my exercise books. When it came to exams, I was given extra time (25% if I remember correctly) and these were also done using a laptop.

After secondary school I went onto college and then onto University – subjects which will feature in later posts. (I need to think of something to write about when I get to the letter ‘U’!)

Reference: BBC News Article – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47058309