Attending a SEND school saved my life. It guided me toward the future I wanted but had believed was impossible for someone like me. Someone autistic.
In mainstream education, I experienced prolonged bullying, exclusion and isolation. Undiagnosed until 17, I felt there must be something wrong with me. As it turned out, I was never the problem. It was the environment.
Mainstream educational settings present multitudes of challenges for many autistic people. Large class sizes mean classrooms are often noisy, smelly and crowded – overstimulating! Furthermore, it means the teacher-student ratio is stretched, meaning neurodivergent students might struggle to receive the necessary support to learn best. I struggled through years of these experiences, eventually leading to extreme burnout.
Moving to a SEND school was a breath of fresh air. My classes ranged from two to eight students, making lessons less stressful. The academic options were more varied, so prior to taking GCSEs, I completed functional skills in English and Maths. For many of my fellow students, this was invaluable. Functional skills exams provide an equivalent to a pass at GCSE, but follow a more straightforward, manageable syllabus. We also had lessons in ‘Work Skills’, which taught essential life skills around money, tax and so on.
Pastorally, there was a therapist who we could book sessions with. She could make referrals to CAMHS or other services. Sometimes, we would have visits from therapy animals, too. Once a week, we had a weekly gardening session, and we were encouraged to grow plants in the school garden. My favourite part of my school was a room called ‘the Snug’, which my best friend and I designed with our English teacher. This was a small sensory room with beanbags, adjustable lighting, fidgets and a noise-cancelling door. We were permitted to leave lessons in situations of overwhelm to sit in the Snug for a while.
And of course, the teachers were incredible. While most students at the school took five or six GCSEs, I needed to take eight so I could complete A-Levels. This was only possible because of the support from all of my teachers. I ended up teaching much of the content myself because eight subjects could not fit into the timetable, but my teachers were always willing to mark my endless stream of past papers. They were encouraging and believed in me. This is what I mean by showing me the future I wanted was possible. And here I am today, studying law at a top ten university!
The SEND reforms promise to support SEND students just as well by adding provisions into mainstream settings. But I struggle to see how I, or other students I met in my SEND school, could ever access the same level of support in a mainstream school. SEND schools have specialised curriculums, specialised buildings and specialised teachers. The school itself is tailored to the needs of children for whom a mainstream school has proven inaccessible.
