Parent, East Midlands
My stories
My School Story
Our child is autistic, with a PDA profile so masks heavily around people. They were doing ‘well’ in school academically so school didn’t see the need to make accommodations. Our child was coming home and having meltdowns over everything by the end of the day. It ended up where they could not get out of bed, eat or go to the toilet independently and they were 5.
They started refusing to go to school and school did not know how to support this. I gave more advice to school than they gave me, I signposted them to courses on ESBNA, I educated them on autism, PDA and burnout, I linked them in with family hubs etc and in the end all they cared about was getting my child into school to not effect their attendance stats. They did not care about the impact it was having on our child.
We’re a year on and my child still refuses to leave the house. The trauma school caused my child is unforgivable and I cannot believe the lack of care these people in power had.
My child should have been safe in their care.
School had no understanding of what autistic burnout is and until schools can actually support autistic children through burnout, school will never be a safe option for so many children.
My child only attended school for 9 months, yet the scars it caused will affect our life forever.
I can 100% say my child is safer at home than at school.
They started refusing to go to school and school did not know how to support this. I gave more advice to school than they gave me, I signposted them to courses on ESBNA, I educated them on autism, PDA and burnout, I linked them in with family hubs etc and in the end all they cared about was getting my child into school to not effect their attendance stats. They did not care about the impact it was having on our child.
We’re a year on and my child still refuses to leave the house. The trauma school caused my child is unforgivable and I cannot believe the lack of care these people in power had.
My child should have been safe in their care.
School had no understanding of what autistic burnout is and until schools can actually support autistic children through burnout, school will never be a safe option for so many children.
My child only attended school for 9 months, yet the scars it caused will affect our life forever.
I can 100% say my child is safer at home than at school.
What happened next...
We home educate now. Deregistration was straight forward, but myself and my husband have had to change our hours at work to make accommodations to support our child.
How I think schools could be better.
Complete reform of the education system is required.
Teachers and support staff are incredibly overworked and have very little understanding of supporting neurodivergent children. Even those that want to support properly are too overstretched to do it.
Teachers and support staff are incredibly overworked and have very little understanding of supporting neurodivergent children. Even those that want to support properly are too overstretched to do it.