I put this story here because it's part of school curriculum

[sesley]

primary 7 traditionally go on a outward bound adventure trip as a part of a team building and getting to know you exercise. In February this year the head called me into her office and asked what was my feelings on my son with ASD and Nethybridge adventure trip. I say great,it would be a great experience for my son,we had been adivsed that he needs to be able to experience things and learn to function without us. Oh she says,Who will look after him? She explained he would be sleeping in a strange bed with others.He will have to listen and obey instructions her concern she says was a health and safety one, yeah right i thought. Well he i reply he likes his sleep over time at the respite place he goes to,they spoil him rotten there.Well she said they have no funds to provide extra care for him and that he would be a difficult challenge to accommadate.I think she expected me to cave in and say yes you are right,maybe best to leave him out of it and unincluded. so instead, "I will get back to you on that I will ask for advise from the NAS people we are meeting this week. I am so glad i did,because the upshot,is our social works department found 2 people.1 for night times a very nice male support worker and another girl who lives near the centre for daytimes. The centre is well used to dealing with children fo all abilitys,so it was no probelm for them. So this week, he got 2 sleeps at the centre,Mon and Tues,Tuesday he had been canoing,dry slop skiing and orientering, he loved it <'> we picked him up yesturday teatime,he had been swimming and was in a state because he could not find his clothes someone had covered them with wet clothes anyway he got sorted and we brought him home for a rest and in his own bed and feed him up because he won't eat,whats on offer,this morning the social worker picked him up at 8 am and took him back to continue with absailing,swimming and he had a brilliant time,all things for him to rememeber and have great experinces of a adventureous life. So hopefully we have laid the stepping stones for other children like him to be able with the right support and planning and of course funding to be inculded rather than negatively excluded.

[chris54]

My sons school have always been very good, To the extent they positively encouraged him to go on the last residential trip when he was showing some reluctance to go. The only thing he did not do was the quad biking (Really cant see how he would have managed that) and one of the high wire climbing things, but then a lot of the children chicken out on that one. He got an award for always trying his best.

 

We gave him an award for saving on washing! He came home in the same set of clothes that he went in. No one told him to put on clean cloths each day so the same ones went back on.

 

We have always found, at his present school and at the one he was at before that the school always went out of their way to include all the children in everything. I can only think that we have been lucky in our choice of schools.

[Sammysnake]

Well done Sesley for standing up for your boy. As you say, hopefully in future the school will see it's not so scary to support a child with SEN on residential trips. I'm off on a Year 4 residential in a few weeks time, just two nights away and close to home but we're got several kids with different SENs coming with us. In all cases the parents were concerned but the teachers were really keen the children don't miss the experiences and did everything they could to allay parent's fears. We arranged previsits for the kids and their parents to have a look around and discuss specific support needs, extra staff go during the day anyway and one of the 1:1 support staff is staying overnight to support her child.

 

I'm so glad your lad had a great time. All kids should have the chance to have these experiences and it's good for us parents to see our kids stretched too .

[Suze]

What a fab post, thanks for sharing.Experiences like this are so important for our kids.My own son could,nt manage his residential trips in primary.However now he is older he finds trips from home no problem.He has spent 6 wks this past yr away with the air cadets at various air bases.He has thoroughly enjoyed it, and gained so much independence.Your should feel proud that you pushed for your son to go, and proud aswell for laying down those stepping stones for other kids

[Kathryn]

That's really great news and encouraging to others. Well done for persisting against what would have been blatant disability discrimination. Schools need to learn that they cannot get away with this kind of thing so the more they are challenged the better.

 

K x