oracle Report post Posted May 27, 2006 Help to make this Campaign work for you! Terry, Matthew and I attended the launch of the NAS 'Make School Make Sense' Campaign at the House of Commons last Wednesday,on behalf of Autism - in - Mind, it was also my Birthday. I have to be quite honest and say that for once I think NAS have done their home work and from their report ,which I have now read, have a pretty good idea of what life for many of us is like. Will the Campaign make any difference for parents? Good Question. I think it could make a difference but I think that it will take active Campaigning by local groups to make any difference for most of us. The idea is not that NAS will change the world but that for once they will help us to help ourselves and make a difference. This to me is a much more pro-active stance to take. The idea behind the Campaign is that we all use it as the tool to Campaign in our own backyards. I spent half of Tuesday talking to my own Local Rag from within Legoland!!!! They did quite a spread on the launch and made much of the fact that for some children with SEN inclusion may well be a form of abuse. Sadly they failed to mention that it was the NUT report which states that and not me. I am awaiting the LEA firing squad turning up at my door. But faint heart never won any Campaign so I shal have to live with the credit for the comments and I do in fact agree that for some of our children inclusion is a form of abuse. Here is a link to the NAS Campaign - this is one time when I truly believe that you have to be in it to win it - and this is very probably my first pro NAS post in the last 7 years!!!!!!!!!! Make what you will of it. LOL http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=253&a=10058 Here is the speech given by 16 year old Josh who has AS at the launch - I have his permission to print it here. Education, education, education.. You know I've always wanted to say that. > > Hi my name is Joshua Muggleton, and I am a young person with autism. > > I may look pretty normal to you, and apart from wetting my underpants > right now, I generally act pretty normal too. I say 'act' because that > is what I have to do in order to cope with being around you so called > normal people. > > Let me tell you a bit about my school experience. > > I wasn't a troublesome student. I never got a single detention. My > behaviour was exemplary. I was keen to learn, always did my homework and > was never late for school. > > It is not as if I went to bad schools. Both my primary and secondary > schools have good records for academic achievement and excellent Ofsted > reports. > > So what went wrong? > > First of all, soon after I started school I realised that I was a bit > different from other children. I was repeatedly bullied, teased, and > soon discovered I was a misfit. Apparently not many kids walk around the > lines on the playground in the middle of summer with a thick coat zipped > up to the hood. > > Being diagnosed with dyslexia also didn't help. > > Somehow I survived primary school. I treated my depression and low > self-esteem with my own "chocolate therapy". > > I hoped that secondary school would be different. Before I started, my > parents wanted to meet with the school to discuss the additional support > I would need. They refused. It seemed that they first wanted to see how > far I would sink. Unfortunately I sank too far and never recovered. > > At secondary school I was bullied more than ever. The school did > nothing. I became more depressed. > > After making serious threats to commit suicide I received help from the > Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. > > After four years of secondary school hell, I had a complete breakdown. > Then after six months of trying to get back into school my psychiatrist > decided that I could not cope any more and signed me off on medical > grounds. > > So what was it that caused the breakdown? > > It wasn't just the bullying. It was the lack of understanding of the > staff at the school. Nobody seemed to listen to what I was saying. I > needed a place of sanctuary when things got too much for me. I needed > encouragement from the teachers - not threats. > > If the teachers had been properly trained in Autistic Spectrum Disorders > then they might have be able to help me cope. > > No one deserves to go through what I went through. If I had one wish, it > would be that all teachers in mainstream schools had compulsory > education in autistic spectrum disorders. > > I'm now studying for A levels with Satellite Virtual Schools, an > internet based study programme. They threw me a lifeline when I could no > longer cope and was signed of school. > > However I am struggling with this and I would like to go to 6^th form > college, but is there anywhere that can give me the support I need? At > the moment the answer appears to be 'no'. I am desperately keen to learn > but do not know what I am going to do about my studies next year. > > Mainstream school inclusion didn't work for me. I tried my best to > adapt, but true inclusion only works when schools can give enough > support. If they can't do that then school becomes a very damaging > ordeal. I'm only just beginning to rebuild my shattered confidence and > self-esteem. > > I started this talk with the words, Education Education Education, > However this did not refer to students being educated, it refers to > teachers being educated, I believe educating teachers about autism is > absolutely crucial in any plan to include people like me in mainstream > education. > > All people like me have a part to play in society, including those like > my brother who are more severely affected by autism. But you cannot > pigeon-hole us, or try to push us into school settings that end up > damaging us, and depriving us from reaching our potential. > > I'd now like to finish by quoting from Gordon Brown's recent budget > speech. He said " > > "I, like so many, am grateful for the inspirational teachers and the > high quality of education that I received. And just as I had the best > chances, my aim is that all young people from whatever background have > the best of chances." > > Well, to Gordon Brown I'd like to say "put your money where your mouth > is" and do something about the educational provision for people like me. > > Autism is complex. Our demands are simple. > > Lets Make school, make sense. Joshua Muggleton Cleverly Disguised as a responsible adult Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
helenl53 Report post Posted May 27, 2006 Hello Carole You just reminded me - I had a card for you in my handbag. Matthew is a hunny Love Helen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
helenl53 Report post Posted May 27, 2006 Hi Guys Please go to the NAS Site and download the various campaign tools. There is a postcard to send to your councillor asking three simple questions. There is an MP's Charter which you can get your local MP to sign. These are simple things for you to do and do not push you into the spotlight but nevertheless are imperative to getting the aims of the campaign noticed by the decision makers. There is also a link to email the new Secretary of State for Education and as of yesterday he had received over four thousand emails and had drafted in extra staff to cope!!! I spoke to NAS yesterday and they have declared that they are not going to drop this torch - so long as parents help - they will keep this campaign going I know that a lot of parents do not get involved in active campaigning because they are worried about how their children will be treated in school. Please guys - this is not at the level of schools - this is higher up the tree at local and national government and you need to be heard. Please go to the website at make school make sense Love Helen PS - I did a posting about how small Carole and I were and how small Ruth Kelly and Dianne Abbot are and I likened our visit to Westminster as a munchkins convention but the ###### hacker meant that you did not see it!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oracle Report post Posted May 27, 2006 (edited) munchkin indeed I was thinking more in the line of the poison dwarfs Helen is right we are now being given the tools that we need to help ourselves and NAS do appear to be well fueled up - let's keep the flame burning As Jane Asher said (and yes she does bake very nice cakes sorry could not resist) The way that you judge a civilized society is in the way that they treat their children and we are treating our children badly Let's all take a deep breath, jump in, and help to make school make sense if not for our kids for those who will join our kids on the same path Oracle Edited May 27, 2006 by oracle Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nikrix Report post Posted May 27, 2006 About time we had a campaign like this!!!! I have not had time to read it all but what I have seen so far looks good. I've added the link to my site and I will do all I can to help with this campaign. If there is any other way I can help pm me. Keep up the good work Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
helenl53 Report post Posted May 27, 2006 Hi Carole Well you know you are old when you come home and you say to people"well I had a very nice conversation with Jane Asher about the amygdala and its place in autism" and they say "who is Jane Asher" and you feebly say - well she bakes cakes and she used to go out with Paul McCartney in the 60's. I have ordered 100 postcards to dish out to our parents to send to the local Councillor Love Helen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kathryn Report post Posted May 27, 2006 I heard Josh Muggleton speak about his school experience at an NAS regional seminar a few weeks ago: his talk was the highlight of the day. He was a wonderful speaker with a great sense of humour and his own unique way of describing what it's like to be a child with AS under pressure at school. He had some really good practical advice for teachers too: I hope he writes a book one day. The theme of that day was Successful Inclusion: reality or myth?. I felt that the main issues hadn't really been tackled, and afterwards I wrote to the NAS regional coordinator who chaired the day, to summarise the problems parents have in dealing with the SEN system. I didn't expect anything anything to come of it, but my letter was circulated (with my permission ) to all the people who had been at the seminar. I heard last week from the regional coordinator that my letter has had "quite an impact" and has become required reading for all Officers in one particular LEA. (not my own alas- ironic, isn't it ) Pity - if I'd known my words were going to have a wider circulation I would have pulled even fewer punches. So be encouraged - keep talking and writing. Someone might eventually listen. K x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
littlenemo Report post Posted May 28, 2006 (edited) We'll do what we can on this one (Z has contacts ), unfortunately it's just a wee bit late for us. After all Com has been through, we'll happily push hard to stop it hapening to others. It's good to see the NAS working from the bottom up this time. Glad to see Josh has 'pinched' my sig. It gets more appropriate with each reading. Edited May 28, 2006 by littlenemo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites