One mother describes how low expectations of pupils with additional needs marred her son’s experiences of school

School for my son, Sandy* was always a challenge – but this wasn’t because of his autism, as you might expect. Instead, it was down to the low expectations that the education system has of him. This is not unique to where we live, it’s an endemic problem across the UK (we have experience of the English system, too) where academic progress for children with additional support needs is discouraged.

My son has quite an unusual presentation of autism. He’s very bright and interested in learning and school, but has difficulty dressing, cooking and can’t go out on his own. He has sensory issues and struggles socially.

So he just about coped in mainstream primary school. But when it came to secondary school, it was too hard for him to manage, and we started to look at special schools. But all the special schools we saw did not offer academic opportunities, which is where Sandy’s interest lies. We were given the impression that following an academic programme and taking exams was a route that was closed off to our son. We were told that wasn’t important – instead, the most important thing was that he could manage himself. He was offered training in practical skills to help him cook and garden, things that really do not interest him.

Read the full article here