First Day of School -

For most children in Northern Ireland, the first day of school is an exciting time. The feel of new shoes, crisp school uniforms, together with seeing old friends and catching up with summer exploits remains a pleasant memory until adulthood.

For other children, however, (much less their parents), the beginning of school means nothing but stress. The new shoes are too tight, too loose, too different. The fresh school uniform isn't 'broken in' and feels stiff. The anxiety of having to sit in yet another class of spit ball throwing boys, and girls who shun you or quietly cackle behind your back can feel like too much.

From Primary One onwards, school can be a horrendous experience for many children, particularly at this time of year, after two months off of relative freedom from academic and social demands.

For other children there will be no 'first day of school' . The first week of September passes by as unrecognisable as any other week of the year because school happens at home. The parents of home educated children in Northern Ireland have my deepest respect for bucking a system that imposes incredible pressure on children to conform to a schoolroom education.

Parents don't home educate to be different, they do it because they believe it is the best, safest and most humane way to educate their children, particularly for parents whose children have been damaged by participating in the Northern Ireland school system.

For my child 'school' was never more than a building, just bricks and mortar. It was never magical, or infused with special 'school power' - simply a place. For home-educating parents, school is the dining room table, the back garden, the museum, the shopping mall, the library, the world. School for them is totally about 'who' as opposed to 'where'. I have seen parent friends of mine dragging their children who have an ASD to school. Some of these children were still wearing their pyjamas and refused to wear their uniform, considering it more like armour than clothes possibly. (God forbid your child does not wear his uniform - no telling what would happen to his education if that uniform wasn't worn). Northern Ireland loves it's 'uniforms' and uniformity. Bank tellers and office secretaries wear them, (bankers and office 'bosses' do not). It's a class thing, and I despise school uniforms as much as I despise the poor excuses meted out for having to wear them. Where would it lead to if our children wore their own clothes? Individuality? Creativity? Our kids wear the school's clothes, eat their food, and parents have very little say as to what educational approach is used to teach them (TEACCH, PECS, etc) It's about control much more than it's about education. I digress.


The parents who must go to work and whose children do protest at going to school have my sympathy. My compassion and empathy goes to their children as well. My children have always known what is good and what is not good for them and where school is concerned they always advised me, very clearly of how they felt. All children are good at this - the question is do we listen. If parents whose children have difficulties like my own, had choices as to where to send their child to school, how different it might be.


In England there are scores of schools that cater to our children, some are outstanding, some are not so good. Our 'special' children should have access to very very special schools, not be dumped into mainstream school and expected to cope without adequate teacher training, or equally 'dumped' into special schools, forced to have useless programs thrown at them (TEACCH) and molly coddled by teachers who have negative belief systems about our kids.

In the interim, it would be wonderful to have schools like this http://www.lvs-hassocks.org.uk/ - Can you imagine a school like that here? The front page of their website reads: "A supported Learning Environment - Children with Communication, Socialisation and Imagination Difficulties. Ok, Lorna Wing had something to do with that description and for all intents and purposes it is a call to parents whose kids are on the spectrum, but it resonates much better than 'Severe and Complex Needs Learning Facility' which is how many of our special schools would be better describing themselves. If you look at this particular school in England, I think you will be amazed at what it offers. We could replicate that school and others like it, here in Northern Ireland.

(John Clements, Clinical Psychologist is a staff member at LVS Hassocks and is one of the featured speakers at AutismNI/Autism Ulster/ACT/PAPA, etc's 'Autism 2010' conference next year taking place in Belfast, so maybe someone can ask him how we could establish such a school here in the North.

This school has even adjoined itself to the aims of 'The Autism Trust' a charity offering bio-medical support and learning to parents whose children have an ASD. Can you imagine a school in Northern Ireland offering your child organically made meals? Can you imagine your child's school going to the trouble of reducing environmental toxins in the school and making sure your child is not exposed to these toxins? (I remember my own child having a reaction to 'Cillit Bang' after the teacher sprayed it on the table he had working at in school. Tea tree oil and lemon juice would have done just as well. Why do schools expose young children to these products, the kinds of things I would never use at home?- Despite the fact my son has severe reaction to some food substances, I came to pick him up one day from school to find him chomping on an ice cream cone - his teacher looked sheepishly guilty, knowing full well she had just contravened strict instructions outlined in my child's statement that were put there to protect his health.

Not only did my son's statement not guarantee him legal entitlement to services which he needed at the time, it didn't guarantee him his health at school either - my child had a very serious reaction to eggs in the past. She said, "but they were all eating ice cream and he felt left out". I can understand how she felt uncomfortable about not giving my son a treat, but why is it that feeding a child healthily, minus sugar and treats is considered to be depriving the child? My child didn't get what he needed in this school but when it came to feeding sugar, he and the rest of the children presented a level playing field? Ice cream or cyanide, same difference if they both kill equally. Will teachers in Catriona Ruane's brave new school system have to train as nutritionists as well?


I suspect that together with Catriona Ruane's desire to shake up the education system here in Northern Ireland, and empty the money pot dedicated to our children, that many parents are going to say 'enough is enough' and pull their children out of school altogether. We have not been advised how many home educated children there are in Northern Ireland, nor have we been advised of the number of children excluded from school.

The government has no desire to find out, much less any incentive to let you know. From tallying the number of excluded children in my own circles it appears that the numbers of those children would probably be shocking. If there are any parents out there with cash to spare, it's not impossible to start your own school. They do it in England, we can do it here. Our children desperately need alternatives to what is on offer.

The consultation on inclusive education released this month by Ruane's ministry (see link in my list of links) advises that the plan, if adopted will incur a three year phase-in period. If plans like this are going to become the norm in Northern Ireland, its the children caught up in those phasing in periods who will suffer the most should problems arise (and they will).

It may be that more and more parents will take up their right to home educate their children here in Northern Ireland as a means of protecting their children from being used as guinea pigs whilst the Education Department gets its act together. Or perhaps parents will just move to England for a few years. Ruane's Consultation document quotes Helen Keller in the forward. "To treat everyone the same, we must treat them differently." It's so easy to pull quotes off the internet, I do it myself. When it comes to Helen Keller, however, I have read almost all she ever wrote, as well as biographies and histories. My favourite quote from her is this one: "Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye." You don't have to have physical 'vision' to 'look'. The people who wrote the above noted document are the worst kind of 'blind' and as Helen would say, "It's a terrible thing to see, and have no vision."

How would Helen Keller be educated if she were a 'special' student in Northern Ireland's schools today? How many individuals like Helen have been overlooked in Northern Ireland because of the medical and educational predeterminism we are so fond of here? Of course, it was divine intervention that Helen found the people who loved her so much and learned with her, not many children like her would have been so lucky during the time she lived - this is obvious.

Clearly, the needs of Helen Keller were indeed different from the needs of her peers, but one 'need' that was and remains the same for all children is for educators and parents to believe in our children, to believe that all is possible and nothing is beyond reach. Carving up special needs budgets in the name of inclusivity isn't going to help my child one jot. The belief that my child and all children will achieve the title of 'educated', will prosper and will lead bountiftul lives is all they need. The rest will follow. Money and political correctness cannot buy this. Catriona needs to find another way to access all those euro-millions for inclusive societies because that is what her 'consultation' is all about.