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INCLUDING ROSIE AT QUEENSWELL JUNIOR SCHOOL
M
y daughter Rosie was born a wonderful, bright, sociable, humorous, inquisitive little girl. She is also a child with high-level support needs. When she was very young I took her to the Hornsey Centre in North London where she received one-to-one support. Her therapist advised me to keep her with a lively peer group and from that time I have been determined that Rosie should receive a mainstream education. The first mainstream school I tried was quite positive but said that Rosie could only come when she had the right equipment, including a powered wheelchair and a communication system. Rosie’s first statement did not name this primary school but instead recommended a full time trial place at a special school in order to be assessed for therapy and appropriate aids. My big mistake was agreeing to this. Once in the special school everyone argued against my desire for her to be transferred to the mainstream. I lost my first tribunal on the grounds that Rosie’s inclusion would be an ‘inefficient use of resources’. They told me instead that the special school was relocating to a shared site with a mainstream school into which Rosie could be integrated as appropriate. I had no choice but to agree to this. When I asked how much time Rosie was spending in the mainstream school they said an hour a week. As I continued to question this, they upped it to two, and then when literacy hour was introduced it went up to five. They said they only had two Learning Support Assistants to seven children in the special school and this was all the time they could be spared. My request for Rosie to have her own assistant was considered unreasonably demanding. Rosie was also only receiving three 15-minute sessions a week on a computer, which is her only means of communicating or doing her work. People and professionals who believe that the needs of disabled children are and can be met in special schools could not be more mistaken, it is a fallacy. Still determined, I approached my local junior school and, at last, enough of the staff were supportive of me and Rosie that the head teacher agreed to accept us
into her school. A full-time assistant was recruited and spent three weeks working with Rosie in her special school. The LEA are also honouring Rosie’s statement for the first time by paying independent therapists I recommended and trust.
photo and cover photo taken by Rosie’s teacher Mr Bruce at Queenswell School
They all began together at the new school last term and, despite many hiccups yet to be solved, our dream is beginning to come true. The other children in the school are thrilled to be at school with Rosie. I could never have dreamed of children and staff being so sweet and so thoughtful. Mums are saying that she is all they talk about when they come home. She has gone to her first party. Her dad takes her to school in the car in the morning but we come home on an ordinary ‘low floor’ bus in the afternoon with all the other mums, dads and children. Sometimes we get off the bus and pop in to play with Rosie’s cousins who live near us. At weekends and evenings Rosie does not have to be lonely any more because she has friends we can call up and invite round. Rosie is finding it a bit difficult adjusting to the much higher expectations of her in mainstream school. She does tire more quickly than other kids because she has to put a lot of physical effort and concentration into everything she does, but one thing Rosie always has is a great deal of energy for play and now she has the opportunities and is learning the language of her peers, what is cool and what’s wicked. I would of course like to thank the new mainstream school, kids and staff, for giving Rosie this opportunity in education and in life, and hope that they realise how very important it is to us all.
Anna Jeronymides