BESD Schools - By the Parent of an Autistic Child
Sara Truman, who runs a large support group for children with autism spectrum disorders stated at a Select Committee on Education and Skills in September 2005 that, if a pupil has autism, 'it is totally inappropriate for the pupil to be placed in an BESD school. The autistic child is very likely to be victimised by the other pupils, and techniques for managing pupils with BESD are unlikely to help - and may even be counter-productive - for pupils with ASD.'
This is a particularly interesting statement from my point of view because my son is autistic, he is educated at an BESD school and we, his parents, campaigned to get him into that BESD school. My immediate response to Sara Truman's statement is:
a) My son, in the year-and-a-half he has been at his BESD primary school, has not been victimised, so far as I'm aware, by other pupils. Obviously bullying is a concern but I feel reassured by the staff and the head at his school that there is zero-tolerance of bullying. Perhaps it helps that five out of the six children in my son's class are on the autistic spectrum. In any case, I have not heard of any of these children being bullied and I would personally, be more worried if my son was in a mainstream school.
b) The techniques for managing my autistic son at his BESD school are, for the first time in his educational career, actually working. These techniques are not designed for him. I, and other parents of autistic children, might have doubts about some of these techniques. The point is that at least the techniques employed at his school have a chance of working. The raft of ideas suggested by the Advisory Service when my son was in the mainstream environment - a visual timetable, good and bad choices, social stories - were destined for failure because, fundamentally, he was in the wrong environment.
c) Sara Truman's advice has been ignored by central and local government.
If I may start this article again, I would like to relate, briefly, my nine-year-old son's educational history. (Every parent of a child at an BESD school has a story to tell!) When my son was diagnosed, aged three, as being high-functioning autistic, I was perhaps different to most parents in feeling relief. Relief that my son had a specific condition which would guarantee him help from a Statement, and relief that early intervention, in his case, could occur. Were I to travel back in time to those naïve days I would very seriously consider emigration! What followed was five years of playing musical schools, extended spells of home education, adhering, when my son was actually at school, to a system called inclusion - which involved much exclusion - and one failed experiment to teach him after another, until, according to my son's ex-head, he was 'suicidal' and everyone was obliged to resort to the unthinkable, i.e. he was sent to a school for naughty children.
This article is not intended to promote the case for teaching high-functioning autistic children in BESD schools. Rightly or wrongly, it is already happening. Many counties have no specialist schools for HFA/Asperger's children. The remainder by and large just have one HFA/Asperger's school which, more accurately, meets the needs of children further along the spectrum. Children like my son have only the BESD option if the mainstream option fails. Whatever I think about it, whatever even heads of BESD schools think about it, my son will almost certainly move from his BESD primary school to a BESD secondary school, which almost certainly, will be his nearest BESD secondary school.
And, as an autistic child, he's by no means unique.
Numbers of autistic children at BESD schools are growing. The current numbers are probably underestimated because of missed or late diagnoses, or autism not being the first disorder listed on county databases. Obviously BESD schools are in theory designed to meet the needs of a completely different type of child. So how can they succeed with a child like mine?
As a parent and non-teacher, well-versed at any rate in what doesn't work, I present below my observations:
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, give children a full-time education. Children are not regularly, if at all, sent home.
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, do not assign one-to-one helpers to children, providing instead one-to-one help when, or if, it is appropriate. This is critical in raising the child's self-esteem.
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, often have reward systems that involve achieving a certain number of points per week, which is highly motivating for an autistic child.
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, have safe, quiet and calm environments in which to study, with a well-ordered structure to the day and small class sizes.
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, involve autistic children in class, treat them equally with other pupils, take them on trips and thus improve their social skills.
BESD schools, unlike mainstream schools, often have knowledge and experience of dealing with autistic children. About a quarter of pupils at my son's school are on the autistic spectrum.
As the parent of an autistic child, naturally I would like to take things further. BESD schools, like mainstream schools, differ widely in their receptive attitude to, and flexibility around, autistic issues. Which schools, aside from specialist autism schools, really welcome our children, are prepared to send teachers on autism courses? What scares parents of autistic children in particular about BESD schools is the time-out room rather than the quiet area and the thought that their autistic child will mix with children who may, for example, have come out of prison. As numbers of autistic children in BESD schools increase, however, it becomes possible to group them all into one class, a practice carried out already with success at two local BESD schools. This has also helped with the academic results achieved - another major concern of parents after their children have left mainstream schools.
Sending my son to an BESD school - contrary to the view of his ed psych, the Advisory Service and his ex-head (but not, I'm glad to say, contrary to the view of a parent my wife accidentally bumped into who recommended the school) - has transformed my son's life, boosted his self-confidence and sense of community, and improved beyond measure the quality of life for his family. No other school in our county can, at present, begin to meet the needs of my son. Certainly not the 70+ mainstream secondary schools to which I wrote recently requesting information about their provision for and record with autistic children (and whose replies I sent off to the head of education with an invitation to pick one). For those on the other hand who consider that BESD schools are unsuitable for the needs of autistic children, I would say (and I'm sure Sara Truman would agree), that you have to provide a decent alternative. At least some BESD schools are making progress in attempting the impossible. It will always pose difficulties having two distinct types of pupils, varying academic standards within the same class, a lack of speech and occupational therapy, etc. In the absence, however, of special needs schools for HFA/Asperger's children, my son is at least mixing well with the other autistic children at his BESD school. My wife and I will be forever grateful to the head and the staff at my son's school for demonstrating that he is capable of experiencing a full-time education.