I am passionate about education. Working in & with schools has been my life. But for my daughter @bloglibby it was school itself that was the barrier to her learning, not her autism. She found the pressured, punitive state secondary culture so stress-inducing that she stopped being able to function. She is extremely capable and presented with no behaviour issues in school. She is not an over-indulged young person. I am not a lazy parent who doesn’t value school. Teachers are not to blame. The system is not working and unless this is recognised, children like my daughter will continue to be unable to tolerate it. Since being out of the system her mental health has improved beyond recognition. She has taught herself Spanish, debating, music theory and music production, song-writing, singing, piano, and knows a huge amount about the world and people, and most importantly herself. And that’s on top of co-authoring 4 best-selling books, giving conference speeches, webinars etc. And yet no state secondary could be found to accommodate her needs. Whatever we are doing to our nation’s schools in the name of improvement it is not working for thousands of our more sensitive children who can achieve incredible things if provided with the right things - respect, supportive relationships and just a little autonomy and trust.

So much lovely feedback from kind & enthusiastic practitioners during my time in Thailand but this email made me feel so wonderful! It came from someone who attended the day on Slow STEAM experiences that I put on with @winderley

Day 2 of my conference in Bangkok - Slow STEAM and creative & critical thinking in EYs. A collab today with the incredible @winderley sharing how to put these authentic experiences into practice.

Lucky children in the EYs at @SHBriverside to have such a beautiful place to learn. And lucky me to get to spend time working with the school!

The training sessions my daughter and I have started delivering together on the autistic experience of education really do come from the heart & recall very difficult times so this feedback just fills my heart. ❤️