A Guardian article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett why special needs matter got me thinking about inclusion. Rhiannon's brother is severely autistic.
She remembers a speech therapist saying: 'no point in teaching him to speak because he'd only talk rubbish.' Ignorant attitudes like this harm our young children and prevent them reaching their full potential. and he was mocked in school. Jamie Oliver tells a similar story of being labelled as having special needs.
Rhiannon's family had to fight hard to get training for her brother; not everyone is able to take social workers to court as her family did.
Mainstream schools could do more to discover the potential of young people who don't fit the normal pattern. We need 'special schools' but can't we link them closely with neighbouring schools to allow joint lessons interchange and enable people with special needs to take GCSE's.
In researching my novel Speak to Me I visited special schools in Nottingham and Bath. In one case, I discovered that no special needs pupils were enrolled in GCSE's even though the students included children with hemiplegia, cerebral palsy and autism which are often associated with islands of ability or even high intellectual abilities.
The Prince's Trust quotes research that reveals the effect of low expectations: young people with poorer GCSE results were often depressed and felt rejected, many turned to alcohol or drugs.
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