Let me tell you a little bit about why I am starting this petition.  My eldest son is autistic, has adhd and severe anxiety.  He has always wanted to learn and asks lots of question and wants to know the ins and outs of everything.  He had the potential to do amazing in school, to thrive and absorb so much.  However it has been the opposite experience for him.  He has had moments in school where he has been so happy to the point all the staff know and love him as he was always wanting to do jobs and help out but overall it has been such an overwhelming and scary time for him. 

The issue isn't the school itself its the fact that it isn't the right environment for children like my son, they don't have enough resources, they don't have enough trained staff, there are too many children and not enough support.

My son is now in primary 7, 10 weeks from leaving primary for good.  He is such an intelligent boy but due to how hard he has found just being in school on paper hes working around p3 level.  

He hasn't been in a classroom really for the last 2 years, he spends his time this year with his 1-1 with the plan to be in school 9-12 working on active learning - baking, arts, trains things he loves in one of the quiet areas, not the classroom.  His anxiety around school is making this impossible, regardless of how hard the school tries to accommodate him years of worry and anxiety around school have finally won.  However he doesn't give up, I am at the point now that everyday when he wakes up and the anxiety kicks I give him the option not to attend and he always replies "I want to try I'm not giving up".

Now we have come to high school.  There is one communication centre in East Renfrewshire to accommodate ALL the high schools and it has an occupancy of approximately 50 pupils from 1st year through to 6th year!

We have visited this centre and it is amazing, I truly believe my son will thrive here, if we can get his anxiety under control.

So we have my son who hasn't been inside a classroom in 2 years and hasn't worked without adult support for his entire time at school.  A boy who can't go out into the playground as he struggles terribly with social interactions with other children which has resulted in a lot of bullying and picking on, and his placement into the communication centre was refused!  I raised this with my local MP and also with the head of education, I fought back with many many emails, and they offered him split placement.  Meaning for half the time they still expected my son to navigate a massive high school with nearly 2000 pupils.  To attend classes that he would be no where near the level of understanding the work, it would be like asking a primary 3 pupil  to start high school it was insane.  Thankfully I fought hard and the MP fought with me and we did get it overturned but the stress and anxiety that caused was unnecessary.  And if that happened to my son it has clearly happened to many many other children, so what happens to them, they have to suffer and in turn school refuse.  Then at least one parent can't work and has to try and navigate homeschooling - that then opens up another can of worms of impacting the parents mental health, which with being an ASN parent they will already be struggling with due to the constant battles to get their child what they deserve in all aspects of life.  What has happened to GIRFEC?  The government are not getting it right for our children.

Here is where the issue lies - why does every primary and secondary school not have this kind of unit attached to the school?

This would benefit everyone.  The children who need to access it would still be in a mainstream setting but with much fewer children, a more relaxed learning environment, strict structure that would be able to be adhered to much easier with less children.  It would benefit the children without additional needs as they wouldn't have their class time disrupted when an ASN child is having a hard time due to their environment.  And it would help the teachers as they wouldn't be trying to juggle the needs of 28+ children along with giving the ASN children the extra support that they need to feel comfortable and take part.

Our children deserve to be in an environment that they can feel safe and happy in and learn in their way.  Their minds are brilliant but have a specific way of learning so instead of trying to make them fit the mould why not have a mould that fits them.

I know that if my son had been able to be in a setting like the one he will attend for high school from primary one he would be thriving, his anxiety would be no where near the level it is and I guarantee he would also be academically at his age group as he has all the ability but hasn't had the opportunity.  Instead his anxiety is so severe he is attending therapy weekly and having to be medicated and still he lives with the anxiety day in day out.

We are lucky my fight paid off and he got a space, however it is going to be a massive challenge to help him overcome his anxiety around school to get him to attend and see how wonderful it will be.  So many others haven't been lucky enough to get the space needed for their child.  It should not be a fight there should be these centres in every single school and then no child will miss out.

I will continue to fight to make the government see that this is where the funding needs to go, these children are part of our future and given the chance their beautiful minds could change the world, they just need to be seen and heard and given the opportunities the help them thrive and teach us a thing or two.

Help me find a way to make this change, help me get the rights of our children heard and acknowledged.

Thank you for reading as you can probably tell this is something I am very passionate about and I will continue fighting,  Ashleigh x