The mother of a teenager with autism has spoken about the impact of teaching strikes on young people with special educational needs.
Kirsty Marshall says that the combined effort of teaching strikes and bank holidays in May have played havoc on her 14-year-old’s routine, “ordinarily this time off probably wouldn’t be such a big deal, but he (her son) has double math’s on a Monday, which means he has missed at least six hours of it. The school has compensated for this by moving his timetable around”. Ms. Marshall, 41, explains how “the other kids have loved the extra time off, but he’s really struggled to get into any kind of rhythm for the rest of the week, and now the school are doing Monday’s timetabled classes on Tuesday’s which has thrown him off completely”.
Kirsty’s son has Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain and often causes people to have difficulties with social communication and interaction, and ‘restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests’, including getting upset by minor changes and relying on following certain routines. “When his routine is disrupted, he acts out, this could be teasing his sister or giving me and his dad bad attitude or being overly silly in the way he plays and interests”, changing his schedule means that her son had to ask her every detail of the how the day would change, and that if she can’t answer all his questions he becomes very anxious.
Teachers are striking due to a dispute over pay and combined with the Early May Bank Holiday, the Coronation of King Charles and Spring Bank Holiday the children will have missed 5 days of school between 27th April and the 29th of May.
Kirsty says she can appreciate the school are trying to do the right thing by ensuring her child gets the education back that he has missed but wishes there had been a better way to do it so that it considered her son’s condition better. She says her son can’t understand why Mondays have been on Tuesdays and spends Tuesday evenings worried about whether the following day will be Tuesday or Wednesday, which results in him losing sleep and carrying all his books into school so that he has covered all bases.
Her son attends a school 40 minutes away from home because it is renowned for its work with children who have special needs. This means he takes the school bus most days, apart from those he has clubs he attends after school, however the Monday on Tuesday timetable change hasn’t applied to his after-school clubs which has meant he has frequently missed his bus home. Kirsty has requested that in the future her child not be included in these timetable changes as she says “the benefits caused by the change in days isn’t worth the anxiety he is suffering”.