Turbulent Times

It has been with intention that the blog hasn't been updated due to the turbulent (yes more turbulent than usual!) nature of the past few weeks.  There is much to update with the schooling situation and also with the Oliver performance so I will separate the two and cheat by posting the article that I have written for the National Autistic Society magazine on Oliver, in the next post.

Now that the Christmas holidays are under way we can sit back a little and reflect on the situation as it stands.  Boy Wonder has struggled terribly with being at school and this has resulted in fixed term exclusions for hitting out, days and nights of crying due to the level of anxiety being so high that he just couldn't communicate it at any other level and aggression that has been irrational and uncontrolled.  During the 'Oliver' performance Boy Wonder disclosed to the boys in his dressing room and then to us that he was going to run away from school the following day because he hated it so much.  I talked to him at length about it but he kept repeating that last time he stopped but this time he would keep running.  There was no consideration for the danger that he would put himself in and it concerned us greatly that this thought would be played out due to him being fixated by it.  The following day, I disclosed the heightened risk to his school by writing it in his communication book and attempting to tell someone. Instead I was told to write it down a second time so ended up leaving the school without having communicated it at all, verbally.  After an hour of no feedback I contacted the wider support network /LA by email and after a further hour received a brief contact from school acknowledging the information.  An hour before school ended, I received a second phone call stating that Boy Wonder was fine and had been out at every play time with the usual supervision (which is minimal) and was fine.  It was at this point that I hit the roof!

With the situation as it stood and the fact that Boy Wonder's complexities were clearly not understood or indeed respected, we made the decision to take him out of school until such a time that his safety could be understood and managed.  This resulted in two weeks out of school with no argument from the LA and the Education Welfare Officer stating that there was no case to answer.  We spent the time looking at other provisions, namely specialist schools that offer the full curriculum, home schooling through lots of walks in the country side, baking and tending to the animals and doing a great deal of work on anxiety levels and communication.  The LA stepped it up by following through on a multi element plan, writing to the panel to increase statement hours and paving the way to a longer term plan.

In the final two weeks of term we agreed that Boy Wonder could return for three afternoons a week as long as full 1:1 supervision was agreed.  This went ahead but the time in school was anxiety inducing and no real work was achieved, despite school's optimistic effort to try and cram a full term's work into six hours of per week. The Ed Psych visited the school to observe the situation and wrote a report which we are yet to see but he wants to discuss as soon as school starts back.  Boy Wonder didn't attend the Christmas festivities for a variety of reasons, mainly lack of ability to cope and exhausted support at the end of their tether.  Instead we opted for restarting the Art Therapy sessions at CAMHs and Boy Wonder enjoyed a lovely first session back where he opened up for the first time as well as announcing to the waiting room full of people that he Art Therapist looked different as his hair was grey! This caused  few chuckles.

So the school holidays couldn't come quick enough and now that we are a few days in, Boy Wonder has started to settle.  Although his cat has been run over and broke his leg, Boy Wonder is doing okay (once he got used the external fixator in his leg and shaved fur!).  At the start of the new term we will start with a couple of hours schooling in the mornings and a meeting with the new head and ed psych to agree a way forward.

But for now we will focus on Christmas and let Boy Wonder, (especially now his lap top has been fixed by Uncle Geek and he has installed Mine Craft 'mods') enjoy his time out.  Merry Christmas everyone.