JustBeingCP

As a 26 year who has been in both mainstream and specialist education for young people with disabilities I wanted to share my experiences of both areas.

I started school as a 5 year old at a mainstream primary school but attended a specialist unit that was integrated within the main school.

I moved out of the unit and into mainstream lessons with my peers at the start of key stage 2 (year 3) as it was felt that I could withstand the pace of learning with my able-bodied peers.

This proved a complete success and l continued in this form of education until leaving in year 6 and moving to a mainstream secondary school without taking my SATS exams.

In the September of 2007 I started secondary school and was the first student who used a wheelchair to attend that particular establishment and that took the staff a bit of getting used to.

Some of the teachers at my secondary school struggled to understand disability and for me that was very disheartening as a 12 year old who was just trying to fit in with his peers in a normal school environment.

At the end of key stage 3 (year 9) I took my GCSE options just like my peers and chose to take Spanish alongside the mandatory subject ICT.

I took entry level Maths and English whilst my peers were taking there GCSE’s in those subjects as it felt that I would struggle to keep up with the pace of the GCSE’s equivalents.

I had hoped to take to BTEC PE (Physical Education) during years 10 & 11 but this wasn’t possible because the course couldn’t be adapted to meet my learning needs.

In may 2012 I left secondary school with a number of GCSE’s which is something that I am incredibly proud of because there were times that I felt written off by some of the staff.

A few months after leaving secondary school I moved 70 miles to Hereward College in Coventry to begin my further education journey.

I had to complete this part of my education journey away from home and Herefordshire because the colleges here were unable to meet my support needs.

I decided to take the course that I had always wanted to take whilst at school, BTEC Sport and this was something that I was incredibly excited about.

I absolutely loved my 2 years at Hereward because I was given the opportunity to complete a course that I had a keen interest in and learn some vital independence skills with the support of care staff.

If I had to choose between the 2 styles of education then I would definitely choose the specialist education route every time.

This style of education changed my life because it allowed me to both gain some vital skills such as travelling on public transport independently and feel accepted by other members of my community.

I know that this is another relatively short blog but I wanted to share my opinions of both education styles and how they affected my learning journey.

I would as always like to end by this the opportunity to thank all of my readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest blog.

Cam