Owen Everett of Off The Record in Bath explains how the BANES Youth Forum has been working to make mainstream schools more accessible to neurodivergent pupils
For the past nine months young people from the BANES Youth Forum, a group supported by the youth wellbeing charity Off The Record (OTR) BANES, has been working on a campaign to help make mainstream schools more accessible to neurodivergent pupils.
‘Neurodivergent’ means people whose brain works differently from ‘neurotypical’ people. Neurodivergent people may be autistic, dyslexic, have ADHD, etc. In schools this is often referred to as ‘Special Educational Needs’ (SEN).
Around 1 in 5 primary and secondary pupils in England are neurodivergent. Almost all of them go to a mainstream school. However, mainstream schools often can’t work as well as they could for neurodivergent pupils. Special schools aren’t necessarily the answer, partly as there is a lack of places.
Most of the Youth Forum participants identify as neurodivergent. They came up with the campaign themselves and decided to start by creating a survey for their neurodivergent peers across the county. The survey asked neurodivergent 8-19 year-olds what challenges they have faced in school, and what they think schools could do to improve the situation.
Based on this research, the Youth Forum wrote a short report for mainstream primary and secondary schools in Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), which highlights the four things that neurodivergent pupils find most difficult about school:
- Too much noise.
- Teachers not understanding their neurodivergence.
- Crowds of people.
- Making friends.
The report makes four recommendations:
- More neurodiversity training for school staff (this was the top priority).
- Not punishing neurodivergent pupils for things that are very difficult for them.
- Quiet places to go to between lessons, and during lessons if needed.
- Neurodiversity education for all pupils.
These research findings and recommendations are backed up by other studies and reports.
The Youth Forum then wrote a toolkit for schools, with guidance on how to make the four recommendations a reality.
The full report and toolkit are at https://bit.ly/neurodivergent-pupils
They are accompanied by a one-page summary of the report, as well as an audio version to make it as accessible as possible.
Ivy (aged 14), the Youth Forum participant leading on the campaign, said, “All children should have equal access to education. We really hope that BANES mainstream primary and secondary schools will act on our achievable, evidence-based recommendations, to improve neurodivergent pupils’ experience of school.
“Even just making one of the four changes should help to reduce absences and increase engagement in lessons. If you go to school in BANES, please share it with your teachers!”
The Youth Forum has sent the report and toolkit to all mainstream schools in BANES, and to a wide range of services who work with neurodivergent young people. The response so far has been very positive.
You can help us to maximise the impact by encouraging any teachers you know in BANES to read the report and toolkit and to share them with their SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). Please send any comments or suggestions to email hidden; JavaScript is required
About Off The Record (OTR) BANES: We are a youth wellbeing charity offering free services to 5-25 year-olds across BANES, including counselling, advocacy and LGBTQ+ support. We have a counsellor or listening support worker placed in every secondary school in the county. 2024 marks our 30th anniversary.