The question is, how much longer do we have to wait while our children, our pupils and some of our schools continue to ask the same questions on attendance and attainment but not grasping this key overarching area?
I wrote this blog (in hyperlink) in 2020 for Edpsyuk and it quickly grew in popularity but also I was bowled over by the amount of responses. I was not, however, too surprised at the emotion, as I knew this had to be written. I had a poor education and not believed to be ill, so knew the issues personally.
Later, from my professional career as leading national autism consultant and Assistant Headteacher in all phases of education, I had experienced and knew there was something missing in neurodivergent teaching and training. This was my first blog after being very ill and as a professional teacher it was very important that I led this, subsequently leading out more publications and my passion on the development and content of the school toolkit for hypermobility, subsequent advocacy and papers. It is still relevant now and I was delighted it became the 2nd most read blog second only to Covid blog voted by Edpsyuk in Covid year 2020.
I am still advocating for this in all training and approaches when supporting neurodivergent pupils in schools/education. We still have some way to go but I am confident that with due diligence of evidence that researchers are finding and presentation and dissemination of such will only be fair and equity will prevail. It just still has a few silos and barriers to break down to aid this new dimension. When I say new it is not new, hypermobility was first mentioned by Hippocrates in 400BC. It is misunderstood, it is neglected and it is not morally acceptable to continue to do so.