A mother has described how her son, who has autism, didn't go to school for two years and was suicidal after being temporarily excluded in his last year of primary school. Jo Leonard, said her boy, now 14, is back in classes after getting "life changing" support from a secondary school in Barry.
Whitmore High School in Barry has the first specialist resource base for pupils with autism in the Vale of Glamorgan. It opened in 2021 helping 19 children aged 11 to 16 get back to school and access mainstream lessons as well as specialist help.
Jo, from Llantwit Major fought back tears as she described how her son, who she asked not to be named, would not leave his room and "couldn't see the point in life" when he was 11. She said she now "had her son back" thanks to help he got from teachers at Whitmore after years of trauma for the whole family.
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"My son was temporarily excluded in year six of primary. Then a perfect storm of lockdown and transition to comprehensive meant he didn't go back to a classroom between November 2019 and September 2021 when he started at the resource base at Whitmore High.
"For most of year six he had an hour or so a day from a learning support assistant and when he went to secondary school in September 2020 it all fell apart."
Jo said in year seven her son started secondary school occasionally joining virtual maths or IT lessons. Soon the the 11 year-old became very withdrawn.
"He was suicidal and would not leave his room. He did not want to live. He felt there was no purpose to his life. It was awful, so traumatic."
Although the schoolboy had been diagnosed with autism in 2016 he did not get a statement of special educational needs until 2021, which led to his offer of a place at the Autism Resource Base at Whitmore, the only base of its kind in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The facility has specialist staff who work almost one to one with children in an environment without the stimuli which people with autism find distressing. At the same time the pupils can leave the base to attend mainstream lessons with peers, or be taught in the base.
Describing the base as "a life saver" Jo said her son began attending just half an hour or a couple of hours a day. This term he is back full time, for the first time in three years.
"He attends all his lessons at the base. He is good at maths and has just started reading Lord of the Flies. He is bright but couldn't cope with mainstream. The change is extraordinary. The staff at the base are so knowledgeable and positive.
"At the base he is allowed to be himself and is happy. He has started to talk about internships and the future. He can be the life and soul at family parties now. This has been 100% life changing for us. The school has blown all expectations with staff who are patient and easy to contact if he has a wobble."
James Gadd, whose daughters Axel ,13, and Imogen, 15, joined the base in July 2021 said their autism had left them "paralysed" by fear of school. Starting at secondary in Cardiff and Penarth had been "brutal" and they stopped attending.
"My daughters struggled at secondary but now they are really happy at the base at Whitmore . It has transformed our lives. It is a place where they feel safe and understood. If you can imagine your worst day, that's how every day used to be for them thinking about going to school."
Maria Prosser, assistant head of Whitmore High and head of the resource base said it was a safe space which children with autism can access mainstream lessons from, or stay in all day and have lessons there.
"Before we opened in 2021 this provision did not exist in the Vale of Glamorgan and we take learners from all over the area. Provision in some of the schools was not right and they stopped attending.
"Some of our learners had been out of school for years before coming here. Some feel safe and valued for the first time in school. We delight being with our students . For some they did not have that before - maybe schools they went to before did not have the structure or funding to help."
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Whitmore High head Innes Robinson said he wanted all pupils to feel included and have the same opportunities. The base offers a quieter, "low-arousal environment" for students who need to complete work or take a moment to recuperate, quiet sensory rooms - complete with sensory lighting and sensory objects such as weighted blankets and fiddle toys - kitchen facilities for cookery sessions, outdoor space and their own wellbeing dog, Daisy.
It opened with funding from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme. Today Education Minister Jeremy Miles announced £20m of funding for councils to improve or create spaces and facilities to help children with additional learning needs. The money, available to mainstream, special schools and pupil referral units, can be used to create quiet or sensory areas, upgrade or buy new equipment.
The aim is to support Wales' new Additional Learning Needs Act and the new curriculum. Elsewhere in Wales Ysgol Dinas Brân in Llangollen has also received previous ALN improvement funding as part of the Havens project, alongside other schools in Denbighshire. The Hafan is a model of creating spaces within mainstream schools which provide a bridge for pupils who find it difficult to attend mainstream schools full-time, the Welsh Government said.
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