Louie Lee is seven years old. He has been waiting years for a diagnosis of his special educational needs and behavioural issues. As a result he has never spent a whole day at school, cannot read or write and can only count as far as 20.
His mother Michelle Cassemis said she has desperately been trying to get help since he started nursery but her son as been “let down by the system”. He only got a statement of special educational needs last year when he was six, years after it was apparent to his teachers and his mother that something was wrong.
The single mother-of-three from Trowbridge, Cardiff, said Louie’s former school St John Lloyd Primary helped him get the statement of special educational needs. She said she had “nothing but praise” for the staff there but he couldn’t cope and she took him out altogether in July 2021. Since then Louie has stayed at home meaning she cannot return to work as a hairdresser.
