Just a short note to say that the lack of blog posts recently is deliberate. We are currently in our latest battle with KCC over Victoria’s education and I don’t want to jeopardise or prejudice proceedings by writing about our experiences here. There is also such a thing as “too much autism”… there is...
Ability Football
Back in November I wrote about Victoria’s journey with football, how we questioned whether disability football was right for us? and how she had become a member of the U11 Ability Juniors team at Swancombe Tigers, a local team that play within the Kent Disability League, and I think it is safe to say...
Twas the night before Christmas
‘Twas the night before Christmas in the autismDAD houseNot a creature was stirring, not Jasper nor my spouseThe build-up was stressful, left us pulling our hairBut it will be worth it once St Nicholas is there It starts with a letter to be sent to Saint NickBut how to decide what presents to pick?Whilst...
Ofsted deeply critical of Kent SEND provision
In 2019 Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission conducted a joint inspection of Kent to judge how effective to local authority was at implementing disability and special educational needs reforms. The outcome of that inspection can be found here and was not at all complementary. In September this year they carried out a review...
Football
During my abc of autism posts earlier in the year I stated that F is for Football and I described how Victoria came to join Sutton Dynamos FC‘s first all-girl team. It’s been a steep learning curve for both of us, and I don’t just mean my lack of understanding of the beautiful game....
We Are Beams AGM
I’ve never been to an Annual General Meeting (AGM) before. To be honest, they sound a bit boring and I’ve no idea why I would want to go to one just to find out who the members of the board are and how much money they’ve spent in the past year. So when I...
Foreign Holiday Review
It’s been a while since my last post. Our summer holiday to Majorca was a big deal and we had no idea how Victoria would cope. Flights, transfers, strange hotels, unusual food, lots of people… there were a million and one potential causes of anxiety and I thought I’d have plenty to blog about...
Holiday – airports and flights
Boarding the flight was a breeze. We made ourselves known at the gate and there were no issues with us boarding first. In fact, when they called people to board, the first group called included those “who might need a little extra time settling into the plane”. This was important as it meant that...
Holiday
2015 was the last time we went abroad. Becs, Victoria and I had a great week in Menorca but that feels like a lifetime ago in a life pre-autism, pre-Emily and pre-Jasper. For one reason or another we’ve not ventured outside the UK since but that’s not been an issue, we’ve hd some excellent...
Annual reviews, EHCPs and the opacity of local authority – part 2
In Annual reviews, EHCPs and the opacity of local authority – part 1 I described the frustration of the annual review process, the fact that the local authority don’t attend these meetings and the difficulty of finding someone to speak to when legislative deadlines come and go without consequence. If you’ve not read part...