Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

This may have been down to how I was presenting his class with a long-running story each lesson, in which the pupils had all been assigned characters while they worked on their art, perhaps marking me out as ‘different’ to the other teachers. Curious as to why he’d asked me that question, he said “ We think some of our teachers could be autistic. ” At the time, there was a student in another class who was openly autistic and behaved differently. The students inmy Y7 art class, who knew that boy well, evidently concluded that people who behave differently might do so because they’re autistic, and that this group could well include their teachers. Some of the students asked me for advice on how to interact with the boy, explaining that they were trying to be friends with him, but that he wasn’t understanding their hints – which was perhaps to be expected, given how some people with autism can struggle with social cues. I explained to them that they needed to be very direct. Masking alone Looking back, my Y7 questioner was probably on to something. While I coped with the demands of school, I believe my life would have been far less stressful had my own SEN been recognised. My constant daydreaming, scattiness and inability to organise myself were traits I had attempted to mask and ended up coping with alone. A huge stumbling block for people requiring SEN support can be the persistent belief that some still hold that people with SEN are somehow ‘less intelligent’ than average. As an adult, I once encountered my former Spanish teacher in the supermarket. Our chat turned to the problems I was having with focussing in class, and my suspicion that they were due to ADHD and SEN that had been undiagnosed back when I was a student. “ You can’t be SEN– you’re too intelligent! ” came his reply. How, then, on a practical level, can schools support their gifted SEN students? Firstly, I believe that the government’s ‘Young, Gifted and Talented’ program, which launched in 2002 before being closed in 2010, should be brought back. Cutting the program may have saved money in the short term, but I contend that the denial of opportunities to gifted young people following its closure will have proved more expensive in the long term, seeing as how gifted young people so often become the innovators of the future. People with ADHD, for example, are 300% more likely to start a business. There’s also currently no national definition for exceptionally talented students, beyond ‘More Able’. This needs to change. I further believe that every school should have a gifted and talented co-ordinator who is trained in nurturing exceptional talent, and able to help other teachers spot signs of neurodiversity among gifted students who may be masking their difficulties to fit in. This is especially important for bright, female students with SEN, due to this group often being better at masking symptoms in order to appear neurotypical compared to their male peers. It’s not uncommon for bright female SEN students to proceed through school largely unnoticed, while just about coping, only to flounder once they reach university, due to the relative lack of structure. I certainly found this to be true of myself – I managed to earn a degree, but not without some some considerable difficulties along the way. Apleasant fantasy Those young people who appear to be coping? Often, they won’t be – they’ll be masking. That makes it incredibly important that these students be identified and given appropriate support to develop coping strategies with which to manage their SEN requirements – such as organisational strategies for students with ADHD. I’m aware that what I’m suggesting here will require funding, and that the notion of appointing a gifted and talented co-ordinator in every school will only ever be a pleasant fantasy without the money to pay for it. I hope, however, that raising awareness of the issue might at least contribute to it being taken up as a valid concern by the unions, who could potentially campaign for the reinstatement of Gifted and Talented funding or a comparable equivalent. After all, it’s in everybody’s interest for our most promising young people to be ably supported – because one day, their ideas might change the world. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alice Guile is a secondary school art teacher 71 teachwire.net/secondary S E N D