Eastward House School

Happy Monday from EHS. What a difference some sunshine makes ☀️

Iona from Eastward is on Welsh news tonight at 5.50pm!

As it’s Dyslexia Week, Iona discusses how Dyslexia gives her a creative superpower.

When she found out she was dyslexic she was pleased.

The interviewer says ‘If you have dyslexia it’s something to celebrate. You can be like Iona and see the world in colour’
❤️

Gweld y byd mewn lliw gyda Dyslecsia / Newyddion Ni 4 Hydref 2023 Gwylia Newyddion Ni bob dydd Llun, dydd Mercher a dydd Gwener ar Clic, iPlayer a Youtube StwnshWatch Newyddion Ni every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on S4C C...

Exciting update!
Iona Weighton, one of our young pupils, actually came first across the whole of Wales for her painting.

Not only that, it was the Year 7 to Year 9 (KS3) category so up against older children.

Great talent, Iona. So very impressive, and how wonderful to have a talent that brings enjoyment to others.

Congratulations to Iona Weighton who represented Eastward House and won two competitions in the Eisteddfod!

Iona was competing against older children from schools across Cardiff and The Vale and came first in not one, but two categories! Ceramics and also in 2d work.

This was the first round of judging. Her work will now go on to the National Urdd Eisteddfod in Ceredigion. If it gets through the judging panel there, then it will get exhibited with work from schools from across Wales.

(We should start collecting her work now as a future investment, I think! )

Well done Iona!

All the actors and the author are neurodivergent. Great children’s drama and all episodes on iPlayer.

BRAND NEW DRAMA A Kind of Spark Trailer | CBBC WATCH FULL EPISODES 👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/cbbcSUBSCRIBE TO CBBC 👉 https://bbc.in/3gH3ioUBRAND NEW to BBC iPlayer, CBBC’s A Kind of Spark is a powerfu...

I didn’t realise, when I started working as a psychologist with children and families, how many stories I would hear about distress relating to school. School-related distress wasn’t really something that came up in my clinical training.

But actually, starting with the young people I worked with as a trainee, school has come up again and again. At first I thought my job was to get them back to school. I understood the problem as irrational anxiety and so devised treatment programmes based on that.

Then I heard more stories. Young people who said that school felt like a pressure cooker, that they were told repeatedly how vital exams were for the rest of their lives and they couldn’t afford to not do their best.

Children who came out of school and started screaming and crying immediately, day after day. Those who woke at night, worrying about the spelling test the next day.

Then there were those who developed physical problems - vomiting, or reflux. Medical investigations found nothing physically wrong - it’s anxiety they said. And it doesn’t happen in the school holidays.

And then I thought about my own experience. I went to two schools which I strongly disliked. I had good reasons for this in both cases. The problem wasn’t irrational anxiety, it was that those schools were not environments where I felt safe and could learn.

No amount of therapy for anxiety would have made those schools right. No thought challenging would have helped. All it would have done is made me feel that everyone thought I was wrong to feel the way I did - and I already thought that.

We need to think differently about children who aren’t fine at school. We need to stop saying the problem is them. We need to stop the interventions which assume their feelings are irrational.

Image by on Unsplash.

One of the most significant things we could do to change education for the better would be to really acknowledge difference. We could simply accept that not all five year olds are ready to read, and not all 16 year olds are ready to do high stakes exams.

We would accept that some children need years more play, and others continue to need their parents. Some need help with their emotions for longer, and some need time to decompress each day.

When we did that, we'd stop expecting that 'they should be able to do that now that they are four' and instead we'd focus on 'what do they need, now they are four?'. We'd stop telling children that they shouldn't be struggling with the things they find hard.

If we recognised difference in development, we'd see that comparisons are pointless, and we'd allow each child to develop and discover the things that they are drawn to. We'd stop measuring them all against a 'norm' and saying that some are behind, whilst others are ahead.

We'd stop sending four year olds to therapists because their pencil grip 'is holding them back' or six year olds for assessments because they can't sit still & do boring tasks. We'd stop trying to push them through & 'catch them up' and instead focus on how do they learn.

We would stop teaching them to compare themselves with others & to conclude that their worth as a person is at stake. We'd stop forcing them to comply with arbitrary standards & instead help them to learn right now. Difference is everywhere.

Photo by on Unsplash.

Should be interesting. Tomorrow night on the BBC

Chris Packham on Twitter “We created this series to promote a wider understanding of what it's like to be autistic to a neurotypical audience , it's quite an emotional watch . It airs on the 14th Feb at 9pm on and . ”

Winners Take All

If everyone was open about the competitive nature of school, might there be more push for change?

Sometimes I imagine a world where we were honest with parents and children about the function of school. We’d say, your children have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to enrol in a 12-year competition. At the end, 30% of them will be deemed as failures, 30% successes, and the rest somewhere in the middle. These percentages are fixed, so no matter how hard you and your children work, some of them will fail.

We’ll ease them into the competition informally, with play and things they like to do. Even then, we’ll be looking out to see how they are likely to perform in the future, and we’ll tell you that some of them are behind already and you and they had better try harder. We’ll flag up future winners and put them on tables together, whilst the possible losers will be taken out for extra coaching. We will call this early intervention.

The competition doesn’t start from an even playing field. Many will be disadvantaged from the start by factors beyond their control, such as being born in the summer, poverty, learning disabilities or developing at a very different rate to the average. No matter, we will tell them that the differences are due to hard work and doing what they’re told, and that if they aren’t on the fast track, that’s their (or your) fault. We will call this accountability.

By the time they are six, we will have started mini-competitions. These will be more formal and although we will pretend that children aren’t aware of them, many will be and they will know if they are a winner or a loser. If they fail, we’ll make them do the same again next year. We will call this high expectations.

In order to keep you all with it, we will tell you often how very important this competition is and how if your child turn out to be one of the losers, it will be with them for life. We’ll tell you that continuing to turn up for the competition, day after day, is essential to maximise your child’s chances of being one of the successes rather than the failures. This will ensure that if your child is doing badly, you will assume it is your or their fault rather than challenging the system.

Some of your children will be clear-sighted and will say they want no part of this. They will give their feedback verbally and behaviourally, and we will tell you that this is because they are disruptive or you are an inadequate parent. We will send them off to be tested to identify exactly what it is about them which leads to them not complying, and you will pay for long reports about them and all the ways in which they should be coached to get them back in the competition.

One of the mini-competitions will be about behaviour. Those who comply the best with our instructions and requirements will get certificates and approval, whilst those who do not comply will be given sanctions and detentions. This, like all the competitions, will be in public, with those who are failing having their names written on the board so everyone can see. The successes will be clear to all, even the five-year-olds, who will be able to tell you who the bad and good ones in the class are before they’ve even started Year 1. We will call this taking responsibility and setting boundaries.

When they are teenagers, the end of the competition will loom and so the pressure will increase. By this point, many will already have a pretty good idea that they are heading to be one of the failures, and keeping them in the competition will be hard. We’ll use intensive control to do this, in some cases dictating how they should move their eyes and refusing to help them out if they forget their pen. We’ll tell them that this is their last chance to do well and whilst it might feel punitive, it’s all for their own good. We’ll tell them they absolutely must continue to attend the competition, or their chances of winning will plummet.

At 16, the competition is at its height. We will take young people with vastly different levels of maturity, neurological development and life experience, give them all the same tests and then divide them up on that basis. The tests will be used to determine their future life chances

Throughout it all, you will find that this competition is about far more than the tests. You’ll find that it about whether your child sees themselves as a worthwhile person, and whether they have earned the right to be treated with respect. It’s about the way they learn to feel about themselves, and where they think their place is in the world. They will learn to compete with others and to rank themselves against them. They will learn that the way to feel good about themselves is to do better than the others.

However, if they do this too openly we will tell them to keep quiet. One of the rules of the competition is to keep it mostly under-cover.

Many of you were the winners in this competition, and so you never really saw what it’s like to be on the other side. You learnt to think of those who lose as less worthy, you think they just can’t be bothered or don’t put in the work. You learnt to judge their parents as uncaring or feckless. If your children are also marked as winners, there might be no reason to question it at all. The winners get to decide the terms for the next generation, whilst the losers are rarely asked.

But if we were open from the start that what we call education is a competition, with high stakes consequences which will last a lifetime, might more of us call for change?

Illustration by Missing The Mark

Christmas can be a very tricky time. (Understatement of the year there!)

I found this visual helpful.

What our children need more than anything is for us to be there and be present.

But even “being present” can be so hard if we feel overwhelmed ourselves as parents.

In case you need to read it, it’s more than okay to say no to visitors, to invitations. It’s okay to say “get lost” to social media hype about Christmas and the circus of feeling like you need to buy specific food and gifts for everyone.
Sending Christmas cards..? Bah humbug.
Noisy shops? Not a chance.
Entertainment manager for everyone else? NO.

Those who love you can see your burden and understand. Other parents in the same position know what it’s like- you are not alone.

You Better Watch Out Adults often use fear to control children. Sometimes it's so subtle they don't even notice it themselves.

You may recognise the little actress here who got the part after nationwide auditions.
We’re so proud of you!

Harry Potter Coin Collection | The Royal Mint To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, we have struck a range of spellbinding coins featuring a po...

https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/blogs/redesigning-school

Redesigning school | The Children's Society What do young people really want to learn in school?

Call out plea!
Please, if you have any spare bulbs, spades & trowels for gardening, tarps, bungee cord for den building, old pots and pans etc for mud kitchen… and anything else like that you think may be useful to add to our children’s own new outdoor school site- all these sorts of things would be very welcome if you can bring them into school and have any spare.
Thanks in advance!

https://help2makesense.org/how-to-look-after-yourself-when-a-public-figure-dies/

How to look after yourself when a public figure dies | Help 2 Make Sense Whether you liked them or not, the death of a public figure can bring up feelings of grief. Here's how to look after yourself when a public figure dies.

At Eastward and Westward all pupils passed the GCSEs they took this year.
Congratulations to them!
As a school, in the way other schools do, we could therefore “officially” say that 100% of our pupils this year achieved Grace A-C!
BUT, you know we are about so much more than exam results for our young people.
Results do not define you and do not define your talent. The current system is archaic and my mind keeps going back to our mantra - qualifications are important, but self-esteem is life changing. If exam results boost self-esteem and open some doors then great, but they are such a small part of a much, much bigger picture.
Success to us is when a child believes in themselves, has confidence in their talents and thoroughly enjoys the journey of discovering their strength and passion.
That is truly life changing.
I hope our young people are very proud of their achievement.

We’ve been busy with Estyn recently and are incredibly pleased to share with you that Eastward House and Westward House are now registered for children up to the age of 18.
This is such welcome news for so many of our young people.

Also, under Estyn’s recommendation the Welsh Government have increased our capacity to 35 places for each school.

We ended the term with 20 pupils at each school and no further places available, so this is such positive news as we know there are others who really need us.

I came across this in a blog post by Kieran Rose. The goldfish in a lava bowl really struck me.
Not all children or adults are the same.
Not all autistic children or autistic adults are the same.
The most important thing is to find the right bowl that works for you and doesn’t lead to burnout or trauma. And then you thrive and then you grow.
You might need to change bowls at various points in life, but you will know what type of bowl you need. I think I’m getting obsessed with this little analogy… 🤣
The second most important thing is that you follow your instincts and have people around you that listen to you share your instinctive feelings and who understand how it feels.

“Dyslexic Thinking” is now officially a noun and in addition to its many other listed skills, LinkedIn now cites ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ among the talents its users can claim. Dictionary.com defined the term as ‘strengths in creative, problem-solving and communication skills’.

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/03/31/linkedin-adds-dyslexic-thinking-skills-list-effort-destigmatize

LinkedIn adds ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ to skills list in effort to destigmatize In addition to its many other listed skills, LinkedIn now cites ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ among the talents its users can claim. The new label, which is live from today (March 31), seeks to destigmatize dyslexia among employers and the wider public as part of a campaign by charity group Made by Dyslex...

Day 2 in London - Buckingham Palace, Sky Garden, Borough Market for lunch and river and bus tours. Busy day!

A busy Day 1 in London for some of our oldest pupils. After a National Express coach ride from Cardiff, it was the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park and an Italian meal on the itinerary today.

So proud of Adam who took the initiative to organise this trip with everyone. The pupils costed it all, chose the hotel, activities and restaurants themselves.

All our older pupils at Eastward and Westward- the young people photographed here and the others who didn’t go on this trip away.- they are all such an amazing group of mature, kind and caring individuals. They really are an absolute joy to know and support.

There will be many more opportunities for other trips away and group activities in the future.
I wonder where will they will choose next?!

(Photos posted with permission)

Just a reminder that term starts on Tuesday as tomorrow is an Inset day.
Although for some of the older ones from Eastward and Westward, tomorrow is the day they go off on their mini break to London.
We wish them a really wonderful time!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/richard-branson-linkedin-orlando-bloom-john-kelly-virgin-trains-b2047759.html?utm_content=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Main&utm_source=Twitter&fbclid=IwAR1NG0pGA16vdA-O-ekc8fZGrdNorYQ-mnztg4vYSgTWtlzjSXg4KQwTy9E =1648682621

Richard Branson hails LinkedIn for adding ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ as official skill The platform is recognising the term as a valuable skill which can be added to member profiles.

To all our mums at Eastward..
Your care, your dedication to supporting your children, your love - we see it, we know it, we think you are amazing.
Sending you much love and wishing you a very happy day.

A great day at Outdoor School today.
A trip to St Fagans National Museum of History where the children listened to a talk about Celts and were so knowledgable. They also asked great questions to find out more. Staff said they should be so proud of themselves.
They also saw a lamb actually being born and the lambing nursery there! Amazing!

This.
Training in “Autism” isn’t going to help someone understand an individual.
The expert for a child is their primary caregiver. Their primary caregiver, even with years of experience under their belt, will still be surprised by things and see curveballs every day.
The only way to support a child who is autistic is to TALK TALK TALK.
School and home - a collaboration. It’s knowing the child, not knowing reports on them.
Know the child, not the label.

https://www.theplightofthesendparent.co.uk/why-separation-anxiety-comes-from-a-very-different-place-in-autistic-children?fbclid=IwAR14415NmaCgNQS12W2U9KCZMpafmUp4T2aoD5wNydZ0AikEhs9Ig1-s824

Why separation anxiety comes from a VERY different place in autistic children. Please find below my SEND provision calculator. This is a spreadsheet and it has formula's already loaded in the columns which will help you cost provision for an EHCP.