Self advocate and Our Voice member Harshi has had a busy few weeks!
She’s shared a blog with us about all that she’s been up to.
Roundtable meeting with the Childrens’ Commissioner, and the Secretary of State for Education
My name is Harshi and I am 19. I was in a meeting to give my thoughts to Dame Rachel De Souza (the Childrens’ Commissioner of England) and Gillian Keegan (Secretary of State for Education). I was talking to them about the SEND system, and what has worked well for me in education, and what is still a challenge.
I was in my local mainstream primary and secondary school. I finished my secondary school when I was 16 during the Covid lockdown and was sad when I didn’t get to say goodbye to my secondary school friends. In my mainstream schools, I found that I had a lot of positive support from my TAs. My TAs encouraged me to learn at my pace. I was also able to go to school residential trips because of support from my TAs. I felt included in the schools because of their support.
I then went to a sixth form in a special school. I wanted to go to a mainstream sixth form too, but found that I didn’t have any sixth forms in my local area that were mainstream and would support my additional learning needs.
So, I am doing 3 years in my school’s sixth form and I finish this year in July. I am then going to college in September, but when looking for college options, I don’t have a big choice of colleges like my sister does, for example, in my local area, I only have a choice of 2 colleges I can choose from and my sister who doesn’t have special needs can choose from lots of colleges.
Also, my local authority prefers me to choose a college near home, but my sister can choose from anywhere.
Why can’t I do the same?
There aren’t many choices of courses to do at college either. For example, I want to teach and work with young children. But the choice of courses I have are either Animal Care, Gardening, Horticulture or Beauty Therapy because I have special needs.
Why do I have to make do with a course that I have not chosen?
Colleges are saying that working with children is a mainstream course and because I have not got those academic levels, I can’t choose that course. I would like it if adjustments are made to courses so that young people like me can at least try to do the course they want to do.
Receiving the ‘Young Rising Star’ Award to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023
It was a lovely surprise to receive the ‘Young Rising Star’ Award from my community to celebrate International Women’s Day. There were 5 awards given to women that day: Community Spirit, Bravery, Inspiration, Entrepreneur and Young Rising Star.
I was very pleased to have been chosen to receive the Young Rising Star Award. I was awarded this for the work I have been doing to raise awareness in my community about Down Syndrome and also for fully participating in lots of community events and competitions. When I went on stage, I said the following to the audience: ” I am very excited to be here this evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to become a winner”
I then even got the audience to sing Happy Birthday to me, as it was my birthday that weekend.
I really enjoyed the whole evening.
Thank you for reading!
Harshi