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Archive for August 12th, 2019

NASAT Trustee members visiting the Vanguard School construction site - group photo

Our new Vanguard School in Lambeth is one step closer to opening after the Department for Education signed the school’s funding agreement last week. With construction on the building going well, as seen by trustees of the NAS Academies Trust on a visit last week, the Lollard Street School is all set to open in January 2020!

This is a huge moment for us, the local council and all the parents who’ve been working together to make the school a reality.

The free school is being purpose-built for children and young people from Lambeth and surrounding boroughs who are on the autism spectrum and looking to go on to further education and employment. It will eventually cater for up to 78 students, aged between 11 and 19. It will grow gradually, with a phased intake of students, starting with years 7 and 8.

As well as high-quality learning facilities, the two-storey building (which was designed by Pozzoni Architecture and built by Galliford Try) will also contain a multi-use hall, which will be shared with the local community out-of-hours. The building will also contain a kitchen, storage spaces, and community break-out areas.

Its development reflects the local authority’s recognition of the need for more specialist education provision in the borough, especially for students who can access a mainstream curriculum. It will help autistic children get the education they need closer to home, reducing the numbers having to travel to schools outside the borough and giving parents more choice.

Although every autistic child is different, many can become overwhelmed in school environments by bright lights, loud noises or the unpredictable behaviour of other children. Some children on the autism spectrum are able to excel in mainstream schools with limited help, while others require more specialist support, like that offered by our Vanguard School. Without the right support and understanding, it can be almost impossible to learn and can even lead to children missing out on an education altogether.

Fleur Bothwick, Chair of Vanguard School Governors and NAS Academies Trust Board Trustee, said: “For me and other parents in the borough, this has been a long journey, with a great outcome. Bringing the expertise of the National Autistic Society in to our borough will be life changing for many children and young people on the autism spectrum and for their families. It will also benefit the local community, other schools, services and employers.”

We are so grateful to the National Autistic Society and the Department of Education for sharing our vision and turning it in to a reality.

Kirstie Fulthorpe, Managing Director for the NAS Academies Trust, said: “This is a huge moment for our charity, the local council and, especially, all the parents who’ve been working hard to make the school a reality.”

We’re very much looking forward to working together to realise the high ambitions we have for our school – and to giving local autistic children the best possible chance in life.

To find out more about the National Autistic Society’s Vanguard School and to sign up for updates on the school’s development, visit their website here.

Visit Vanguard School

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2019-07-29-vanguard-school-opening.aspx



Anne Hegerty with students

Two weeks ago, National Autistic Society supporter and star of ITV’s The Chase, Anne Hegerty, visited Clarendon School in Twickenham. The school won a visit from Anne by signing up to take part in World Autism Awareness Week in April, this year.

Greeted by a cheering school assembly, Anne spent the whole morning answering questions from students and touring the school to see the great work the teachers, support staff and students are doing.

John Kipps, Headteacher said, “During World Autism Awareness Week, we used the excellent learning resources provided by the National Autistic Society. Many of our pupils have an autism diagnosis and to have such a positive role model in the school has been amazing.”

Anne was particularly moved by one young student’s film about what it is like to be autistic. Anne told the assembly she could relate to many of the sensory issues the young man described.

Asked what advice she would give to young autistic people, Anne said,

You can learn to deal with the sensory issues. And don’t expect too much of yourself. Give yourself breaks, give yourself time but do expect you can probably do more than people think you can.

Watch Anne’s ‘Thank you’ message in the video below.

You can find Secondary, Primary and Early Years learning resources on autism, here, including a film from Niall Aslam, autistic man and Love Island contestant, and the Trummies, our colourful bunch of animated characters who live on the autism spectrum.

World Autism Awareness Week is back next year from Monday 30 March to Friday 5 April. Get the date in the school diary today and help create a society that works for autistic children and adults.

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2019-07-17-anne-hegerty-visits-school.aspx



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This past weekend, mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio killed at least 30 people and injured over 50 more. These mass shootings, the 16th and 17th in the United States this year this year, took place amidst a continued crisis of white supremacism in the US; while the administration promotes xenophobia and the President calls immigrants less than human; and in a political climate in which we have repeatedly failed to address the prevalence & availability of deadly firearms. Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and their communities. 


Speaking this morning about these mass shootings, President Trump said that mass shootings are carried out by “mentally ill monsters” and claimed that in order to prevent them, we must “reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure these people not only get treatment but, when necessary, involuntary confinement.” These remarks are a blatant attempt to target and scapegoat people with disabilities in order to distract from the active role our President himself has played in inciting anti-immigrant sentiment and white supremacist violence. ASAN calls on policymakers and the American public not to be taken in by this dangerous rhetoric, but to insist on real, meaningful change. 


Blaming mass shootings on people with mental health disabilities has become so routine that yesterday, the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement warning against blaming mental illness for “a public health crisis of gun violence fueled by racism, bigotry and hatred.” As the APA points out, people with mental health disabilities are far more likely to be victims of violence than to be perpetrators. The overwhelming majority of gun violence is carried out by nondisabled people; we cannot fight gun violence or racism by monitoring and institutionalizing people with disabilities. We urge everyone to educate themselves on this issue so that we as a nation can stay focused on working towards real solutions. 


When we examine the evidence, it is easy to see that enacting legislation making it easier to surveil and institutionalize people with mental health disabilities, as the President has suggested, would not prevent gun violence. Instead, it would threaten the civil rights of the 1 in 5 Americans with mental health disabilities. People with disabilities have fought for decades for our right to live in our communities and make our own decisions about our housing and health care. As centuries of failed U.S. policies demonstrate, denying us these rights means abandoning us to abuse, neglect and segregation. The results of the President’s proposal would be catastrophic; not only for the disability community, but for our nation as a whole, because it would allow gun violence to continue unchecked.


When the President of the United States scapegoats the disability community instead of reckoning with white supremacy, he knows exactly what he is doing. He knows that his talking points, reprehensible as they may be, line up with common societal prejudices which allow him to distract from the issues at hand. It is incumbent upon all of us to refuse to play along. We must educate each other; denounce white supremacy; stand up for our friends, family & neighbors with mental health disabilities; and advocate for real solutions to gun violence, racism and xenophobia. We call on our elected officials at all levels of government to do the same. 


The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by and for autistic people. ASAN was created to serve as a national grassroots disability rights organization for the autistic community run by and for autistic Americans, advocating for systems change and ensuring that the voices of autistic people are heard in policy debates and the halls of power. Our staff work to educate communities, support self-advocacy in all its forms, and improve public perceptions of autism. ASAN’s members and supporters include autistic adults and youth, cross-disability advocates, and non-autistic family members, professionals, educators, and friends.

Support our work



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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network condemns Sesame Street’s decision to further stigma against autistic children and adults in their new Public Service Announcements. 


For several years, ASAN consulted with Sesame Street on their See Amazing project and the development of their autistic character, Julia. Until this summer, the content Sesame Street produced showed parents that their autistic children could live great lives, and taught autistic and neurotypical children ways to become friends. Through this approach, See Amazing successfully encouraged the inclusion of autistic children in their communities, and had a widespread positive impact.


Sesame Street has now decided to undo that progress. Its latest PSAs featuring Julia promote Autism Speaks’ “Screen for Autism” initiative and their resource for parents of newly-diagnosed autistic children, the 100 Day Kit. Like much of Autism Speaks’ recent advertising, these PSAs use the language of acceptance and understanding to push resources that further stigma and treat autistic people as burdens on our families. The 100 Day Kit encourages parents to blame family difficulties on their autistic child (“When you find yourself arguing with your spouse… be careful not to get mad at each other when it really is the autism that has you so upset and angry”) and to view autism as a terrible disease from which their child can “get better.” It recommends compliance-based “therapies” and pseudoscientific “autism diets,” but fails to educate families about communication supports. It even instructs parents to go through the five stages of grief after learning that their child is autistic, as they would if the child had died.


We discussed with Sesame Street, repeatedly and in great detail, what this decision would mean for the autistic community. We explained to them how these ideas harm autistic children and our families, and reinforce societal prejudice against autistic people. Our contacts acknowledged that the Autism Speaks resources were harmful and portrayed autistic children in a negative light — yet they were unwilling to reverse course in their plans to promote them. As a result, we have formally ended our partnership with Sesame Street. 


Too often, parents of autistic children are bombarded with terrifying messages. They are told that their autistic child will destroy their marriage and their nondisabled children’s lives. They are told that their child’s happiness — and their own — depends on the child “getting better” by hiding their autistic traits, and to work toward this goal above all else. They are told to grieve for the hypothetical nondisabled child they had imagined, rather than to love and connect to the autistic child in front of them. These messages hurt autistic people, scare our families, and encourage our communities to fear and exclude us. Autism Speaks has played a central role in developing them.


The See Amazing initiative was groundbreaking because it offered an alternative to these stories. It let families know that their autistic children are amazing, can live happy lives, and are deserving of love. Now, Sesame Street has decided to let See Amazing become just another vehicle for Autism Speaks to spread the same old toxic ideas.


Decision-makers at Sesame Street understand the position they are in. For fifty years, Sesame Street has created content with the explicit goal of impacting the real lives of children and families. It is too late to pretend that Sesame Street can amplify harmful messages without causing harm. We call on Sesame Street to recognize the damage they are doing, end their partnership with Autism Speaks, and commit to producing and promoting only content which increases the inclusion, acceptance and well-being of autistic children.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by and for autistic people. ASAN was created to serve as a national grassroots disability rights organization for the autistic community run by and for autistic Americans, advocating for systems change and ensuring that the voices of autistic people are heard in policy debates and the halls of power. Our staff work to educate communities, support self-advocacy in all its forms, and improve public perceptions of autism. ASAN’s members and supporters include autistic adults and youth, cross-disability advocates, and non-autistic family members, professionals, educators, and friends.

Support our work