Over the years there has been a struggle to come up with an appropriate way of describing this sector of the system. Once acceptable terms have been quickly discarded as misleading or downright offensive. It could be argued that, to the casual outsider, the term "special" seems to be a neutral compromise... But if you spend a day in such a life-enhancing place as Meadowgates you quickly learn how accurate it is...
It didn't take long to pick up the positive atmosphere. The sense of joy was contagious and the enthusiastic response was overwhelming...
Often, when performing in "main stream" schools, the contrast between stony-faced teachers sitting impassively at the periphery of things, embarrassed to let their guard down, and the sea of engaged smiling children is enormous. It takes a few well targeted deliberate jibes to startle them into life - experience has shown me that the more involved teachers are in the session the more their children get out of it. There was no need for any of that here! There's no them-and-us at Meadowgates - we're all in this together! Actually, at times it was difficult to tell teachers and pupils apart - if it wasn't for Charlotte's giveaway two-toned nail varnish I would never have thought she was 14!
The day was a procession of magical moments - let me mention two...
Barnaby was an extremely large lad who clearly had very limited communication and motor skills. The smile on his face and the glint in his eye showed he was obviously enjoying the storytelling session, but he could only join in at a very limited level. The story involves gradually packing a series of items into a battered old suitcase and, at first, I didn't think he was up to doing that... Ben, a confident mouthy lad, sat next to him. He was more than eager to come out and help... I sensed quite quickly that he was a rather loose canon and made a mental note not to let him pack anything that might break! As the story progressed, and everyone who wanted to had been out to pack something, I decided to offer Barnaby a cuddly toy - to everyone's joy, he eagerly grabbed it and made his way towards the suitcase. Instantly Ben stood up and placed a supporting hand on Barnaby's shoulder. His cheeky grin now replaced by serious concern, he shadowed his friend all the way up to the suitcase and then carefully back to his seat. Ben's usual manicness only returned once he was sure that Barnaby was settled. It was beautiful. I often come across "natural carers"; children who, completely unprompted by teachers, take on the role of primary helper to a vulnerable peer. At times children can make life seem quite simple - I see someone who needs my help, so that's what I do... simple.
The second incident will live with me forever. The trick of encouraging creativity is to provoke an idea in a child, leap on it, coax them into expanding it into a story by asking a few subtle leading questions and then declare how phenomenal their imagination is to be able to create such a fantastic unique idea. There's a part of this story that refers to "5 climbing kites" and Luke, for no apparent reason, seemed to think it would be funny to replace them with tomatoes - so I ran with it. "But what would happen if one of those flying tomatoes fell to the ground? What if it landed on someones head?!" Luke found that particularly funny and said it would "splat down on them with a splash." In class afterwards, in the follow up workshop, Luke was choosing the things he wanted to draw in his own suitcase. He was bent over the table, transfixed. As I approached I was suddenly catapulted back to 1987 when a 13 year old autistic child named Steven Wiltshire first came to public attention. I watched as his steady, confident hand moved unerringly around the paper. There, as if by magic, was the scene we had spoken about...
...amazing, isn't it! He agreed to reproduce a signed copy for me if I gave him a signed copy of one of my books... I don't know who was prouder when we made the exchange. His teachers told me that I'd made Luke's day and that he'd never forget it - I assured them that the feeling was mutual... Happily, I'm going back in a few weeks to spend another SPECIAL day at the wonderful Meadowgates!
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