How We Support and Celebrate Neurodiversity

If you have visited Alleyn’s this week, you will have seen posters promoting Neurodiversity Celebration Week all around the School, celebrating the strengths of people with different ways of thinking, learning, interacting and perceiving the world:

The fact that Florence Welch is an Alleyn’s alumna makes this the perfect example poster, I hope, for this blog, but there are so many others that will inspire our pupils.

Neurodiversity is something that is very important to our pupil body and last term our School Council raised the idea of forming a student council to discuss issues relating to neurodiversity, specific learning difference and disability. Why? Because they felt that, although we have made great strides in the promotion of gender equality, LGBTQ+ and with the work of our Minority Students’ Union, there is still work to be done in recognising the challenges that neurodiverse pupils face.

As Heads of Section and with oversight of all of our pupils between us, this is something that Mel Joel (Head of Middle School) and Liz Thornton (Head of Lower School) also felt strongly about supporting - and so the SEND Society was born earlier this term!  So far, the work of the pupils has led to a Staff INSET session, led by Claire Heindl, Assistant Head (Teaching and Learning) and myself, on supporting Neurodiverse pupils in the classroom, their strengths and the challenges they face.

As important, however, is the chance for the pupils to discuss their own challenges and to learn from each other in the safe space that we hope the society represents. I asked the students for some input today for this blog article, and it is typical of our wonderfully thoughtful students that the first thing they said was “Everyone should be involved, allies are just as important, as everyone needs to understand to be able to help and support people who are neurodiverse.” They were keen to point out that the society is for everyone: people with specific learning differences, disabilities, those who are neurodivergent and allies.

Louise van der Valk, our Head of Learning Support, and a key supporter and champion of our neurodiverse pupils said “It is so wonderful that the pupils wanted to start this Society and to raise awareness of neurodiversity. If we can all recognise the many strengths and talents that can result from neurological differences, then this can only help us to support our pupils better and to make their lives easier both in school and in the wider world.”

This week’s talk was given by Year 11 pupil Isabella, who was one of the leading voices on School Council that led to the creation of SEND Society. The talk focused on how different autism diagnoses can be between gender, racial and socio-economic groups. The idea of “a spectrum” was felt to be very important by the pupils, as well as the fact that a specific learning difference, neurodivergence or disability is not just a “learning difficulty” but something that may influence someone’s whole life. Most importantly, they were keen to say that “there are positives too!”

This was certainly the main message of the assembly I gave to the Lower School: “The beauty of the brain is that everyone’s works differently, and we all then have different strengths”. Did you know, for example, that people with ADHD can be some of the most creative members on a team, bringing energy and new approaches to their projects, and that several studies have shown that adults with ADHD tend to be out-of-the-box thinkers and calm under pressure?

As well as celebrating the strengths and talents of people who are autistic and people with learning differences, I also reminded the pupils that they should not bystand if they witness pupils being teased or bullied for their difference, or if others use ableist language, and they certainly shouldn’t engage in any of these behaviours themselves. Rather, they should be understanding and supportive of each other and should never forget that they have the power to make a positive difference to someone who may be finding life difficult.

There are some excellent resources out there if you would like to know more, and why not start with Teen Tips, the Wellbeing Hub that all of our pupils, parents and staff have access to? Teen Tips has some excellent resources on neurodiversity as well as stories and podcasts of personal experiences at school. It is well worth a look and a listen.

Kindness is a core school value - the bedrock of the Alleyn’s ROCCK!  And Neurodiversity Celebration Week is one way of reminding students to be kind, and to accept and value people for who they are.

Dr Rob Atkinson

Head of Upper School