I have to be honest, this weeks blog update is being written by the power of coffee alone!! I am utterly exhausted but joyful about the truly amazing week of celebration that we have had.

Later in this post I will share some of the reality of living in the big wild world when your beautiful autistic brain faces so many challenges, but for now… we celebrate!

Twyhnam senior school have hosted us for the last 3 neurodiversity weeks but this year we ramped it up by hosting not one, but 2 assemblies 🙂

We spoke about the incredible brain and how none of us could live without it. We reminded the kids to keep a check on their mental health and how kindness is key but, we also hit them with some harsh reality. How trolling and ablism is a daily occurrence as a content creator and the impact that can have. (To clarify, Archie is never permitted to see ANY of our work comments so he is unaffected 🙂 )

We spoke to almost 600 students (over 2 days) and they were kind, respectful and listened beautifully. Thankyou Twynham for having us back and you are in the diary for next year… with excitement.

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Reasonable adjustments and support for the Coaching Circle.

Dan Moody – School Sport Partnership Manager & School Games Organiser, contacted us to see if we would like to lead another “coaching circle” session and we, of course, said yes!

Via a teams meeting, we spoke about the potential challenges faced by neurodivergent students taking part in PE or sporting events. With Archie’s willingness to share his past experiences, we were able to create some information slides that have been emailed to all participants. MASSIVE thanks to Dan for giving us this opportunity and we can’t wait to hear all about the results in our next meeting 🙂

Archie’s work experience week

Now you KNOW that we are all about sharing the highs and the lows, and this week was ENORMOUSLY challenging for Archie. It was his work experience week and sadly , it didn’t go quite as planned.

Archie has a love of animals with a particular fondness for cats and small dogs. At just 13 he gained a diploma in feline behaviour and wellness so it’s been a theme for a while. However, Archie, like so many autistic people, struggles with often debilitating anxiety. Sadly for him this week, his anxiety took over and he was unable to continue his work experience. After experiencing multiple anxiety attacks, it was decided by all that this just wasn’t the right time for Arch to continue .

As his Mum I want to say an ENORMOUS thanks to The Winchelsea team for recognising Archie’s needs so perfectly and to Noarck, the boarding kennels that gave Archie such a wonderful opportunity. It didn’t work out as we’d hoped but we are so proud of what he achieved in the process.

Archie helped groom a husky, played with cats (even the spicy ones) and our proudest achievement… HE EXPRESSED HIS FEELINGS AND EXPLAINED THAT HE FELT UNWELL!!!!! We are SO PROUD of you Archie.

To end this post – we hope to remind you that inclusion is not about perfection.

There is no such thing.

Endlessly chasing perfection can only end in a feeling of failure and who needs that?! It’s about celebrating and recognising progress, no matter how small. It’s about having an open mind and showing empathy… even when life throws in a curve ball. It’s your loved ones or students knowing that you have their back! So go forth and be a loud and proud advocate for neurodivergncy… you could change a life!!!

WOWSERS, this has been a wonderfully busy week, lets jump right in!

We at Awesome Archie are always aiming to be up to date with the support that we provide (for free) to our many families, schools and workplaces.

We do this by keeping current with our CPD and constantly learning from the experts in the neurodivergent and educational field. Throughout the entire academic year, we are taught by the hundreds of industry experts via the SENDcast and annually we attend the NAS Professionals’ Conference.

This year was so helpful for us as a team. There was so much about the importance of being a consistent neuro-affirming educator, support worker, parent, carer. How small adjustments and lots of patience and empathy can literally change an entire life!

HOW INSPIRING IS THAT?! YOU CAN CHANGE A PERSONS LIFE!!!!

The conference itself was eight hours long with powerful insights from people like Holly Sprake-Hill, Carrie and David Grant, Holly Sutherland and Davida Hartman.

We also learned about a phenomenal, FREE senior school support called NEST. If you would like to hear details about this remarkable… and I’ll say it again “FREE” toolkit, please visit their website.

https://salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk/our-projects/nest-neurodivergent-peer-support-toolkit

We pledge to continue to use ALL of the information learned to better support our community. We LOVE doing what we do and we never take for granted the privilege of sharing your parenting/teaching journey. Please, if you have any specific questions or need to be pointed in a new direction, drop us an email on awesomearchieontour@gmail.com and we will be happy to help 🙂

All our fresh knowledge will be turned into short, but valuable, daily content that you can access (for free!) via our socials… so follow us to ensure that you don’t miss out!!

Come join us on our socials…

The remarkable value of a school soft landing.

This week, I have been lucky enough to see two local schools demonstrate the value and importance of a soft landing for their neurodivergent students.

The term “school soft landing” describes an environment where a pupil is met with warmth and no rush at the start of the school day. As each child is wonderfully unique, the landing should be too. For one child, entering via the school office 15 minutes early could be a great starter. For others, a TA welcoming with a gentle, quiet, playful and fun period before any work begins can be the key to a great day in class.

Unfortunately, with the school system being vastly underfunded and teaching staff so often not given the opportunity for regular and up to date SEN training, consistent, successful soft landings are rare. Enter Miss Lucy Dyer and Mrs Rowan Totczyk.

These two remarkable school support workers, both from different schools across Dorset and Hampshire, have demonstrated how an empathetic start to a child’s day can make all the difference. Both Ro and Lucy go above and beyond their “official job role”. We have consistently witnessed incredible art pieces (made at home in their free time) for pupils to enjoy. We’ve seen mindful meditations and “Mario Cart” themed exercises to support both monotropic interest and proprioceptive regulation.

THANKYOU TO YOU, YOU ARE BOTH AWESOME!

Thank you to Specsavers Christchurch for showing true neuroinclusivity!

Our family of six is proudly neurospicy! We love to share our adventures with anyone who’ll listen. We try to focus on the positives, but are realistic with the lows and share all of these emotions on our many socials. One of the areas that I struggle with the most is close interactions with strangers. I hate visiting the doctor, I am always uncomfortable at the dentist and getting my eyes checked is the worst. I mean, it’s not hard to see why?! You are literally sat nose to nose with a stranger that will shine a light in your eyes while asking multiple questions… nightmare! But not any more… and, before you ask… WE ARE NOT SPONSORED OR OBLIGED TO SHARE THIS!

Specsavers in Christchurch have gone above and beyond to make us all feel comfortable. From the lovely Kieran Bull (our optometrist) to Amelia Crabb who talked me through the dreaded “puff in eye” gadget… we are so thankful.

I simply explained that I was nervous and that being autistic meant that, for me, this kind of thing was tough. They looked after us with respect, care and empathy. Daisy and I now have beautiful brand-new specs, and the boys are following soon 🙂

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Right, lots to get through… so buckle up 😉

Firstly we need to say a massive thanks to the ‘Make a Difference’ team at BBC Radio Solent. As you may remember, Archie and I were nominated last year and received a highly commended award (literally sat next to me as I type!) but this year, I am a round one judge!! I am so excited and hugely grateful for this awesome opportunity.

“The Make a Difference Awards are your chance to say thank you and recognise those who improve lives where we live.

The award nominations are now open. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges and awards will be given in each category, across each national and local BBC radio station.

Shortlisted finalists will be notified from June 2025 and our Make a Difference Award ceremonies are taking place across the UK in September 2025.

Follow the latest on the awards on social media using the hashtag #BBCMakeADifference.“

These awards were SO IMPORTANT for us! It not only got our work “out there” but it also meant that Archie and I have been driven to keep doing what we’re doing. Please do nominate someone who does good things for their community, it may mean the world to them!

Link here ⬇

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3M4QTQxVtH3z7nbyZjDDS4p/make-a-difference-awards

Coffee and Catch up… Our first in Christchurch.

Archie and I have spent the last five years endlessly talking about autism, ADHD and Tourettes and celebrating individuality and embracing neurodivergence!

We do this by posting daily neurodivergent content, volunteering in schools (more on that later 😉 ), providing FREE staff training, supporting local charities and connecting with parents who are often feeling very isolated and alone. Trust me, it’s a tough gig being a parent carer, and it’s great to know that you are not alone.

This week we held our first parent/carer coffee catch-up in Christchurch and although the crowd was small in number, it was massive in the support that we all had for each other. It was awesome to be able to just sit, drink coffee and talk about how tough things can be, but also to laugh and celebrate all the quirks of neurodivergent life.

Massive thanks to all that came and we will get another in the diary for later this year 🙂 Check it out here ⬇

@awesomearchie_

spend the day with me as a non-profit founder. #gregdavies @Greg Davies fullfatlegend #awesomearchienonprofit #adhd #tourettes #autismsupport #autismsupport #neurodivergent

♬ To Be Successful – ZydSounds

Danny Butler – Extreme Mountain Biking at the stunning Walhampton school.

Well, this was AWESOME!!!! I am so lucky to be able to regularly support a lovely young man in school (as part of our volunteer 1:1 work) and this week, he and I were invited to the breathtaking Walhampton school to watch world record holder and all round epic dude Danny Butler perform amazing tricks on his mountain bike.

Firstly… WHAT A SCHOOL!!! I felt like I was walking into Buckingham Palace…. EPIC! The staff were welcoming and friendly, the kids were happy and polite, it was wonderful!

The show itself was fantastic.

The Extreme Mountain Bike Show is the UK & Europe’s number one Mountain Bike, Trials/BMX demonstration Team lead by the Multiple British and European Mountain Bike Trials Champion Danny Butler.

The team provide the very best in hassle free extreme entertainment to any live event we specialise in bringing tricks and stunts to family shows and broadcasts. We off our shows day or night. using our own specialist show rigs that are equipped with their own lighting and solar power supply, making us the UK’s only eco friendly Mountain Bike Team

From community events to arena exhibitions or live tours, we cater bespoke packages for every and any event. Our diverse packages are tried and tested with over 10 years experience. We provide a hassle free and professional service.

Danny spoke to the kids about the vital importance of safety gear, getting outside in the fresh air and looking after your body with nutritional food and healthy exercise. We would highly recommend this brilliantly fun, but educational, show to all of our schools 🙂

Please do check out the extreme mountain bike show website below…. it was AWESOME!!!!!

https://extrememountainbikeshow.co.uk/

Have a great week all and thanks for reading 🙂

Don’t panic, this is not a holiday blog! (Although, if that is your bag do check out our holiday YouTube channel “Awesome Archie’s Vacay Vlog” where we will be sharing family holiday content over the next few weeks!)

This is The Awesome Archie guide to Disneyland Paris as a neurodivergent family. The good, the bad, the things we learnt and the little hints and tips that made our holiday magical!

It is going to be a long one, so I am going to get as many subheadings in as possible. This way you can just scroll on past until you find the info that is relevant to you 🙂

4 Weeks before – The pre-Disney prep.

We have been parent carers for almost 17 years now. This means that we have learned A LOT through our mistakes… and lack of preparation is THE BIGGEST and the most damaging one for us as a family. Without fail, if we don’t prepare, we have unregulated children which equates to a very overstimulated mum and a lot of precious time wasted on holiday.

PREP IS EVERTHING!

YouTube has been our most valuable tool for getting the boys (and myself) ready. Four weeks before we go anywhere, we get the videos up online and each day we have them on the TV as we are eating our supper. So far, from the comfort of our dinner table, we have had a DLP hotel room tour, ridden on “Crush’s Coaster”, looked through the menus and seating at various restaurants, been in the famous LEGO store in Disney Village and seen the parade.

To many people, the lack of surprise would feel like a negative, but to us (as a proud neurodivergent family) it is AWESOME! Archie, Herbie and I feel safety in familiarity and so knowing a little about what the rides looks like, or what the restaurant food choices are, eases our anxiety. Many autistic people find security in routine and predictability, so this is a winner for us 🙂

We also use this time to start the packing. This one is less for the kids and more for my own anxiety. Having children with medical needs means that you have to be super organised. You have to ensure that the prescriptions will be ready on time and an up to date doctor’s note is provided (if required). We have to prepare multiple sets of clothes for ALL eventualities along with all of the boys support aids like wheelchair, ear defenders, fidget aids etc. This takes a HUGE amount of planning and it starts by me making a detailed list and plan of action four weeks before we go. Thankfully, much of the list is repeatable holiday after holiday so I have a PDF saved that I simply add to each time… brilliant time saver!

Join a Disneyland Facebook (or similar) group.

This one does come with a little warning! You will definitely read the odd post of an unhappy visitor, but we have found these groups super handy. People leave buggies for other families to use, leave snacks, arrange ear exchanges… it’s AWESOME! It’s within these groups that you can ask the real life questions and get other parents’ honest opinions. It’s also a GREAT way to get some updated tips on the day as lots of people post in real time 🙂 It’s very useful… but you will get hundreds of daily notifications, so be prepared!

Take your Tech!

I can’t tell you how many times when our kids were little that I would say “no tech this holiday, we are going to play board games and read!” Honestly, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I will justify this by saying that, at the time, I didn’t have even a quarter of the knowledge and experience as I do now but my gosh… NEVER AGAIN. Archie and Herbie NEED to have a brain break and a rest from the real world and we are elated to fully support them with this. Sometimes, they may wear their ear pods with an audio book playing or the soundtrack from Zelda (Archie finds that calming). We always take a pocket device, the old fashioned Gameboy is a great one for when we are waiting in restaurants etc (as it needs no Wi-Fi) and an in car DVD for the long journey is a sanity saver for us all 😉

At this point I will say that there is still (unbelievably) the odd occasion that people will make those age old, uninformed comments like… ” they are always on that tablet, etc.,” – years of this has taught us to not waste our time defending our parenting choices, as our kids needs will ALWAYS be our top priority, we don’t need to appease others!

Create a visual routine/plan or social story for the trip (we try to be as accurate as we can) and don’t forget to say that there may be things like traffic as an unknown factor. I keep sweet snacks handy for that moment. If you need a template we have created one for you to use here, print out and fill out the blanks as required 🙂

Hotel Check in and collection of our priority passes.

We drive to Disney via the channel tunnel. This means that we can bring lots of things with us as apposed to trying to stuff it all into a cabin bag. The journey takes around 7 hours but we all find space for a little nap along the way and try to enjoy our “on drive movies” thanks to an ancient portable DVD player.

We have always been a Disney family because they have NEVER let us down with the care of our neurodivergent family. From the Disney Cruise Lines (we have now done six across three of the Disney Cruise ships) to the parks themselves, they have always had great accommodations and support for us and our individual needs.

We applied for The DLP Priority Card. Both boys qualified so we had 2. These cards…

Who can get a priority pass?

How we applied.

Hello lovely readers / followers / friends. As always, thanks for giving us your time and we really hope you enjoy this week’s installment. Another busy week so lets get into it 🙂

As both a mum and as a non profit founder I have been volunteering “in school” 1:1 support for the last decade. Firstly, for Awesome Archie himself and now with any student that has yet to have a fully funded 1:1 when they deserve one. I am now privileged to support a young child in the beautiful William Gilpin School and it’s here that we were introduced to SCARF.

We celebrated with a “wear a scarf to school day” and in WG’s morning assembly the headteacher – Simon Croutear – explained…

“Children’s mental health week is about celebrating ALL children. It’s about reflecting and respecting that we are all unique, different and we all have something to give back to our community. You could be a great leader, a problem solver, a supporter of good. The SCARF values represent us all -Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship.”

He then went on to announce that many of the children had shown these values throughout the week. These pupils had been praised for keeping spirits high, not giving up with blending of CVC words, helping friends, sharing ideas, being inclusive and kind… I could go on!

To be honest, I felt a bit teary as it reminded me of a quote that we, as a team stand by.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky.

It’s a tough old world when you are growing up and when you are neurodivergent, it’s even tougher. There have been MANY times in my life where I have felt like a complete failure. I’ve been misunderstood, told I’m too loud, too wacky and, each time, I have felt less and less valuable, less able to contribute to society and less accepted… until now of course 🙂

The WG pupils are so lucky to be reminded that having a go, trying and not succeeding (yet) is a valuable opportunity for growth. It’s so much better to try and even when the outcome is not as expected, it gives you a chance to reflect. To see that you’re still ok, even after things haven’t gone as planned.

So, let’s celebrate ourselves. Embrace our unique brains, our individuality, our own gifts and talents and share them as best we can for the benefit of our community and our own mental health.

Thanks for allowing AANP to take part 🙂

Archie’s latest hospital check up.

As many of you will already know, ADHD medication changed not only Archie’s life, but ours as a family too. Not every child will need to be medicated for their ADHD but for Arch, it was genuinely his life saver. After 8 years of therapy, vitamin supplements, hours and hours of parenting courses, multiple books read… it was our last resort.

THANK GOD WE DID!

Because of his type of medication we have to abide by many very important rules, one of which is attending a six monthly in-hospital check ups. Archie is weighed, measured and his blood pressure is checked. He has a chat with his incredible pediatric team and they support and advise us in which ever areas we are struggling in. Massive thanks to the team and the CDC, you are AWESOME!

Archie flew through all of his recent checks with flying colours 🙂

It’s also on that same note that we want to personally thank Alex Partridge. His latest book “Now It All Makes Sense” is a must read for ADHD’ers, particularly those not yet or late to being diagnosed. I am only half way through and, already, I can confirm that it is simply brilliant and we highly recommend it. Rich and Roxanne Pink have called it “a powerhouse of a book” and I have to agree.

When I have finished it I will be writing a full blog to celebrate.

Have a great week all 🙂

What a busy week it’s been for us here at Awesome Archie 🙂

Our week started with a meeting at Bournemouth hospital with The UHD charity’s high flyers Janine Golding (community fundraiser) and Jessica Tyler (fundraising manager).

You may recall that in 2024, Archie and I were invited to become official fundraisers of “The BEACH Appeal”, one of the UHD charity’s MANY fundraising missions. This is something that, as a family using the children’s wards rather regularly, we of course were elated to support!

So, we started spreading awareness in our school assemblies, on our website and in our content. We wrote “Awesome Archie has surgery”, a book that has been donated to the charity, that the LEGEND Harry Redknapp signed and that will also be used to support neurodivergent kids having surgeries to get prepared at pre-op 🙂 We also launched our world book day event as a BEACH appeal fundraiser… everyone welcome!

Janine and Jessica spoke so passionately about the work they do and so I felt that I needed to share. The UHD raise money and this is used in a variety of ways.

Current Projects / Children’s Health – Donate Now

As part of The BEACH Appeal, we will be raising funds for the additional items that will further enhance the new purpose-built Children’s Health Department in the new BEACH Building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

This includes the special extras for the classroom and new indoor and outdoor play areas to help ensure 1,800 young patients do not miss out on their education each year while they need hospital care.

The new classroom will need items that aren’t covered by NHS funds such as:

Some patients between 3-17 years old need hospital care during the time of their education. We don’t want to see them miss out.

We need your help to raise £12,000 to install enhanced technology in the children’s department in the new BEACH building at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

The Quay School at Poole Hospital provides full-time education to patients who are unable to access mainstream schools and to ensure education contributes positively to patient recovery.

When the Quay School moves to our brand-new children’s department, there’s an opportunity to fully equip the classroom with technology that is beyond NHS funds to help transform patient care and their education.

The impact we can make:

You can see why this fundraising mission means so much to us and why we are so honored to be a very small part of it!

If you think that you could help us on our AWESOME mission then please scan the link or simply google “The BEACH appeal UHD Charity” to find out more!

Identical diagnosis= different presentations.

This week has been a tough one for many of our families. I have had so many conversations with parents that simply feel overwhelmed and out of their depth. To reassure you all, I think that this is how most parent carers feel… I know I often do!

The common theme though, is how different their autistic child appears to be in comparison with EVERY other autistic child that they have met.

WELCOME TO THE AWESOME AUTISTIC WORLD!

This is one of the many reasons that autism fascinates me so much. Did you know that the only thing that an autistic brain has in common with another autistic brain is that they have NOTHING in common. AWESOME!

Now to get an official autism diagnosis, you are assessed by highly trained professionals who are using the DSM5 criteria . They look for differences within your child’s behaviours and that of the predominant neurotype and although the criteria of assessment is the same for all , the presentation of each child will be vastly different!

No wonder so many parents get confused!

We have created some visuals, that are free for you to screenshot and print out or save on your phone if you need a reminder that YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! This is a tough gig! Just follow us on our socials for daily updates, hints and tips like this one 🙂 Links to our socials are at the top of our home page 🙂

And lastly …

OUR AWESOME MERCH… donated by my dear friend Bex.

Bex has been a friend of mine for over 35 years… yes she really does deserve a medal 😉 Although she now lives up in Surrey she still pops by now and then and usually with something AWESOME for us to use in our work 🙂 This week she came with personalised Awesome Archie school bags and a super cool T-shirt AND an electronic standing desk!!!! She’s the best!!!!! We also have a phenomenal comic written for Archie by her lovely son.

All of this merch will be donated or used to keep supporting the Autistic children in our community.

Bex, THANKYOU!! We can only continue doing what we do because of the kindness and generosity of people like you!!!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/926059216354328

We at Awesome Archie spend so much of our time trying to keep up with recent neurological developments and sharing any news , hints and tips with the many mainstream schools and families that we are blessed to support.

We are fortunate to have many phenomenal connections now both across the SEN industry and with life long experienced families who share their knowledge to help us support others.

That is what has prompted this week’s blog. We were approached by a family looking to get support with Speech and Language for their child. Innitially they believed them to have DLD but are now recognising the additional signs of their child being autistic.

Their question to us was… “But how can you tell ? They are so similar from the speech perspective!”

SO… obviously we can only take you from an Autism perspective as we are in no way equipped to share the brilliant knowledge of a qualified speech and language therapist ( we know an EPIC one…. more on that later ) but we made this for you to help break it down an little. What astonished me were the ” crossovers”, no wonder people get confused?!

We hope that by creating this little graphic, you may feel more empowered to head towards the right diagnosis path for your child. From our Autism perspective, we would say that speech is the commonality but when you look past the speech and perhaps see other presentations you may get a clearer picture.

Heaven knows that its a long and drawn out process in the first place, the last thing you need is to head one way and then as your child grows and develops, you start to recognise things that no longer fit the DLD profile and are far more relevant for Autism.

However, speech delay from any root cause needs to be supported by a trusted and experienced Speech and Language therapist and fortunately for you, we have one that we can personally recommend …HIGHLY!

Jill Thornton is our local SaLT of choice!

Private Speech and Language therapy services for schools and families in Bournemouth, Poole and around Dorset

Jill Thornton is a private Speech & Language Therapist, with over 30 years experience, offering therapy services to schools and children in Bournemouth and Poole and around Dorset.

Jill can provide high quality speech and language

sessions whilst providing a practical model to parents, teachers and teaching assistants. 

We have attached her website details for you to check out as we have seen great things from her work! BLOOMING WELL DONE JILL 🙂 Link to her website is below ⬇

https://jillspeechtherapy.com/

This week has been another busy one for us here at Awesome Archie. We have launched our world book day competition (there will be a detailed post nearer the time), written a “neuro-inclusivity in the leisure and entertainment industry” guide and customised our very own Awesome Archie wheelchair.

The wheelchair prompted me to create a presentation to explain why, occasionally, Archie needs the use of a wheelchair. Unbelievably, we still face the odd comment which, from the asker (who often isn’t intending to be hurtful or offensive), can negatively impact us as a neurodivergent family. Questions or statements like…

It’s been 5 years since we started supporting families and schools to navigate what feels like an impossible SEN system. Our own journey, now nearly 17 years in the making, has taught us so much about how to fight for the awesome Autistic children in our community. Although this latest PAC report is distressing and disappointing, I don’t believe that anyone in this profession or any parent to a child with SEN will be in the least bit surprised.

“The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said too many families are struggling to access the help their children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) “desperately need”. In a damning report, the committee said whether children receive support depends too much on their postcode, or how well families can navigate “an often chaotic and adversarial system”. It highlighted “long waiting times” for assessments and support and an increase in the number of parents who are appealing education, health and care (EHC) plan decisions via tribunals. Nearly all (98%) of the cases taken to tribunal were found in favour of parents – which the PAC report said, “undermines families’ confidence in the system”. The Send system remains “unviable” with current piecemeal interventions doing nothing to provide a financially sustainable system, according to the cross-party committee. The PAC has called on the Government to urgently take action to improve the system which it warned is putting nearly half of councils in England at risk of “effectively going bankrupt”.

It is at this moment we want to reassure you that WE HEAR YOU, WE SEE YOU and we are happy to help.

Please do feel free to drop us an email if you want some advice or to just be pointed in the right direction. We are always open for TV, radio an Podcast interviews and have always remained transparent but empathetic to the current SEND struggles.

My Mum always used to say ” things have to get worse before they get better” lets hope she’s right!

Our SENDcast Podcast recording.

So, we usually try to take you through our blog on a fairly accurate timeline however, this one, I simply can’t… we are just too excited!!

Our regular readers and followers will know that one of the highlights of our year is attending and filming at the TES SEND show in London. We have done this for a good few years now and genuinely love it! It was back in 2023 that we met two lovely guys, Dale and John at the SENDcast stand.

They enthusicatically told us all about their podcast that focuses solely on neurodivergency. Having apoplogised for not knowing anything about this, I promised that we would follow them online and listen to the odd podcast now and then.

WOW was I undersimating how much this chance meeting would literally change not only our family life, but also our career path too?!

Archie and I have always stated that our aim, as a small non-profit is to advocate, celebrate and educate. Our work is constantly evolving, having started by writing five childrens books to support familes and schools. We are always trying to raise money for charites that are close to our hearts and more recently, have provided a FREE “back to basics” school staff training option. It’s this most recent shift that we thank the SENDcast team.

The listening hours of podcasters with INCREDIBLE knowledge, experience, on paper qualifications and real life testimonies that are available to us for FREE, is astonishing.

Can you imagine our elation then, when Dale Pickles (who I will forever remember as Dave Piddles, a story for him to tell 😉 ) asked if Archie and I would like to record our very own?! (I recieved that message whilst sat on an open top bus in central London and genuinely screeched which, unsuprisingly unnerved a few tourists, sorry about that! )

OBVIOUSLY the answer was YES, YES, YYYEEESSSSSS!!!!!! So yesterday was the day that we hit the M3 and spent the day with Dale at the SENDcast recording studios.

Although Archie is no stranger to being interviewed (he has done radio and local news in the past) this was his first SOLO (with me sat alongside, at his request) lengthy interview. Dale and Arch spoke about his own personal insight and sad past experiences and approached as a true professional! I was beyond proud of how calm and measured he handled it. He was way cooler than me… at all times 😉

Here is a link to a short vid of our truely AWESOME day, if you wanna check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/968868395290893

We will of course keep you updated as to when we air, but I know that Archie’s will be first…. QUITE RIGHT TOO!!!!

Our ED- Psych success

One of the facets of our work (one that we are very proud of) is supporting families to navigate a really tricky SEN system. We do this either in a “getting evidence together for potential diagnosis” way or a “breaking down the EHCP process and the legislation behind that” POV.

This week, one of our AWESOME students finally got that much needed and LONG awaited Educational Psychologist in-school review. For anyone that has even tried to get started on the autism diagnosis pathway will testify, that THIS WAS HUGE!

We want to thank the wonderful (unnamed for obvious reasons) family and their primary school for trusting us with such an important task. We cannot wait to hear the outcome of that assesment 🙂

And finally our new work expericence student.

Our third son Herbie is like so many children that we support on a daily basis.

He is awaiting his own NHS assesment for what we believe will be an AuDHD diagnosis. As parents, we respected his original decision to not go down the formal diagnosis route (even though we explained that we believe a diagnosis brings more clarity on your own identity and better future mental health). However, here we are in year 9 of mainstream senior and Herbie has decided that it is now the right time to offically “name” those wonderful differences.

Herbie finds mainstream senior really tough. Not the academic side I might add. It’s the social expectations, the noise, the eye contact, the uniform, the rigidity etc., His school SEN team are doing wonderful things with him. We are so grateful for everything that they put in place to support him. However, there are still many days whan he simply cannot face another school day, even with all of the amazing adaptations they have put in place for him.

As an educator myself, I know first hand that every day counts and so I made a suggestion to him that he unbelievably took me up on. If you can’t do work at your school, come and work in mine! He is now (on occasion) my work experience student working with me in the schools that we support.

Herbie would like to be a geography teacher when he is older and so watching him support a young, fellow autistic student was simply wonderful. Who knows, this may lead to something great in his future! WELL DONE HERBIE!

As always, thanks for reading and here are some relevant links from today’s blog.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3650909864922453 – Our FB support group

Podcast and CPD around SEND for schools and parents

https://www.tiktok.com/@awesomearchie_

https://www.linkedin.com/in/awesome-archie-018935217/