- MT had been at a local secondary comprehensive school since he was 11. He suffered from social anxiety problems which meant that he was frightened to go to school because he felt inadequate in a group. He found the work fairly easy but had to go to a ‘time-out’ room during every break and at the beginning and end of the day until he was collected. When he talked about school he always refered to the mechanism of school rather than the learning. The project concentrated on helping him to relax, reducing the amount of times he felt the need to withdraw to a room by himself. He was then encouraged to start joining in, and made some oral contributions during the classes.
- LO tried to go to school for a term in 2010 but felt there was a ’gang mentality’ and was extremely unhappy. He was home-schooled before that and was not used to large groups. He was unsure as to which skills were up to date and which he had gaps that needed to be filled. Aged 16 he was aware that to move forward he would need GCSEs but did not feel able to access them too many at a time. The project helped him to catch up with the maths that he had missed and facilitate Food Tech and Nutrition GCSE and Spanish GCSE with the Edexcel board together with other general courses with a view to adding future GCSEs.
- NC spent some time at a Steiner school but was unhappy, partly because he had an intellect beyond his years and he was not being stretched. He ended up at home and it was a struggle for his parents to educate him appropriately. As he was only 10 he could not be left at home while they were out at work and he was suffering socially as well. The project concentrated on re-socialising him with his peer group and provided enough competition to re-ignite his learning.
- AR felt bullied at a primary school and his self-esteem was very low. His parents did not feel able to force him to continue to attend school where he was so unhappy. They tried to teach him at home with some success however they felt support was needed to allow him to progress as he should at secondary level. The project allowed him to ease from independent sporadic learning to achieving academic potential within small groups. He was mentored to enable him to access core subjects and exams that he will need as an adult. It also concentrated on helping him to develop his empathy and communication with others.
Quotes from parents whose children have taken part in the charities programmes
‘The Montessori child led approach has been instrumental in my daughters development. She is now a child who is receptive to learning, and who looks forward to attending school everyday. For me, it has been such an immense joy to see what was her severe anxiety melt into happiness and calm, this is just exactly what a positive learning experience should be. I cannot thank Llangattock school enough for their care and attention, and I look forward to watching my daughters continued development’
‘ From being to scared to go to school, isolating himself and becoming more and more withdrawn, my son will now engage in lessons, has taken part in the school play and actually looks forward to physical education’