June 2007
Well, I’ve not been a very good girl at keeping up the blog but I have found the entire experience of fighting Sunbeam’s corner completely exhausting and sometimes I just don’t want to think of anything to do with Asperger’s! All very whingey but I’m being honest. BUT we have at last turned the corner.
Our tribunal was to have taken place on the 28th June 2007 but exactly a week before that date the LEA wrote and confirmed that they are to fund the FULL package suggested by the new unit’s facilitator! It’s too good a package to turn down and it was certainly more than the Asperger specific school could offer. The relief was overwhelming and I shook for all the afternoon after receiving the letter. In fact Sunbeam’s tutor who was at the house when the letter arrived took a photo of a beaming Sunbeam and his ecstatic mother clasping said letter in their hot little hands! It is now pinned on the wall in the head’s office in full view!!
I had a really lovely e-mail from the education office following the agreement and she thanked us for our patience and for our willingness to listen whilst defending what we felt to be right for our son. I have met some incredible people during the last 2 years in particular and I have found that I’m a stronger and more intelligent woman than I thought I was!!!
There have been times when I just wanted to hide, runaway, scream and just generally give up by my bloody mindedness and refusal to take “No” for an answer kept me going and of course the deep love I have for my boy.
I really feel that he now has the potential to fullfill his ambitions (if he has any other than to drive a tank!). Life will never be easy for Sunbeam but he will have our love and support for as long as we can give it and now he will have support from the people he should have got support from in the very beginning.
I will continue to stand on my soap box and make a noise about the lack of provision for children with ASD and perhaps together we can eventually make a difference!