Kinda random but, it’s insane to me how, quite frankly, ableist the (British, since that’s the only one I can speak for) school system is, in my experience.
For some background information on me: I’m autistic and have GAD (generalised anxiety disorder), I’ve been diagnosed with both since I was 11 (just as I was transitioning onto comp/secondary/high school). Officially, I have medium support needs and I struggled to attend classes without one-on-one support. I’ve also always been in top-set maths and was considered one of the best readers in my class for the vast majority of primary school.
In the first year of comp, year 7, I was given no additional support in classes, as I was deemed “too academically able to need it”. I would go home every day and beg my mum to let me never go to school again because I hated it so much — everything was too loud, and bright, and the unpredictability of everything around me was so anxiety-inducing that I genuinely felt physically sick most of the time that I was in school.
I was predicted all As in my GCSEs.
By year 9, my mum had successfully fought for me to have full-time support in school during lessons, and a quiet safe space I could go to during break and lunch. I still didn’t like school, but, it was much more manageable when I had someone with me who knew what to do if I was overstimulated and panicking or shutting down. Someone who could help me get work from supply teachers to allow me to get on with the work in a quieter environment that I felt safe in.
In year 10, nothing had changed about me academically. I still did my best to remain on top of work, and I wasn’t doing any worse at that than I was in year 7. I was then predicted Bs.
For all 3 science subjects, they put me in to sit foundation papers as opposed to higher-tier papers. The highest grade you can get in foundation is a C.
Literally the only thing that changed between when I was getting predicted As and when I was being put in for foundation papers was how much support I got in lessons (and none of that support was for helping me understand the work!).
(..And this isn’t even going into one of the English exams I sat for my GCSEs that included a question that was, essentially, a guy who doesn’t use a phone explaining the pros and cons of using a phone, and then the actual question was “is he happy about the fact that he doesn’t use a phone?” I don’t know???????? Probably, since he’s continuing, but I genuinely have no idea what you want from me as an answer????????????? How is any autistic kid supposed to know the answer to that?? Especially because they don’t teach you about those kinds of questions, because neurotypical kids generally just Know The Answer.)
