Ewing School: East of the M60 first again

Update on Ewing School.

Some time ago, East of the M60 reflected on the ‘grotesque shambles’ of Manchester City Council’s proposed closure of Ewing School. Though a local Liberal Democrat newsletter exposed this at the end of last year, the story has finally made the Manchester Evening News (Wednesday 11 February 2009).  East of the M60’s story was released into cyberspace nearly a month before the MEN’s account of event.

Since Manchester Withington MP John Leech proposed an Early Day Motion for the retention of Ewing School, an online petition has attracted over 650 signatures.  This is in addition to the 2,500 signatures gathered at a rally in West Didsbury.

The loss of Ewing School and the council’s proposals are tantamount to “inclusion by isolation”.  Think of the pupils who will have made friends at West Didsbury, only to find he/she has been moved to Moston or Wythenshawe. For the good of fellow auties, aspies and SPLDers like myself, sign the online petition as soon as possible.  In the words of Del Trotter, ‘You Know It Makes Sense’!

Save Ewing School

S.V., 11 February 2009

Why Change a Winning Team?

Outrage over Manchester City Council plans to close Ewing School

Imagine being part of a successful football team, winning every trophy imaginable and being forced to split that winning team by the FA.  Picture the prospect of your teammates being split into ninths.

As part of Manchester City Council’s plans to improve integration with mainstream schools within its boundaries, is a proposal to downgrade and close two special schools within Didsbury. One school is going to lose its secondary school classes, the other is going to close completely. The latter one is Ewing School, the school I attended from January 1987 to July 1990.

I could cope with the mighty Stalybridge Celtic losing 6-1 to Durham City, spend hours on rail replacement buses from Hell. These are minor compared with this recent development.  This development interferes with people’s lives at a fundamental level rather one’s peeves.

I am always happy to talk at length or write about my time at Ewing, and claim that Ewing School, not my secondary school, was the one which helped me the most. What helped were the small classes (18 was the biggest class number) and the high pupil to teacher ratio (4 pupils to 1 teacher).  I also enjoyed being able to go to different places on a weekly basis along with my fellow peers.  It is thanks also to Ewing School that I am able to appreciate the countryside, enjoy walks and travel independently by bus, train and tram.

Ewing School already has a proven record in enabling pupils to settle in mainstream schools long afterwards.  So much that there is a waiting list and people moving to South Manchester so their child can be taught by their specialist teaching staff.  Instead of keeping up the good work, the council wishes to break up that successful team.

They propose that its students would be dispersed into 9 ‘havens’ within existing mainstream schools.   How do you tell the pupils that their best friend will be moving to a haven in Moston if he/she will be moving to one in Gorton?  Will the Ewing staff leave the profession altogether rather than join one of the havens, resulting in a loss of specialist personnel? Any move away from the status quo would cause chaos with parents and their children already satisfied with Ewing School.

As a former pupil, I am totally against the plans.  This is an issue shared by Manchester Withington MP John Leech (Liberal Democrats) who in December last year submitted an Early Day Motion favouring its retention.  I have written a letter to him.

A petition against the closure will be launched on Saturday 17th January 2009.  The rally and launch will take place in West Didsbury between 12.00pm – 2.00pm.  If you can make it, please do, especially if you live in the constituency, or linked with Ewing School, as for example a former teacher or pupil.

S.V., 15 January 2009

Ewing School: 40 Years On And Still Going Strong

A West Didsbury special school comes of age

The year 1968 was best remembered for Manchester United being the first English team to lift the European Cup,

Ever The Honorary Northern Autie

Donna Williams to do 6 lectures in the North of England.

It is that time of the year again (and in case any regular readers ask, it is not Christmas).  Autie raconteur Donna Williams is to do 6 lectures in the North of England as part of her UK tour.  For anyone unfamiliar with her works, she is an established author and consultant in the field of autism spectrum disorders and an all round renaissance woman with a wealth of creative talent from singing to painting and poetry.

As with previous years, most venues are easy to get to on public transport and priced within easy reach of most incomes.

Her Northern lectures:

• Manchester: 13 September;
• Sunderland: 18 September;
• Leeds: 18 September;
• Burnley: 19 September;
• Liverpool: 19 September;
• Sheffield: 20 September.

For further details, click on the Blogroll link to Donna Williams’ website.  Tickets are only available on a ‘first come first served’ basis, so be quick as her lectures are extremely popular.

S.V., 28 August 2008.

Donna Williams to do Manchester

Famous Australian author and all round renaissance woman’s 2007 UK tour dates unveiled.

For several years, Donna Williams has been well known to the autism spectrum fraternity as a leading author within this field.

My Year Zero Moment

Has anybody had what I would call a ‘Year Zero Moment’?

A Year Zero Moment relates to a time where one’s self realisation after several years had finally paid off. Did anything change for the better? Did you find your inner peace and did anything go upwards thereafter?

Four years to the day I began this post [28th November 2002], was mine. The most part of 2002 was about gaining self realisation and acceptance. It was at that year I realised who I was. It was then I started being ‘Stuart’ rather than some accepted form of ‘normality’, which made me seem more acceptable to the wider world.

In February of that year, I heard a word for the first time in several years: ‘autism’. Having tried to fit in elsewhere through this pastiche of normal, I started borrowing books on the subject and related disorders. Before recently, I too had, like several others been fed the media version of this lifelong developmental disorder. These are the special interests, movements (stimming), savant skills and being ‘trapped’ in a world of one’s own.

A meeting with a National Autistic Society employment agency was the watershed moment.  In the last three months prior to then, I had read several books on autism spectrum disorders and visited numerous websites on the subject.  On mentioning my interview with one of my relatives, she was – by coincidence – reading an article on Asperger’s syndrome – and thought “That’s Stuart!”  Before then, Tony Attwood’s first book on the subject made me think “Yes!” that’s me all along.

It seemed as if an answer had been found for my (then) 23 years, which reduced me to tears of relief.  I thought: ‘At last, this explains why I seemed different to most others’.  My diagnosis of Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder in 1986 was one reason.  Was there another?

What has happened since them?  In that time, I tried (and failed) to seek a professional diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, or other ASD (though a proud SPLD-er).  This is due to its co-morbidity with SPLD.  I had also created my own website with examples of artwork and poetry, done talks, written articles on Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder and this very blog.  For me, I have experienced more activity in the last four years than the previous twenty three!

Stuart.