An extract from a recent Headline News

CHANGING FACES WORKSHOP, September 2003

Shortly after our summer holiday this year I was contacted by Karen Stewart asking if I thought Mitchell (who is aged 11 and has Apert Syndrome) might benefit from a workshop she was organising with Changing Faces about children who look ‘different’ making the transition to Senior School.

Ryan, Mitchell, Zoe, Jay and Laura

Mitchell is currently in Year 6 and so will make this ‘leap into the unknown’ in September 2004. He has been extremely happy in his Primary school, where he has been since he was 4, and is fully accepted as one of the boys. I believe that he was almost totally unaware that children could be unkind to each other, as he has suffered none of this during his school life so far.

This said, Mitchell was keen to attend the workshop and we travelled to London on the Saturday morning a little unsure what to expect. We couldn’t have been made more welcome and Mitchell was immediately introduced to the four other children and taken off to his workshop – we had little idea of what was to happen in his room! The parents (myself included) were taken by Angie Lawrence to discuss the more technical details of transferring to Secondary School with Special Educational Needs. All the parents at the meeting that day had children with Apert Syndrome and it was refreshing to see that they shared many of the same difficulties in learning although all had had different experiences at Primary school.

Lunch was a trip to the local MacDonald’s, where everyone was extremely helpful, and which the children (and adults) enjoyed enormously!

After lunch the children returned to the workshop and we were later given the chance to view the ‘work’ that they had done. The children had a great time and it was useful for us to see what had been discussed and the child friendly way it had been presented to the children. This enabled them to understand and participate in the message that was being put across about the different types of people one encounters during a lifetime (aptly named the Sharks, the Fish and the Dolphins!).

As Mitchell's Mum, I want to spend my life protecting him from the hurtful people out there who find it hard to accept our children for the wonderful individuals that they each are. Unfortunately I realise that that isn’t always possible, so a day given up for this workshop, where Mitch could learn some skills to deal with situations when I won’t be able to protect him, we both found invaluable. I hope that Mitchell will have no need to use these skills when he transfers but at least I know they are there if he does! Thanks to all those involved in the day.

by Sarah Green – Mum of Mitchell (who has Apert Syndrome)