Sendsitivity

It is incredibly windy today!

I am sat in my room watching a magpie nest that has been built at the top of the tree outside my window. As the wind batters it, it stays in place. Immovable. A safe Haven for the eggs that lie within. What a marvel of nature! That something created using flimsy sticks and bits of hedge, can withstand literally being blown sideways.

It made me consider two things:

1. Could this be a metaphor for our school system? Desperately trying to keep our little eggs safe, nurture them and protect them from the battering that the outside world wants to throw their way?  Desperately clinging on to the branches it has been built on, being thrown this way and that, the magpie-teachers coming back and forth bringing the little titbits needed to maintain it, battling the wind themselves just to reach back to the nest and ensure it is still safe.

• Isn’t it wonderful how something made of elements so fragile can be so durable? Could we compare those sticks to our neurodivergent children? All coming from different trees, hedgerows, bushes; different shapes, sizes, colours, contours- but woven together with love and care, given such an important purpose.  Yet when broken down to the individual twigs, they can be so easily broken when too much pressure is applied, snapped into little pieces and all integrity lost. But stand them together, weave each one into its correct place, small ones on top intertwined just right with the larger, thicker ones-give each a role based on its ability…then they thrive! They stand up to that wind! They sway and maintain structure and protect the eggs inside.

So what needs to change? The weather- the external pressures inflicted on our system? Some of these are as inevitable as the wind blowing. So how can we help? Improve the resources available to our teachers to prep their nests! Allow them the time and space to nurture each child as the individual they are, so they can place them within the nest system in their correct location- rather than having to throw them together in a rush and under pressure and risk them breaking under unfair pressure…or falling out completely! How many of our little twigs have fallen out of their trees-unable to access the nest they were thrust into without support- only to lay forgotten and redundant on the ground? That part of the metaphor made me really rather sad, because I have worked with so many young people that fall into that exact category. They have been unable to access the school system- no school places, lack of provision, lack of funding, lack of support for their mental health to actually bridge the entry into school- and so they are lost in limbo, out of education.

Hang on in there little nest. You have such an important job to do.