“I’m quite early in the journey but I can’t believe the fight,” Laura McFarlane says, describing the struggles parents of children with additional support needs face when it comes toThe Linwood mum is part of a group of parents, who took that fight to the council’s headquarters in Paisley’s Cotton Street last week, demanding their voices be heard and that things change for them and their children.
“I said to them, that’s like you going into that baby room and saying, ‘Right come on, get a school uniform, you’re going to school.’Laura says it was only through Educate Me 2: Needs Not Numbers – a support group for families with children with ASN, which organised the protest – that she found the confidence to push for options outside of the mainstream environment.
Mark Halliwell is the secretary of Educate Me 2 and his son Lewis, 11, is autistic and dyslexic. He is at primary school in Glasgow but Renfrewshire“The one word that the council and government need to pick up on is the word fight, ” Mark says, relaying the challenges faced by parents. A placing request for Mary Russell School – one of Renfrewshire’s two ASN schools – was refused, Sarah says, but she plans to appeal.