I embarked on my journey with Teach Us Too as Jonathan’s home education teacher, long before the charity was established, shortly after he was removed from his special school to be taught at home. As a qualified and experienced primary school teacher and SENCO, I was well versed in the curriculum and mainstream teaching skills. However, having never taught in a special school or worked with students with physical disabilities or complex access needs, the learning curve was steep.

Watching Jonathan progress in his literacy journey while knowing that other children like him remained in their status quo, fuelled my passion to work with Jonathan and Teach Us Too as momentum grew, Jonathan’s book was published and the charity established. Below is an excerpt of the speech I gave at the charity launch in the summer of 2018. It still very much holds true and is the reason I continue, alongside Jonathan and Chantal, to work so hard to change the experiences of other young people like him; to push the agenda of literacy education for children with complex access needs and disabilities; to encourage teachers to raise their expectations of these pupils and to share knowledge, understanding, skills and expertise within a community of like-minded professionals.

“Imagine a world in which an individual is never judged by appearances or limited by the labels attached to them.  Imagine a world in which professionals always assume competence and strive to make progress.

 Imagine a world in which all children are fully included, are accepted and appreciated, are taught, listened to and allowed to contribute.

Imagine a world in which every child is taught literacy regardless of the type of school they are enrolled in or the educational label they are assigned.

This is the world that Jonathan aspires to be part of and he world that he inspires us to create.”