We did it!

Our special school, which takes children and young people aged 2 to 25, has been on a three-year journey to get accreditation from NAS (the national autistic society). On Thursday we were told that we'd got it in the bag, following January's inspection. Hurrah!

It was recognised that many of our children, many of whom have cerebral palsy or complex health needs, also have autism, and we were already doing a lot, so it made sense to do a lot more to help them.

Nursery, where I work, is for mixed mainstream and special needs children, but we are certainly getting more and more children who have autism as part of their makeup. However, speaking as someone who spent a large part of the morning disposing of autumn leaves and tidying the nursery garden, only to see it 'messed up again' after lunch, I've realised something. The more time I spend among people who have autism, the more autistic traits emerge in me. It's a spectrum, after all.