LET ME NOT BE MISUNDERSTOOD

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good."

Let me not be misunderstood. It was heart-breaking to leave Special Needs behind. Five marvellous years with so many marvellous people. So much fun, so much laughter, so much good. And what I left behind would be the better for being imperfect, inadequate and vulnerable to distortion. Remember me, if at all, as a soul whose intentions were good, and, that given, by all means let me be misunderstood. Who says some things are impossible. The people in my SEN department did the impossible every day, and did it with glorious good-humour.

Let me not give the impression that being SECNO for five years was an unalloyed pleasure. One is in the presence of grief, bewilderment and hurt too often for that, as parents, guardians, teachers, social services and a host of others try their best to support the neediest of children. To their immeasurable credit, this school, no matter how named, in which you now serve has always kept its doors open to these children while others have closed the doors in their faces.

This is a privilege not a burden. And to help some of those children get through a day, a week, a term, a year, five years of schooling counts as much as helping academically and emotionally secure children achieve their five, six, seven, eight, nine starred GCSEs. They are all children; they are all of equal worth. Understandably, it is my SEN waifs and strays that will always have a particular place in heart. They are the ones with whom I shared so many tears, so much laughter. I remember all of them. I miss them. I salute them.

And I can give no more profound advice than that given by a boy with Asperger's: "... whatever you are doing, believe in yourself, keep your nose to the grindstone and your head above water. If you find yourself sinking then stop, take a breather and remember it isn't over until the fat lady sings!" (Luke Jackson, age 13)