World Autism Awareness Day

World Autism Awareness Day

“Wednesday 2 April is World Autism Awareness Day and QPEC wishes to acknowledge all those who work so hard to support autistic learners, in both their families and in our schools.

QPEC would also like to acknowledge the key role played in this field by the late Joanna Curzon, who passed away last year. Joanna worked in the Ministry of Education and was a dedicated worker on behalf of those with autism.

She understood the principle of inclusion and embracing diversity for people, especially those who had difficulties with communicating. Joanna was instrumental in developing the Autism Spectrum Disorder resources used in our schools.

While progress has been made on supporting autistic children in schools, there are still funding and resource gaps and these young people still often fall through the cracks. Autistic children are vulnerable to suspension from school and often do not get the classroom support they need. Those who do not get the best supported education available face fairly bleak futures.

In QPEC’s view, funding is needed to improve awareness of autism spectrum disorders and to ensure that all such children are provided with the resources they need to achieve great things through education.”

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