the british education system has some serious issues

when i was 4 years old, i entered reception at a primary school in the west of london. everything seemed great and i was excited to start my new time at school. one small problem though. i was bullied. unbelievably bullied. kids would chase me, laugh at me, insult me, yell at me, spit at me, and more. the teachers knew this. they didnt do anything about it. but that was only the beginning. 

when i turned 6, i went into year 2. there, i met a boy. he was a new boy who had just entered. i figured that maybe he was nice and i wanted to befriend him to make him feel more at home. little did i know that that little hellion of a child would be one of the many things that would cause school to become the terrifying experience it became. he befriended all of the strongest boys, and decided to use him and those boys to terrify and harass the weaker kids, which unfortunately included me. i remember standing on a small platform on a play structure and holding onto the pole that the other kids were sliding down and watching them all slide down. then the kid and his gang of boys came along and proceeded to pry my hands off the pole while i screamed and cried, and they were laughing all the way. eventually they got my hands off the pole and i fell several feet to the ground, landing legs first. i was left unable to walk for the rest of break time and had to stay in the medical room. i also remember bending over the water fountain to get a drink and the same kid and his other boys coming up behind me and giving me a wedgie so bad i was lifted off the floor. i remember a ring of kids laughing at me as i looked around all confused and one of my friends watched in horror. 

this is another incident, also occurring when i was 6, of a teacher instead of a student. i have autism and a severe anxiety disorder, which i have had for as long as ive been alive. i remember that due to my autism, i would zone out a lot and struggled with paying attention. i remember the teacher yelling in my face that if she caught me zoning out again, she would make me move my name from the green card to the yellow card on the green-yellow-orange-red card chart they had. inevitably i zoned out again. i remember the teacher demanding i move my name down and i couldnt bring myself to, so i was left standing in front of everyone absolutely bawling my eyes out while people stared at me like i was the most annoying person ever. eventually the teacher pushed me out of the way and moved my name down herself. there was another incident where i was having a panic attack and the teacher sat there right next to me scolding me for the whole lesson. i cried and cried and the teacher kept yelling in my face and threatened that she would be back next lesson to force me to do work. 

fast forward a few years and i enter year 5. surprisingly, my year 5 teacher is an amazing person. she helps me with my work and understands me more than any other teacher i had previously. unfortunately there was still one problem; the bullying. i remember crying on the playground while a ring of kids laughed at me and went "waaa waaa waaa!!!!" while i was sobbing and sobbing. the school did nothing about this, i had to rely on external sources. the only people that helped me find way to deal with it were my teacher, my therapist, and my mother. eventually i was able to fight off the bullies. i thought that was the end of my suffering. then year 6 happened.

year 6 remains one of the worst if not the worst experiences i have ever had in my life. m maths teacher was a monster. she would insult children on a regular basis, calling them fools, idiotic, ignorant, babies, the whole lot. there was even a time where she brought a student to the front of the class, got on his level right up to his face, and said to him "youre disgusting.". everyone knew it. nobody said a word. she also abused a severely autistic child by taking away his laptop time and depriving him of his learning support assistant because he said something she thought was rude (he was unable to control what he said and either blurted out random nonsensical sentences or just made sounds), and then she got mad at him for not being able to do an of the work my normal teacher was also awful. she would insult my work and tell me that i was faking my anxiety and "working myself up", and when i had panic and was cowering in the corner of the playground and other adults asked her what was wrong, she would say "shes fine.". there was also the special education needs coordinator, who screamed at me and said that she was mad at me while i was having a panic attack, screaming in my face "ARE YOU FINISHED? ARE YOU FINISHED?!?!" and then pushing me off the bench we were sitting on and demanding i go get a drink of water, as if that would help. 

i was eventually able to get out of there but the damage was done. me (or i, i dont know grammar), a once bright, curious, intelligent little girl developed a severe school phobia and extreme extreme anxiety and depression, as well as post traumatic stress disorder. as a result i missed out on over a years worth of secondary school due to my anxiety and trauma. 

but despite all this, the ofsted (british school inspectors to see how good a school is) report of the school listed it as "good". it didnt matter that children there were treated like items and programmable robots, the school was still listed as "good". because why does any of it matter? academics are all we care about in britain! why should it matter if at the secondary school my sister went to she would constantly have boys come up to her and explain in graphic detail how they wanted to rape her? that school got a "good" rating by ofsted so they must be good!! who cares if the students at the secondary school my best friend went to beat him up on a bus just because hes trans? that school got a "good" rating as well!! who gives a fuck about the wellbeing of any of the damn students? to hell with all of them! academics is the only thing we care about! having an elitist school system will definitely create a society of healthy functional people!!

the way the british school system treats children, especially special needs children, is absolutely horrific. the abuse me (or i, again i dont know grammar) and so many others faced at the hands of the british school system is unbelievable, and i will fight to make sure that children dont have to suffer this way anymore. thank you to all who read this