Best Practice

Being diagnosed with SEND: A journey of discovery

Inclusion
In the space of six months, teacher Frances Akinde went from someone with no known SEND to being diagnosed with three. She charts her journey and discusses the power of art therapy – for her students as well as herself


It was April 2011. I was on the way back home after completing an art therapy foundation course. I had just picked my four young children up and I was driving home.

I remember driving along the motorway singing with my boys. I remember thinking the car behind was far too close.

I remember thinking what a life-changing week I had just completed and how much I had enjoyed the course.

I remember the loud, unrecognisable noise that stopped us in our tracks, the air bags popping and the car filling with white smoke.

I remember checking my children to make sure they were okay, the sirens, and thinking “are they for us?” – I remember looking at the wreckage in tears and wondering how we all came out unscathed.

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