Local neurodivergent young people create guidance for BaNES schools

For the past nine months the Bath and North East Somerset Youth Forum, a group of young people supported by the youth wellbeing charity Off The Record (OTR) BANES, have been working on a campaign to help make mainstream schools more accessible to neurodivergent pupils.

Around one in five primary and secondary pupils in England are neurodivergent. Almost all of them go to a mainstream school. However, mainstream schools often don’t work as well as they could for neurodivergent pupils. Special schools aren’t necessarily the answer, partly as there is a lack of places.

Most of the Youth Forum participants identify as neurodivergent. They came up with the campaign themselves and decided to create a survey for their neurodivergent peers across the county. The survey asked neurodivergent people between the ages of eight and 19 what challenges they have faced in school, and what they think schools could do to improve the situation.

Based on this research, the Youth Forum wrote a short report for mainstream primary and secondary schools in Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), which highlights areas that neurodivergent pupils find most difficult about school:

The report makes a number of recommendations including more training, the introduction of quiet places and neurodiversity education for all pupils.

The Youth Forum then wrote a toolkit for schools, with guidance on how to make the four recommendations a reality.

The full report and toolkit are at is available to read online