GARRISON teen, Jack Love was one of only two young people from across Northern Ireland to take part in a European Hearing on Inclusive Education in Luxembourg in October.
Lobbying Education Ministers from across Europe to ‘Take Action’ and make education more inclusive for all, regardless of disabilities, Jack’s involvement in the project was a personal declaration to the world that he was leaving behind the severe anxieties he had suffered in a mainstream school just 12 months ago.
Now a student at Willowbridge School, 16-year-old Jack is learning to cope with the anxiety that comes as part and parcel of his autism, thanks to the support and encouragement of staff at the special education facility.
Struggling for years to meet his teachers’ expectations in a mainstream environment, Jack’s autism was only officially diagnosed when he was in fourth year at school.
“Up until then, I was told that I was just ‘lazy’,” Jack tells the Impartial Reporter.
“I went to a mainstream school for five years.  It was challenging,” he says, “There was a lot of pressure to finish work on time.
“It was challenging for me, both mentally and physically, between all the different subjects and meeting lots of different timescales.  It left me really stressed. I did explain to the teachers, some of them were understanding, but some weren’t. You either got your work finished in the timescale or you could be put on detention or get extra work on top of the work you were already struggling with.”
Also suffering from epilepsy, Jack requires around nine to 10 hours of sleep each night. But at the height of his anxiety, he says his sleeping pattern was “woeful”. “When I’m anxious, I can sweat a lot and I just panic and can’t think of anything else. I didn’t like leaving the house I was so stressed.  I would come home and feel stressed about whatever had happened in school that day that I would forget I had homework to do.
“I would look in my diary and realise I had history, geography and maths homework to do and then it would be a mad rush to get it done in time.”
Jack’s personal experience of struggling in a mainstream environment made him the perfect candidate for the Hearing in Luxembourg.
The event, organised by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, allowed young people with and without disabilities and/or special needs from all over Europe to express their views on education and to describe how to overcome barriers to inclusion, explaining the progress made so far. Reflecting on his involvement in the project, Jack believes he would never have had the confidence to participate if not for his move to Willowbridge.
 His new principal, Julie Murphy, explains: “For Jack, ‘inclusion is exclusion’, in the sense that although he had been in  a mainstream school previously, he didn’t feel like he was actually included.  He wasn’t being given the same opportunities and support to be included.
“What we have offered him here is more choice and support, and he now feels like he is in control of his life.
“Jack is very verbal and well able to put across his points beautifully."

Thanks to a transition programme, specifically tailored to Jack’s needs, he now feels at home in his new environment at Willowbridge.
“I was quite open about coming here,” he says. “I felt it was probably best to have more support and a bit more time and encouragement to help raise my confidence levels.  My overall morale is much better now, both in school and at home. I think I fitted in seamlessly here.”
In school two days a week, with work experience, classes at South West College and the Skills Centre the remaining three days, Jack says Willowbridge has provided far more mechanisms to allow him to cope with his anxiety.
“I do work experience in the Bawnacre in Irvinestown.  I really enjoy it.  George Beacom is great -- he really understands my autism fully and the rest of the staff there are fantastic too.”
According to Ms. Murphy, Jack’s confidence boost now sees him attending a Special Olympics class on Saturday mornings, as well as the school’s own Friday Night Friendship Group for teens. “His mother thought she would never see the day that he would do that,” says the principal.