School 'top three in world' for tackling adversity

A school set up less than a decade ago for children with autism has been named one of the top three in the world for “overcoming adversity”.

Venturers' Academy in Withywood, Bristol, received the award from international education platform T4 Education on Thursday at the Bristol Beacon, and staged a concert to celebrate.

Trystan Williams, Venturers’ executive head teacher, described it as “the most emotional” moment of his career.

He said the award was proof that “we can change lives”.

Venturers' opened in 2016 through sponsorship from the Society of Merchant Venturers and the University of Bristol.

Its teaching concept was developed by parents striving for better standards of education for children with autism.

Initially intended to cater for just 84 students, it now has 265 children over three sites, and is now funded through the Department for Education and the local authority.

All of Venturers’ students have a primary diagnosis of autism and must have been assigned an educational health and care plan by their local authority to be eligible - a process which can take up to two years.

A lot of students had been out of education for a long time when they joined and a third were non-verbal.

Almost a third are from poorer backgrounds and eligible for the government’s pupil premium grants.

“I know what [this award] means for our community - I know how hard our parents have had to battle against the system to get any kind of privileges within education for their children,” Mr Williams said.

Georgina, whose son Ted attends the academy, said: “Ted was non-verbal - he went to school with just noise, now he doesn’t shut up.”

“With time and effort, anything is possible,” she said.

Sixteen-year-old Lakhile joined the school shortly after it opened, and at the time had very limited language.

The school nurtured his gift for music with one-to-one mentoring and he has just passed his grade eight piano exams.

Lakhile said his “big dream” is to work on collaborative music projects.

Phili’s 14-year-old son Mane was non-verbal when he joined the school but is now speaking and is preparing to sit his GCSEs.

She cites Venturers' “holistic care” for the change in her son.

“They treat them as individuals,” she said.

Mr Williams said he hoped the award would prompt figures in the local authority and in government to “take us seriously”.

“We know what we are doing, we can change lives, but we need appropriate funding to keep on doing that,” he said.

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