June 19, 2018, (Australia) Maitland, NSW: Margaret Jurd College seeking funding as it eyes Gillieston Heights expansion https://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/5477439/school-for-disadvantaged-kids-eyes-gillieston-heights-expansion/ ...She is the head of Margaret Jurd College [high school] at Shortland, which caters for students from years nine to 12 with mental health diagnoses that impact on their ability to function in a mainstream school setting. Many have experienced trauma and several live in out of home care, or with grandparents. One quarter are on the autism spectrum. A quarter are indigenous…. “They have either been bullied, or were the bullies. They have been expelled, suspended, have a history of aggression, emotional dysregulation and school refusal. They’re not bad kids, but they appear that way in the mainstream because they get abrasive. “They’re not coping with the environment, so they end up with emotional overload and they lash out…. The school has reached its maximum of 67 students and is this year offering year 12 for the first time. It has a waiting list of 15 and fields enrolment inquiries every day. “The need is growing, particularly up through the valley,” she said. “If it was empty, we could fill the school tomorrow.” Ms Sutton doesn’t have space to accommodate any more students on the Shortland block, but she is hopeful of opening a second campus: a middle school focusing on early intervention for years five to eight, on a 10 acre greenfield site on Cessnock Road Gillieston Heights. The Uniting Church NSW purchased the block for about $2.5 million and gifted it to the school last December. Ms Sutton has planned a meeting with an architecture firm to discuss a master plan and estimates it will cost about $10 million to complete the first stage. … She has called on the state government to use Tuesday’s budget to lift its support for the non-government sector, which includes both Catholic and independent schools. “Enrolment at state schools is at an all time high,” she said. “If we don’t meet our market share, the state system does not have the capacity to take these students…. Ms Sutton said her school targets emotional overload before it becomes a problem. Each class of 15 has a teacher, teacher’s aide and access to a case worker inside the room, as well as another outside. Students have emotional toolboxes, filled with sensory items such as kinetic sand, colouring in books and scented candles, which they can use to “recentre themselves”. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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