SINGAPORE: A 14-year-old has credited a specialist neurodivergent school for saving lives and helping students make friends.
Rhinestone, a year nine student at Fitzroy North College, said the school offered a social life as well as an education.
“At my birthday party, so many people, so many people, showed up. This many people have not showed up throughout my whole life, I actually genuinely cried. My mum also cried because I haven’t had this kind of a social life, a place where I can fit in, since kindergarten,” they said.
Rhinestone said the school “really caters to the students. It actually listens to its students. Sure, we might have a principal, but I feel like the kids responsibly run a lot of what happens”.
The school, which is part of the Saints College campuses run by Edmund Rice Education, caters for neurodivergent students and provides individualised support for children with anxiety, autism and ADHD, among other conditions.
Saints College also has national campuses as part of its BlendED learning model.
Rhinestone said the school “gives us an opportunity to succeed in life without having too many, like, mental health struggles”.
“Due to the school system and other factors, autistic individuals are multiple times more likely to commit suicide,” they said.
Foundation principal Sue Colacino said the school’s success was based on “getting to know that young person and what makes them tick”.
Ms Colacino said many of the parents were neurodivergent as well and that had to be taken into consideration in building the community.
“What you see when you come into our school is relationships, first and foremost,” she said.
“So it is engaging our families as well, and it’s important that they have a voice.”
Students come in for a free breakfast, and are also provided with morning tea and lunch, which they often eat with staff.
There’s a basketball court, beanbags in the classrooms, a therapy dog who visits regularly, no uniforms, staff are called by their first names and no homework.
“The parents are like, ‘Oh, thank God. There’s no homework. I don’t have to do any more projects’. It’s absolutely incredible,” Ms Colacino said.
She said the students choose the furniture, the set-up of the classrooms and the values that govern the learning.
She said students “just need to find people and find their space”.
“But there was one young person that ran out, I think it was the second day of school and year nine, and said: ‘Mum, mum, I’ve got a friend. They liked what I was wearing’.
“Sometimes they don’t have the social skills out in that big real world, but to see the friendships that have formed is just incredible.”
When asked what they wanted to say to other neurodivergent young people, Rhinestone said:
“I won’t cry in this interview because I have a reputation to maintain, but there’s eight billion people on this planet, and not one of them is going to be exactly like you. Don’t leave. Don’t give up. Find a place that works for you. It seems tough right now, but it will get better. I promise you.”
“I mean, I see you. I hear you. I feel you. I love you. You are loved. And this school, there’s multiple campuses. You don’t have to come to this particular one.”
Rhinestone said the mainstream school system “for lack of a better term, is not, and I’m trying not to swear, it’s not good. It forces people into a mould and when you don’t fit that mould, you, you know, you’re not accepted”.
“We need more schools like this. I think the government needs to put more funding into schools like this … I think our government needs to do better.”