Features / Dunrossness not the only school in a broken system
I’m 40 and mother of two young children. One has additional support needs which affect the way we live our lives on a daily basis. I’m also a GP. My children attend Dunrossness ELC and Primary School.
I moved to Shetland four years ago, leaving a career in the Armed Forces. I served in multiple UK and overseas locations, including Afghanistan and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis.
I love my job in Shetland, passionately. I find it both humbling and rewarding in many ways. It’s a true honour to serve a community which is so diverse in strengths, skills and attributes. One I am very proud to be part of.
Recently, I realised I am broken. Not by events of the past. Not by my job as a full time GP, but the constant, never ending battle of ensuring my children’s needs are met in an educational setting. Not needs relating to advances in reading or writing, but basic needs of emotional and psychological safety, eating and toileting.
Please don’t misinterpret this as about individuals, nor teachers and teaching assistants who work tirelessly on a daily basis. They have my full and unwavering support.
I’m broken by trying to navigate a system which does not work and does not have the capacity to meet the needs of those within it. Dunrossness is not the only school in a broken system.
I have realised over recent weeks and months the biggest contributor to my brokenness is needing to feel heard, seen and understood. Not dismissed, gas lighted into thinking this is a parenting issue, or that I am somehow unreasonable for asking for appropriate support.
Much of the art of maintaining positive relationships with my patients and providing medical care is about allowing people to feel heard. Good care is patient centred, care which puts the medical condition in the context of a person; a good solution is one which meets all the patients’ holistic needs. One they have been allowed to create for themselves with support and understanding.
Over the past 18 months, and specifically within the last four weeks I have witnessed a huge uprising of voices at Dunrossness Primary School. All parents and carers who feel broken from the fight; broken from fighting for the inherent human need to be heard, seen and recognised. It is heart-breaking to watch the struggle.
A domestic relationship lacking two-way communication and only meeting one party’s needs would be deemed abusive; so, I ask myself, how have we come to a situation where so many do not feel seen, heard nor understood?
This situation isn’t about an outcome, whether the decision made is agreed or not; it’s about remembering these are people, caring for tiny people and everyone has needs.
The Ness community is flooded with skills, strengths, knowledge and generosity. It’s a solution focussed community; one I see desperately trying to contribute to their children’s futures.
The community is fighting, because it hasn’t been afforded the opportunity to feel heard.
Sam Adamson
Dunrossness
