Main subject • Up to GCSE
Maths
Clear explanations, guided practice, homework support, revision, problem-solving and GCSE exam preparation.
The boy who wanted to be a cartoonist
In 2022, while working in a mainstream secondary school, I supported an autistic Year 8 student with a remarkable talent for drawing. He often told me that he wanted to become a cartoonist.
His passion made me think about an important question: what if we use the thing a student loves to help them learn, rather than seeing it only as something that stops them from learning?
Read the full reflection
Drawing clearly gave him enjoyment, confidence and a sense of achievement. During lessons, however, he often wanted to draw instead of completing the work set by the teacher and was frequently reprimanded.
I did not think the answer was to simply let him draw all day or remove academic expectations. I thought his passion could have been used as a bridge to the curriculum — through English, storytelling, art, digital media, technology, communication and careers education.
I left the school in 2023. Years later, I discovered that the same student was attending a college where my husband teaches digital media. The student did not know the connection. When my husband asked whether he liked drawing, surprisingly, he said no.
I cannot know what caused that change and would not want to make assumptions. But it made me reflect on what we mean by high expectations in education.
High expectations matter. They do not have to mean expecting every student to learn in exactly the same way or follow exactly the same path. Sometimes the most effective way to help a student move forward is to begin with what they can do, what they love and what makes them feel capable.
Instead of asking only, “How do we stop this behaviour?”, perhaps we should sometimes ask, “What is this student showing us that we can build on?”
