“Belgrave has been a lifeline for our son who has enjoyed a warm and supportive school experience there since he was nine years old. We were despairing of his primary school when we first started to look into transferring him. He had been bullied, unsupported and literally left in a corner to fend for himself in the classroom. His mental state was such that I could see him steeling himself to go into the school and eager to leave. He was retreating into himself and the selective mutism had really taken hold.
Yet from the day he did his taster session to his last day at Belgrave School he has absolutely loved going in. His demeanour changed in the playground from day one. I could see he was amongst a kind, tolerant and supportive cohort of children and parents. For us as parents we were able to breathe a sigh of relief that he was among professionals and peers that understood who he was and did not treat him like he was a problem. Over the years I spoke to many Belgrave parents who had similar stories of their children’s previous schools – of exclusions and humiliations, their child’s eventual loss of confidence in themselves.”