What I wish school did differently for my mental health as a disabled person

Topics mentioned: disability and mental health, school, exam stress, self-care

About: As a Disabled young person, Samara shares three ways schools could better support mental health during A-levels, and her self-care tips for sixth form.

Sixth form and college can be one of the most stressful times of our lives. Many of us often opt for A-levels in the hope of being able to go to university and pursue a degree that we’re passionate about. This is why these two years can be crucial in ensuring that we get the grades we need to pursue our chosen career.

But in some instances, navigating through these two years can be even more challenging. Especially if you have a disability, whether that’s visible or invisible, such as epilepsy for me. This can bring about more turbulent challenges during A-levels. If you don’t receive the right support, it can often make this time all the more difficult to survive.

As a Disabled young person, here are the three main things I wish my teachers had said and done differently when I was in sixth form:

Not every brain develops and works in the same way. Everyone has their own individual strengths and talents, not all of them being necessarily academic. This is something I feel my sixth form didn’t acknowledge very much.

Instead, they pushed and pushed several of us to study in ways that didn’t work for us. We were often advised to remain at sixth form until the early hours of the evening to achieve high grades, which they said could open more doors for us. Now I’m a year older and wiser, I know this was simply untrue.

Instead that time could’ve been devoted to self-care or helping us break up the days of intense study to do something we enjoy.

Once we finish school or college, we all have different aspirations and visions of what we want to do next. For those who are disabled like myself, the ability to make immediate decisions will vary from person to person. We need to cater for our own individual needs.

For example, for me the idea of going to university immediately provoked heavy anxiety. Especially knowing that I would have to adapt to a new environment and new people with the expectation to navigate my disability by myself.

I wish school had took that into account rather than pushing us all in the same direction.

Alongside physical health, schools could make sure that mental health is not condensed into workshops or one weekly email. They could make sure it’s built into the widespread agenda, just as UCAS was.

Schools should be able to make all students feel supported and not ashamed to say they’re struggling with their mental health. Rather than being forced to repress these feelings for the sake of a statistic or league table.

Instead, schools could offer daily drop-in sessions for us to talk in confidence about how we’re feeling and where we’re at. Especially during the summer exam season.

Finally, if you are reading this and currently in sixth form or college, there are two main pieces of advice that I want to give you:

Please take it from me that there are other routes to success. Each and every path is different and beautiful, so rest assured that you can achieve your dreams. No matter what happens.