S5 Milo Cullen tells us what its like for him in his role as an Inclusion Ambassador at Duncanrig.
Being an Inclusion Ambassador is something that I became interested in during my third year of school, so I decided to apply, and luckily I got the role! The first time I went to one of our meetings, I was a bit nervous, but everyone who was a part of it was so friendly, welcoming, and kind. I have enjoyed doing our meetings. We also do in-person meetings in Glasgow or Edinburgh. I love going to both of them, but Glasgow can be easier to get to than Edinburgh. We do activities like getting to know one another, finding ways to help promote more inclusion in school, along with ways that can help people who struggle a bit more than others and find ways that would be good for helping them. We also do fun things when we meet up, like having intellectual discussions about things that teachers do to help the students and other activities like using colourful writing inside a figure that is customised to show your personality or doing a drawing of what you enjoy doing.
Being an Inclusion Ambassador is really fun, and I enjoy helping to promote inclusion through all the schools. We have also been on a call with the Scottish Parliament where we gave our insights into what school is like for us who have a hard time keeping up with work in school sometimes. We try to help by coming up with strategies and methods that are made to help students who have autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and dyspraxia that will help them with getting the qualifications for leaving school. So we are people who serve a role in helping those who need just a bit more help and make sure we are all promoting inclusion.
My hopes for the future of additional support for learning would be for it to be increased, as there are so many people who would benefit. I also want to make people aware of the different teaching methods that can help while keeping it fun and entertaining! I am lucky to be part of a base with access to the mainstream, and I think every school should have this. It is important for young people like me to be involved in this to share my views and personal experience, as I think it's difficult for people like teachers to understand our experiences, as they've maybe found learning much easier, and older people also might not be as aware, as neurodiversity wasn't as known about years ago.
By Milo Cullen
Issue 2