A visit to the Social History of Learning Disability conference

7 of us from Building Bridges are off to the SHLD conference next week, at the OU in Milton Keynes. We are going to a talk on our reflections from our school days – from lumpy custard to long rides there and back on a coach twice a day. We will talk about both the good and bad things that happened when we were in school.

Lots of us found that our favourite lessons at school were similar to things we like to do as adults, especially lessons like PE, woodwork and art.

In our talk, we’ll also talk about how some of us didn’t have computers when we were at school, and this means we find it hard to use them today. We also had to amuse ourselves without the internet, so we did things like playing football, marbles and conkers and a game called pogs.

We finish with some messages we would give to our younger selves. They include:

Be positive, and don't let any one judge you for who you are, you need to remember to think positively not negatively.

Don’t let the bullies get you down. Instead talk to your friends.

Keep on trying! You get there in the end.

Everyone is special in their own way.

In the coming months we are planning to develop this project, and seek out the views of other people who went to special schools and also see how schools differ today.

Get in touch if you want to know more!