Honeycomb Educational Advocacy and Support

05/10/2026

I have thoughts on Thriving Kids as a whole (right now none of it positive). I have been reading as much of what I can and this is what I have so far(this is for QLD). I am meeting with the State leader of the opposition to get clarity about this on Friday so if you have thoughts or comments write them below!👇

05/10/2026

03/10/2026

Isn’t everyone a little ADHD?” 🙃

I know it’s usually said kindly. But it makes a real disability sound like a quirk, and it means people (especially kids) miss out on support. Swipe for what ADHD actually looks like and what to say instead. 💜

03/10/2026

A few thoughts on my mind tonight 💭

These are gentle reminders, because even when you think you’ve got your head around it all, it’s easy to forget something in the hard moments. I need these reminders too.
Behaviour is communication. Before we react, let’s get curious about what our kids are trying to tell us. 💜
Swipe through, save this for the next tough day, and share it with a parent or teacher who might need it.
-Bronnie, Honeycomb Advocacy 🐝

25/09/2026

Consent is not a dirty word.

It isn’t radical. It isn’t indoctrination. And teaching children about boundaries does not mean teaching five-year-olds about s*x.

Consent education begins with personal space, asking permission, respecting “no” and knowing how to seek help. As children grow, it develops into conversations about power, coercion, online behaviour, healthy relationships and s*xual consent.

In this episode, I look at what Australian schools are actually expected to teach, the work Chanel Contos has done through Teach Us Consent, and the dangerous public rhetoric coming from Dr Joanna Howe and her husband James Howe.

Marriage is not permanent consent.
A previous yes is not permanent consent.
Silence is not consent.
And nobody is entitled to another person’s body.

🎙️ Consent Is Not a Dirty Word
Listen now on The Difficult Woman’s Guide to Education (and Life) go to the comments to find the link.

Content warning: This episode discusses s*xual violence and coercion. Support is available through 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or by texting 0458 737 732.

10/09/2026

R U OK? 💛

Today matters. But su***de prevention has to be about more than asking one question on one day.

We need to understand the intersection between autism, ADHD, neurodivergence and su***de risk-particularly for children and young people.

We need to talk about what happens when a child spends years being misunderstood, punished for disability, expected to mask, told they are “too much”, labelled as difficult, or repeatedly placed in environments that overwhelm their nervous system.

Breaking the stigma is su***de prevention.

Educating children and teenagers about neurodivergence is su***de prevention.

Teaching educators, health professionals and communities how neurodivergent brains communicate, regulate and experience the world is su***de prevention.

Having more accessible paediatric mental-health beds and crisis supports is su***de prevention.

Listening to families when they say their child is struggling is su***de prevention.

And creating schools where neurodivergent children are supported rather than continually expected to change themselves to fit the environment is su***de prevention.

We will not change the statistics with awareness days alone.

We change them through education, early intervention, accessible mental-health care, neurodivergence-informed practice, acceptance and genuine systemic change.

Ask, “R U OK?”

But when someone tells us they’re not-we need systems capable of answering, “We’re here. We understand. And there is help.” 💛

06/09/2026

If you are a teacher I would love your thoughts on this article I have written (and even if your not I would also love your thoughts!)

By Bronnie Hammond-Vale, Educational Advocate and ConsultantIn 2025, 1,125,502 Australian school students received an educational adjustment because of disability. That is 27 per cent of all students-more than one in four children in our classrooms. In 2015, it was 18 per cent. Disability is not a n...

04/09/2026

Thriving Kids is being sold as early support delivered in the places children already live, learn and play.

I don’t believe it will help families.

I believe it will shift even more responsibility onto carers, families, early childhood services and schools-people and systems that are already overstretched, under-resourced and struggling to meet children’s existing needs.

Parents are already expected to be advocates, coordinators, researchers, therapists, case managers and crisis responders. Educators are already managing enormous workloads, inadequate staffing and a lack of specialist support. Moving the responsibility into these settings without a guaranteed workforce, adequate funding and genuine individualised support doesn’t magically create inclusion.

It simply relocates the burden-and calls it “capacity building.”

Families are not rejecting accessible support outside the NDIS. We are saying that support must be properly co-designed, tested, funded, accessible and fully functioning before a single child loses what they currently have.

You do not dismantle the existing support system and hope something appears in its place.

Children deserve more than reassuring language and policy promises.

Listen to the people who will live with the consequences before you move the children.

03/09/2026

Below is a link to a post I have written. I would love some of your thoughts. I have taken some information out and posted here so you can get a brief idea of what I'm talking about.

Disabled students were roughly 25% of Queensland’s student cohort but represented 64% of suspended students in Term 2 of 2025.

Please do not tell me this is simply because disabled children “behave worse”.

This is what happens when distress is labelled defiance, unmet needs are treated as disobedience and exclusion is easier to access than meaningful support.

Yes, schools must respond when there is genuine violence, serious aggression or an immediate risk of harm. Safety matters. But suspension is supposed to be a last resort-not the automatic consequence when a disabled student becomes overwhelmed, dysregulated or inconvenient.

Suspension removes the child.

It does not remove the trigger, repair the environment, implement the missing adjustment or teach the student the skills they need.

We must stop asking, “How do we punish this behaviour?” and start asking, “What is this behaviour communicating—and what does this student need?”

Because exclusion is not inclusion.

Suspension is not support.

And removing a child is not the same thing as solving the problem.

Source: Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion, using Queensland Government data for Term 2 of 2025.

https://www.honeycombadvocacy.com/post/suspension-is-not-support-queensland-s-disabled-students-are-being-pushed-out-of-education

02/09/2026

This post is brought to you by a teacher arguing with me that a child “couldn’t possibly be autistic because she makes eye contact and is social.”

Never mind what Mum and Dad are seeing at home. Never mind the enormous cost that holding it together all day is having on this child. Never mind that she literally has a confirmed autism diagnosis.

I was that girl. I smiled. I socialised. I forced eye contact. And I was missed.

So when parents tell you their child comes home and falls apart-LISTEN.
When a child tells you something is hard even though they look like they’re coping-LISTEN.
When their diagnosis, family and lived experience tell you something different from the five hours you see at school-LISTEN.

Stop using compliance as evidence that a child is coping.

Stop assuming your observation outweighs their lived experience.

Listen to autistic girls. Listen to their families. Believe them before the mask finally costs that child more than you can see.

Oh, and she IS autistic, you absolute n***y.