Sara Donnelly Consultancy

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Sara Donnelly Consultancy

Helping children, parents and schools take small steps towards big improvements in their emotional wellbeing.

One-to-one advocacy, therapy, school training and parent webinars – supporting young minds and their families every step of the way.

31/08/2026

Back to school can be BIG. 💛

And for some neurodivergent children, the hardest part isn’t necessarily the learning. It’s the transition.

A different routine. Earlier mornings. Uniform. Noise. People. Expectations. Social demands. Holding it together all day… and then coming home.

We can’t remove all of that, but we can make home the place where demands reduce, feelings are believed and there’s no expectation to immediately tell us all about their day.

And if the first few days are messy? That doesn’t mean they’re failing - and you aren’t either! Adjustment takes time.

Save this one for the first week back and please share with another parent who might find it useful. 💛

SEND SENDParents ActuallyAutistic ADHDParenting

28/08/2026

I genuinely struggle to understand the rationale behind this.

In 2025, 2,432 children aged 0–15 were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads. Half of those children were pedestrians.

At the same time, road-safety advice encourages pedestrians to make themselves more visible, particularly in poor light.

So why would any school insist that children’s coats must be black?

This isn’t a debate about whether you are pro or anti-school uniform. It’s about whether a rule has a reasonable purpose — and whether we are prepared to question it when rigidity starts to override safety, inclusion and common sense.

This matters particularly when we consider neurodivergent children, some of whom may experience differences with attention, impulsivity, risk awareness or processing busy environments.

School leaders: please review policies like this and ask one simple question: what benefit does this rule actually provide to the child?

If you agree, share this, particularly with someone involved in school leadership.

Sometimes policies need challenging, not simply complying with.

27/08/2026

The first week back can tell you a LOT about a child.

But it can also tell you very little.

A quiet child might be overwhelmed.
A beautifully behaved child might be masking.
A child who seems oppositional might be desperately trying to find some predictability.
And the child who appears to settle immediately might fall apart the second they get home.

So next week, try not to rush to conclusions.

Give children time. Get curious. Notice what happens when demands increase, when things change, when the room gets louder or when the structure disappears.

And remember: settling in doesn’t necessarily mean looking settled.

For some neurodivergent children, simply getting through that classroom door next week will be a huge achievement. ❤️

Save this one for next week and send it to someone getting their classroom ready for September.

25/08/2026

If you’re new here, hi 👋

This account is for the teachers, TAs, SENCOs and parents who want to understand neurodivergent children better and aren’t afraid to question some of the things we’ve always done.

As a former head tue was SEN Consultant I talk about autism, ADHD, AuDHD, masking, hidden presentations, sensory processing, behaviour, emotional safety, EBSA, PDA, RSD and what all of that can actually look like in real children, in real classrooms.

You’ll find practical ideas, research, lived experience, the occasional rant 😬 and plenty of conversations about how we can do things differently.

I don’t have all the answers. But I’ll keep asking the questions.

If that sounds like your kind of place, stick around. ❤️

Oh, and I’m currently writing a book for educators about autism and ADHD too which is being published in 2027 - so there’s plenty more to come. 📚

20/08/2026

One thing I find fascinating about special interests is that we often talk about having them, but not about what happens when we lose them.

Because losing one can feel surprisingly strange. Something that once brought joy, motivation, connection and purpose can suddenly just… not.

And this is why I think we need to value special interests, particularly in children.

Making space for a neurodivergent child’s interests isn’t simply “letting them talk about their favourite thing”. It’s neuro-affirming. That interest can become a route into learning, friendships, confidence, regulation and belonging. It can help a child discover what they’re good at and, sometimes, even open doors to hobbies, qualifications or careers that stay with them for life.

We don’t always need to redirect children away from the thing that consumes them. Sometimes we need to ask where it might take them.

As for me, I have no idea whether running will ever become a special interest again. I’m not sure you can force a brain to find that spark.

But I can give it the best possible chance. 🏃‍♀️

So here goes: getting fitter and stronger in my 40s, with Caroline keeping me accountable and you lot getting the occasional update on Stories.

And perhaps slightly less cheese and wine. 😂🧀🍷

Have you ever lost a special interest? And did it ever come back?

21/07/2026

A new Education Secretary.

A fresh opportunity to reset.

The SEND system doesn’t need more slogans. It needs trust, honesty and action.

These are the three things I’d most like to see happen.

Now I’m interested in yours…

👇 Teachers, parents, school leaders and SEND professionals…

If you could ask the new Education Secretary for just ONE thing, what would it be?

Let’s keep it constructive. If enough of us are asking for the same things, perhaps they’ll finally be impossible to ignore.

01/07/2026

Teachers absolutely deserve a pay rise. This post isn’t about that. 👏

The concern is that schools are being asked to absorb part of the cost from budgets that are already under enormous pressure.

The Government has announced:
📚 A 3.5% teacher pay rise from September 2026, followed by 3% in 2027.
💷 Schools will receive additional funding, but they are still expected to find nearly a third of the cost themselves.

Education unions estimate that schools are being asked to find around £460 million from existing budgets the equivalent of approximately 8,300 school staff (around 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff).

My immediate thought was this…

How are schools supposed to provide the support that children with SEND need when many are already struggling to fund the staff they have?

Inclusion doesn’t happen because it’s written in policy.

It happens because there are teachers, teaching assistants, SENDCOs, pastoral teams and intervention staff with the time and capacity to support children.

If budgets become even tighter, those are often the very services that come under pressure.

💬 Teachers: What are your thoughts? How do you think this will affect your school?

💬 Parents: Does this make you concerned about the support your child receives, particularly if they have SEND?

Inclusion EducationPolicy SchoolBudgets

04/06/2026

This might surprise some people, but I do think attendance is important.

Not because attendance percentages matte.

Not because I think children should be in school at all costs.

Attendance is important because, when a child can access their education, school can offer more than learning.

Friendships.

Shared experiences.

A sense of belonging.

Opportunities.

Memories.

The everyday moments that help children grow and develop. But none of that happens if a child doesn’t feel safe enough to be there.

My daughter’s attendance was 0% for an entire year.

Not because she didn’t want to learn.

Not because we didn’t value education.

Because the environment wasn’t right for her.

Today her attendance is around 74%.

That didn’t happen because anyone focused on attendance. It happened because someone focused on her needs, her wellbeing and her sense of safety.

The environment changed.

The support changed.

And attendance followed.

That’s why I find attendance fines and the obsession with perfect attendance so frustrating.

No child benefits from being in school if they are overwhelmed, distressed or unable to access the environment.

And striving for 100% attendance is neither realistic nor necessary.

Children get ill.

Families go through difficult times.

Life happens.

The question shouldn’t be, “How do we improve attendance?”

It should be, “What needs to change so this child can attend?”

Because attendance is often the outcome of getting everything else right first.

21/05/2026

Honestly - Who on earth signed this campaign off?

At a time when SEND families are exhausted, schools are under enormous pressure and teachers are trying to hold together a system that is clearly struggling, the decision to push out repeated celebrity PR content as though this is all some kind of light-hearted branding exercise ish real.

That’s why so many people are reacting negatively to it. Not because people are “snobs”, but because it feels so completely disconnected from the reality families and educators are living every day.

Parents are fighting for assessments, support and school places. Teachers and school staff are trying to meet increasingly complex needs without the funding, staffing or specialist training they desperately need. Many children are sitting in classrooms overwhelmed, unsupported and misunderstood.

So when the response from the Department for Education feels superficial and performative, people are understandably frustrated.

The backlash is not really about Gemma Collins. It’s about a growing feeling that SEND families are not being listened to, while the people making decisions seem increasingly disconnected from what is actually happening in schools and homes across the country.

The DfE needs to stop telling parents how they should feel and start listening to what they have been trying to say for years.

10/05/2026

SATs week again.

And I know there will be plenty of posts about this - but I just want to say my piece to teachers, parents and children: SATs are an incredibly narrow (and in my opinion pointless) measure of a child.

They do not measure creativity, kindness, resilience, humour, empathy or imagination. They do not measure the child who has battled anxiety just to walk through the school gates. They do not measure the child who thinks differently, learns differently or communicates differently.

And they certainly do not measure the heart of a school.

They do not capture the relationships staff build with children every day. The emotional support. The safe spaces. The trust. The moments of encouragement that can change the course of a child’s life far more than a test score ever will.

For many children, particularly those with SEND, SATs bring huge amounts of stress and a feeling of failure before they have even had a chance to discover what they are good at.

So yes, schools will do what they are required to do. Teachers will support children through it, as they always do.

But when this week is over, the things that will matter most are the things SATs could never measure in the first place:

Did a child feel safe?
Did they feel understood?
Did they leave school still believing they were capable?

Because those things will shape a life far more than a scaled score ever will.

Share and save if you agree ❤️

Address

Bexley

Website

http://www.saradonnelly.com/

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