On Thursday evening I was honoured to attend the Sandford St Martin Awards at Lambeth Palace where the CBBC documentary My Life: Locked in Boy won the Children’s Broadcasting Award.  It was an amazing evening with the great and good of TV and radio, and I enjoyed being part of some interesting conversations.

Once again thanks go to CBBC for taking a punt on me; Sugar Films for taking the plunge; and David, the producer and cameraman, for taking the prize with me.

If you missed it the first time round, my programme can be seen via the Teach Us Too website here. 

Here it is, the film from Sunday.  My mother sharing her testimony, and my Susannah on stage reading my words, without a shred a nerves in front of thousands of people. 

Here is a transcript of my words:

Throughout my life I have known Jesus spirit with me: cradling me in pain, sheltering me from darkness and beckoning me forward.  Personally Jesus’ presence with me sustains and carries me through life’s journey with a contented calm in my soul knowing that whatever happens he will at last bring me home.

But Jesus’ spirit is not just to encourage us on our personal pilgrimage through the highs and lows, but God’s power working in us for His glory.  Wonderfully, the Holy Spirit’s use for us is not limited by our weaknesses, rather sometimes it is through the cracks that the light is brightest. 

Having a body as dysfunctional and disabled as mine it would be easy to assume that God only has special jobs for others, but even at a young age God used me, not in spite of my disabilities, but because of them.  When I was younger and before I could spell a recently retired teacher took me out in my wheelchair to visit anyone who was old and lonely. Sitting on their doorstep, I would wave and smile and make their day a little brighter, before we moved on to the next house.  None of my able bodied toddler friends would have had the patience and sit-ability to do my special God-given job.

Three years ago, almost to the day, I was recovering from a brief but intense illness and felt quite annoyed with God that he hadn’t taken me home. Questions turned to prayers and prayers turned to answers.  The Lord has a purpose for us all, and mine was to be a voice for the voiceless calling for all children to be taught to read and write regardless of their educational label.  Despite having a slow and laborious way of spelling out every word I want to say or write, God has used my voice to speak up for children to be taught literacy.  Through his power he has transformed my weaknesses: people seem to listen and take my message on board when I share it with them. 

Like water flowing through a watermill the Holy Spirit enables us to be used as God intended and so he gives me the courage to speak up for the voiceless, changing perceptions and prejudices through my charity Teach Us Too and my book Eye Can Write.

My prayer is that through God’s Holy Spirit we will all know Jesus’ presence with us, and God’s purpose for our life.

What a wonderful Thy Kingdom Come event for Pentecost in Trafalgar Square yesterday. Worshiping with great music, including my favourite song played by the artist himself; listening to and learning from a variety of denominations, including the very welcoming Coptic Church, whom I spent some time with in their tent; and joining the fellowship of thousands of Christians. 

In front of those thousands, my beautiful and brave sister read out some words I had been asked to write, and my mother also shared some of her faith story. Here are some photos of the day (the video and the scripts will follow in a few days).  

What a fantastic inaugural Teach Us Too Study Day we had on Wednesday. Teachers, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, parents, teaching assistants, educational psychologists, case managers – we learnt and shared together about the principles and practicalities of literacy instruction for pupils who use augmentative and alternative communication. 

If my mother had not received advice from Marion Stanton on how to teach me to read and write, I doubt I would be writing this; so it was wonderful that she could come and share her expertise with us all. As part of her session the delegates got an opportunity to use some low tech communication aids to talk to each other, and it was illuminating to see how difficult and frustrating they found it.  For me this practically showed people the language limitations of any system where spelling has not been taught; as I have often advocated: there is nothing like being able to spell everything you want to write and say.

But the highlight of the day was hearing from and meeting Emma Maskell who came all the way from Sandside Lodge School in Cumbria to share her experiences of teaching literacy to her entire ‘PMLD’ class.  All of them communicate and are on a literacy journey: none of them have a ‘profound intellectual disability’ (the PMLD standards definition of PMLD).  Movingly, she shared the difference this had made when the class had sadly lost two pupils earlier this year, as communication had given them the language to express their grief and also the tools for the teacher to use this as evidence to access specialist music grief counselling.  At times on the literacy journey some people thought Emma was delusional for trying, although her school and senior management team have been supportive; we need more teachers with the tenacity and determination to keep trying ways for children yoked with the pernicious label PMLD to find the access which works for them and teach them literacy using this access.

Wish you had been there?  Really kindly Curtis, a student from Bristol, came to video the day for us – a massive thank you to him!  Snapshots of the day will be available on the Teach Us Too website soon.  

Join me this time next week for the Thy Kingdom Come Pentecost festival in Trafalgar Square where I will be sharing the difference the Holy Spirit makes in my life.  For the ten days prior to the event we are praying for God’s kingdom to come in our communities and amongst our friends and families, and at home we are using the brilliant Thy Kingdom Come resources in our family time.