Listen to my story on Sunday at 1.30pm on BBC Radio 4. 

Can you work out what I said that made Hardeep cry, and what I said to make him laugh?

Listen on Radio 4

 

 

Baking is my favourite pastime, even though I cannot eat because I am tube fed.  Why? All my life people have done things for me; by baking I can make others happy and nothing gives me greater pleasure.

Baking Beauty

Filling, beating, stirring, pouring,

Baking beauty life restoring,

Dripping goodness love in sharing,

Aromatic health repairing,

Pleasant parcels held with pleasure,

Tantalising tastes to treasure.

Recently I was invited to join my primary school class for the week long residential at Oxenwood Outdoor Educational Centre.  With an itinerary including climbing wall, canoeing and mountain biking I was concerned about how included I would be.  I need not have worried, as the centre staff and my mother went above and beyond to ensure I was given every opportunity to experience all activities.  Memories of being excluded the year before evaporated, making way for new.

With a can-do attitude anything is possible combined with the belief that special needs children are worth the extra effort. Half the battle is won in the mind and the other is triumphed with an adaptable and flexible approach to the practicalities as proven by the staff at Oxenwood.

Being included makes me feel loved and part of the team as opposed to different and lonely. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to experience life in all its fullness.

This is my poem on the residential.

Residential Poem

 

Activities adapted,

Inclusion at their heart,

Tidal waves of belief,

Esteem growing with my part.

 

Escaped on bikes; elated,

Hair ruffled in the breeze,

Views absorbed; time stands still,

Free-wheeling downhill with ease.

 

Friends clapping cheering chanting,

I’m rising to the sky,

Pulling me to freedom,

My ovation soaring high.

 

Dogged determination,

Proud member of Rhine class,

Great team forged with laughter,

Fantastic friendships last!

© Jonathan Bryan

During the holidays I had a wonderful time.  Frolicking sisters and a coasting daddy made for an entertaining display, freedom to be ourselves was the most wonderful fun.

 

H appiness emerging excitement growing,

O ceans of dancing waves lovingly flowing,

L aughter like singing birds heard in the morning,

I rresistable ice-cream noon-time yawning,

D addy filling our heads with figures and facts,

A way we’re escaping down unexplored tracks,

Y early adventures treasured deep in our hearts,

S adness its over til the next one starts.

© Jonathan Bryan

 

Click here to read my recount of the summer

Quickly the summer passes like a long-awaited train puffing through the corn fields; enraptured in the moment we jump and clap with joy, happiness enveloping our souls. Making the most of each weeklong carriage is always challenging, but to help us we all write or draw our hopes for the summer holidays on a large piece of paper.

This summer I would like to:

Read and write poetry

Make a cake

Bake new things

Visit my grandparents and cousins

Meet my oldest friends

Help my best friend learn to read

Going on holiday with my sisters, parents and godfather will be the highlight.

Whatever your holiday involves I pray you are blessed.

Excited to be appearing on The One Show tonight – BBC 1 7pm.  Here is a poem I was writing on the day that they came to film.

 

Teach Us Too Tanka

 

Motionless caged birds

dank winter everlasting

stop! When will this end?

life giving spring erupting

calling flocks hovering high

 

© Jonathan Bryan

 

#TeachUsToo

@BBCTheOneShow

 

 

Overwhelmed by the beautiful comments I have received, I want to thank you for getting my message out – that children like me need to be taught to read and write.

Please continue to share my petition and make a difference to children still locked in and not being taught.

#TeachUsToo

 

 

BBC Points West – 29th June 2016