I first went to playschool when I was three and it was looking as though I would have to leave, because they couldn’t cope with me. I was having problems. I was just crying and screamed the whole place down for about a fortnight but they did have another assistant and because she could offer me the one to one attention I needed I was allowed to stay. It was all right.

 

And then my first day at infant school I didn’t want to go and my sister had to drag me there, you know. And that was, I had some really nice teachers there. They sort of, they made observations that I did have problems, you know, and they sort of dealt with me in a really good way because even then it wasn’t really known, Asperger's Syndrome. But as I say the headmistress was a bit of a strange woman. I don’t think anybody liked her, was scared of her. I was scared of her and she didn’t really understand me. You know there were times when, one time I wouldn’t put me hands together or close me eyes in the hall and then she made everybody, she made me do it in front of everybody and it wasn’t very nice. And then there was one time when, if you were a server for the food, you had to eat all of your food, regardless of whether you liked it or not, that sort of thing. And – I think she mentioned to my mum – autism and I also had to go to her for writing lessons. I was really scared of it.

 

The junior school was a lot better. In fact I had some really good times there and I really enjoyed it. But I remember one of the, one of my teachers in the infants said to my mum, “She is going to have to cut the apron strings. Otherwise she won’t cope with junior school.” So they were really, you know, dealt with me really well. 

 

The bullying sort of started really in the high school. You know I was bullied quite a bit because I was different but I had a really good best friend who used to stick up for myself you know, so I some how survived it.