The Linda Carter actress opens up about her experience (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)
EastEnders actress Kellie Bright, 48, has opened up about the ‘biggest learning curve of her life’ amid her ‘fight’ for her son.
The Linda Carter star has previously spoken out about the difficulties she has faced in trying to get an Educational Health Care (EHC) assessment for her son, who has special educational needs (SEN).
In a recent episode of Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, Kellie discussed the experience, and revealed that she has learnt a lot along the way.
‘It’s so much harder because it is something you’re fighting for, for your child,’ she began. ‘And I think when you feel helpless as a parent, it’s one of the worst feelings. And for me, it was.
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‘Unless you’re in that world where you have a child that doesn’t fit into the current parameters or box that we call education, you don’t understand it, you don’t see it. Why would you? I don’t begrudge people that.
‘But when you are suddenly faced with that, which I was not expecting, I didn’t see it coming,’ she explained.
‘My experience of school was very different. I loved school. I didn’t find school challenging. So to suddenly be faced with a very different experience for my son was really… It has been the biggest learning curve of my life so far.’
Kellie went on to give her thoughts on the education system, and what she thinks needs to be done to make things easier for children and parents in the same position.
Kellie has been fighting for her son (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Kellie is a mother of three children (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
‘It’s something I feel very strongly about. I still think there is so much that needs to change. We have got to start looking at education at its core and what we’re delivering and what changes need to be made at that level, because I hate to say it, but SEN isn’t going anywhere.
‘The numbers are growing exponentially year on year, and that’s partly because you have parents now who are advocating for their children and going, “no, it’s not okay”. I’m not going to let my child go through their school life, which, let’s face it, takes up their childhood. Their whole childhood is really spent at school and they’re going to come out of it feeling like they’re rubbish at everything, that they don’t like who they are, that they have nothing to offer the world.
‘And I know I’m not alone in saying this, but I’m not prepared to do that. No way. And so, we have to find a different way. I have met some incredible people who are really fighting. They’re really fighting, trying to get changes made. But it’s going to take a lot.’
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Source:: Metro
