Julia’s Story
“I had always loved school – I loved to learn, performed well at school, had friends and due to issues at home, school was my refuge in many ways. Despite this though, it all came crashing down with a harshness I was unprepared for. At the age of 13, due to a traumatic incident at home relating to a family member’s mental health, I was diagnosed with PTSD.
As part of this, I began to struggle with being around a large amount of people – I suddenly felt like the littlest fish in the biggest pond and due to these experiences I would have frequent panic attacks and would struggle many days to go in. When I could manage to go in, my school’s approach? Shut me away on my own in the student resource centre. No lessons. Work rarely sent to me by teachers. However, there were more consequences to this than just damaging my education – teenagers talk.
My “absence” from classes and being shut away had people spreading rumours that I was crazy, that I would hurt people, hurt myself. By the time efforts were made to actually re-integrate me it was out of control, not just whispers but people trying to bait me for responses – stealing my scissors so I “wouldn’t hurt anyone”, pushing me down the stairs, saying the most horrible things. It got so bad I left that school, but I was unfortunate enough to end up somewhere a cousin of someone from my previous school went, and so it followed me like a dark storm I couldn’t escape. I can still remember teachers at both schools denying anything was happening just to save the school reputation and telling me that I had no prospects. After this, I stopped going to school completely. In losing school as my refuge and home as unstable as it was I felt trapped.
I spent the best part of two school years out of education before I found Red Balloon. I started at Red Balloon at the end of year 10, terrified for my future and convinced I would end up as nothing. Instead, they showed me something I hadn’t seen before. True compassion.
They took the broken pieces of me and didn’t try to fix it for me, but helped me realise I could do that myself. There are no divisions between staff and student, it’s a truly collaborative environment for education and growth and, as corny as it sounds – it was like a family.
In just under a year I worked hard to throw myself in to learning, desperate to prove to myself and to all the people that had put me down that I was worth something now I had a safe space to learn.
In my year at Red Balloon, I secured six GCSEs and secured a place at the local sixth form college. I did my A-Levels, went to University and successfully graduated with a degree in Psychology. With every milestone and every achievement I could feel my teenage self crying with joy and disbelief every time.
I left Red Balloon 16 years ago. I now work as a project manager, and I’m currently helping to shape the delivery of a brand new children’s hospital. When I look back on my journey I am SO proud of everything that I’ve achieved and to be honest, if you told 15 year old me where I am today I would have probably laughed in your face.
As an adult I reflect that even now everyone at Red Balloon remains so humble about what they do. It’s never “look what you accomplished because of us”, it’s always been “look what you’ve achieved!” I might have worked hard, faced many a challenge since but even now I still look back and remember Red Balloon, and honestly I don’t know if I would be here in this world without them. They not only saved my education, they truly saw me and saved me when I think everyone (including myself) had sworn me off.
How You Can Help
Experiences like Julia’s are still happening today. Our current climate means that even the best schools simply do not have the resources needed to support all the young people who come through their doors, no matter how hard they try. This means some young people fall through the cracks and find they have nowhere left to turn. When mainstream school is no longer an option, Red Balloon can be the lifeline they need.
Can you help by donating to Red Balloon Educational Trust this Christmas?
