Your voice 5 - 11

Wiltshire Centre For Independent Living (opens new window) talked to a group of 12 young people with special educational needs and disabilities about what information they would find useful about a school/college in order to help them prepare to go there, they said:

We want to find out about a school/college through:

• a video showing the school grounds.
• who the teachers are and some of the students - with a voice over from the teachers and students.
• a page of written information which includes pictures of the school and accounts from students.
• pictures of the staff, the school/college.
• hearing from students about what the school is like - videos.
• hearing from the head teacher and other teachers about the school in videos.

What we want to know about a school/college:

• how am I going to get there - taxi, bus?
• what will I wear - what will my uniform look like?
• what are the teachers and students like?
• what is for lunch - what is the food like, do I need a lunch box?
• what will my school day look like - is there an example of a timetable?
• who will my tutor be, who are the teachers?
• who will be in my class, how big is my class?
• what will I do if there are any changes - who will tell me?
• where is the school - how far away?
• do I need to have PE clothes?
• can I bring snacks?
• do I have to bring a bag?
• what time does school/college start and finish?
• who will show me around my new school/college?

The Salisbury Area Board Carers Champion and Disability Action Group Salisbury received permission from the Head at Exeter House School to invite the students to design a poster for them advertising the All Inclusive Showcase event being held in Salisbury on 9 May.

They provided the school with some logos, the date, time and venue and wanted the competition to provide a piece of work that would be able to be made into a poster/leaflet advertising the event.

Helen Dowse - Carers Champion, Kez Adey - Disability Campaigner and Anne Trevett - Chair of Safer and Supportive Salisbury were invited to the Exeter House Vocational Centre to judge the winning design.

They visited three slightly different age groups where all the students showed us their posters. 

We were truly blown away by all the fabulous pictures saw.  It was very hard to choose a winner!

The winner was presented with a prize by Helen Dowse and all the students also received a small gift in appreciation of their participation.

Here is a picture of the judges with the entries.

Silverwood school, host to some of the BBC's young reporter competition winners in the West, is about to have a multi-million pound redevelopment.

There will be lots of big changes, including new classrooms, and more teachers and support staff. This means even more young people who have a disability, or special educational needs, will be able to join the school's special community.

Some of the pupils gave a report about their school to the BBC as part of the Young Reporter Award. Newsround also released some coverage from the students. See these here:

Watch: Silverwood Young Reporters (opens new window)

Watch: Silverwood School Newsround update (opens new window)

Published: December 2022

Wiltshire Together

The digital platform that connects people, groups and organisations in Wiltshire to their community. You can list support, volunteering, groups and relevant events.

Wiltshire Together (opens new window) 

Our Community Matters

Local interactive notice boards which everyone can use to highlight and discuss local news events and ideas

Our Community Matters (opens new window) 

Advocacy - Someone on your side

You have as much right as an adult to be listened to when decisions are being made about your life. What you feel and want is very important.

What an advocate does:

• Listens to you
• Explains information
• Finds out your wishes and feeling
• Helps you tell others what you want or tells them for you, if you want the advocate to do this
• Gets answers to your questions
• Won't tell you what to do
• Is independent which means they won't make any decisions about or for you

For more information on the advocacy service for Wiltshire please visit their website:

Young Person's Advocacy (opens new window)

Ways to have a voice in changing and improving services in Wiltshire

There are many people you can talk to and organisations that can help you take part in shaping services to suit your needs. There is a page you can visit dedicated to this:

Getting involved

This includes organisations like Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (opens new window), Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living (opens new window) and Healthwatch Wiltshire (opens new window).

Wiltshire Council is dedicated to using consultation and co-creation to produce a people-centred approach to make progress. To find out where Wiltshire SEND community members have been agents of change please read our continually updated summary.

For more information please visit:

You Said, We Did