Rustington mum takes on Mount Snowdon to provide autism awareness training

Claire (Front row first on right) with the rest of the incredible Mount Snowdon Team

As Founder of Waking Up To Autism CIC, Claire Krost has supported hundreds of families over the last 3 years as they try to navigate the system when it comes to gaining the right support for their Autistic children.

With 1.5million pupils in the UK being registered as having SEN (Special Educational Needs) it comes as a shock to most people to learn that teachers are not legally required to have training in SEN.

This can cause huge issues and is often the reason why so many autistic children are not able to access an education or make the academic progress that they are capable of. It also contributes to the shocking statistic that autistic children are 28 times more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide and that only 20 per cent of autistic adults are in any form of paid employment.

To try and help change the challenges that we face Claire, along with 13 other people - mainly parents of autistic children - took on the challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon as it was a symbolic experience to represent how very often parents fighting for support often feel like every day is an uphill battle.

All 14 members of the team made it to the top and are thrilled to have raised an incredible £10,000.

Currently Claire has a CPD Accredited course "Embracing Neurodivergent Pupils in The Mainstream Classroom" but to make it more accessible and to reach more people she is going to be creating an online version.

The money raised from this fundraiser will go to enabling the course to be created and then gifted free of charge to 2000 educators which will in turn impact 14000 pupils.

Claire said: "This fundraiser was so personal to me. As a mother to two autistic children, both of whom struggled in mainstream school, I have experienced first hand the difference that is made when our wonderful educators are properly trained to support children with SEN.

"More needs to be done but we are thrilled to be able to do our bit. We need to be having more and more conversations about how the system is failing this wonderful group of children and start making impactful changes.

"I am so grateful to our wonderful sponsor, Tony Cohen at NSURE Chartered Financial Planners for helping us to be able to host this event."