Precede: An alternative school in Epping is helping students who have struggled at mainstream schools to re-engage with learning. For some of the students, the move to the Y Community School has been life-saving, as Prealene Khera finds out.
Most football scoreboards towering over school grounds stand at a height of about 20 feet, their LED displays diligently tracking winners and losers.
But when year six student Zane desperately clawed his way to the top of one, he didn’t need the board to illustrate what defeat looked like.
At just 11 years old, he had been told by his teachers that he’d never amount to anything.
Eventually those negligent barrages carried Zane to the edge – nearly two storeys away from death.
“I really didn’t think I was going to get this far in life back then,” Zane said, now aged 15.
Zane’s suicide attempt was brought on by his experience at a mainstream school, where according to him, he was incessantly chastised.
“It was very hard,” he said.
“I would feel like they were out to get me … they really wanted me gone.
“Ninety per cent of the time I did blame myself.”
Often after coming home from school, Zane would lock himself in his room with a recurring belief occupying his head.
“I would say to myself that it was all my fault”.
And every time it’d be followed by a chilling afterthought.
“Is it really worth it?”
Towards the end of primary school, Zane was officially diagnosed with autism, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, high anxiety, and oppositional defiant disorder.
Following the diagnosis, a behavioural plan was developed for him to allow the school to better manage Zane’s learning outcomes.
Despite this essential blueprint, his mum Rebecca Hall said, improvements were few and far.
“He pretty much struggled the whole time,” she said.
“They just didn’t have the skills to manage his behaviour or to even educate him which is really sad because every kid deserves an education whether they’ve gotten some diagnosis or not.”
Not only was the school severely unequipped to provide a healthy-learning environment for Zane, Rebecca said its approach aggravated matters.
“We eventually found out they were telling him that he would never get a job,” she said.
“He was branded the naughty kid.
“Every time he would get in trouble at school he would self harm – he used to gouge his leg with a metal ruler.”
Witnessing Zane go through those episodes was extremely gut-wrenching for Rebecca and her husband Shane.
“It was awful and we were walking on eggshells quite because we didn’t want to exacerbate it,” Rebecca said.
“We blamed ourselves a lot.
“Throughout that entire time he was showing signs of depression, and he had become quite withdrawn– it was heart-breaking.”
In the middle of year nine last year, Zane was expelled from school.
“I appealed that decision but the education department told me that the teachers were scared and intimidated by him,” Rebecca said.
“Hearing that broke my heart, my kid wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
When the school closed its doors to Zane, another live-saving one was about to swing open.
Soon after expulsion, at the advice of his psychologist, Rebecca enrolled Zane into the Y Community School in Epping.
It’s a move that has been life-changing for the Halls.
“The Y school has been an absolute godsend,” Rebecca said.
“If my son was still in a mainstream school, I guarantee he would not be here.”
Schools like the Y make an important contribution in addressing educational disadvantage by serving young people who are disengaged from mainstream education, according to a submission made by the Independent Schools Australia (ISA) into the ‘Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System Consultation Paper’.
“Students are often referred from community services, juvenile justice and other schools – both government and non-government,” the report stated.
“[These schools] have developed programs and structures designed to re-engage students in education and prepare them for further training and employment.”
Since 2014, the number of alternative schools has almost doubled and enrolments have almost tripled – as of 2022 there are 96 institutions that cater to students who don’t do well in conventional settings, the submission said.
This philosophy of ensuring no one is left behind is one the Y strongly reinforces: “All young people want to learn and do well and should have the right to achieve their full potential regardless of circumstances and the barriers that have prevented them engaging fully in education”.
As a new student, Zane carried the weight of being told he wouldn’t do anything worthwhile in his life, into the Y.
Several months later, he went to parliament with his fellow classmates to advocate for increased funding for independent schools.
According to campus principal Sarah Abbott, it’s hard to imagine Zane as anything but capable.
“Just reading his profile, looking at the previous data on him, hearing him talk about what he used to be like and how he used to behave, what he used to do – it’s a completely different person to what we’ve always seen at our school,” she said.
“[Coming here] has meant life or death for Zane.”
Ms Abbott said most of her students have had similar experiences at some point in their lives.
“Every single student has had challenges in a mainstream setting, ” she said.
“We have a number who have come to us with safety plans from their mainstream schools because of attempts of self harm.
“It’s devastating – they’ve only been looking for somewhere where they fit in.”
That feeling of not belonging, “no one should be feeling that way in the first place,” Zane said.
“For me, it finally feels like people are proud of me and that I’m not doing anything wrong.
“Before, I tried to do my best at all times but no one believed that. I’m just like other kids, I want to just be the best I can and live a good life and it feels like I finally can.”
This has been one of Rebecca’s biggest fights — ensuring her son was in a safe and supported environment.
But she never doubted his abilities.
“He was never naughty, he was just misunderstood,” she said.
If you or anyone you know is in need of support, contact Lifeline 13 11 14.
