Honour for Fulham head

Tuesday January 12, 2010

When Fulham headteacher Jude Ragan received a letter embossed with the Cabinet Office emblem her immediate thought was 'What have I done wrong?'.

But in fact the message brought very good news - a date at Buckingham Palace because she had been made an OBE.

Jude, now in her fifth year at the helm of Queensmill School in Clancarty Road, one of the UK's top state schools for autistic pupils, said it had come as 'a complete surprise'.

The 61-year-old regards the honour as a testament to the hard work of the whole staff.

"Queensmill is a tremendous school which works for children with autism, and all the staff have made a positive decision to work here," she said. "We're not shrinking violets - we're proud of what we do."

She praised H&F Council for its backing of Queensmill, which has now enlarged its scope to provide secondary education in addition to teaching three to 11-year-olds.

A future move is planned in 2012 from the Victorian premises which Queensmill currently occupies to more suitable, purpose-built modern buildings on the site of the Bridge Academy in Finlay Street, Fulham.

"I think the borough has a real sense of where they want to go with special needs," she said, adding that enlargement into secondary schooling meant parents no longer had to cast around for alternatives outside the borough when their children reached 11.

With positive Ofsted reports, and wholehearted support and endorsement from the National Autistic Society, the school has 57 pupils, with the first secondary class now into its second term.

Numbers are expected to gradually rise as the older pupils move up through the school years. There are 51 staff at Queensmill, including therapists and nurses.

"It's a school where everyone understands autism, and where parents know we understand where their children's behaviour comes from," said Jude, who is married with two grown-up children of her own.

"We believe we respect and value children for what they are, not what they can't be. We teach them to manage themselves as they are inherently very anxious. We help bring that anxiety level down. We're a very happy school."

Some of the Queensmill pupils have not mastered speech, so teachers have developed other ways of communicating with them.

A move to new premises would provide calmer, less cluttered surroundings, and allow the school to develop specialised rooms for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and music therapy.

Jude, who qualified as a teacher in 1970, and lives in Chelsea, will receive her honour from The Queen within the next six months.

She describes herself as being 'driven' about autism, and confesses that her dream holiday is 'being somewhere quiet and reading eight books on the subject'.

H&F cabinet member Sarah Gore said: "This is richly deserved.

"Every time I have met Jude and visited Queensmill her commitment and dedication to the autistic children there, and to the cause of autism in general, is quite palpable, and is backed up with profound expertise in this complex subject.

"She is determined that each child shall reach his or her potential whatever their starting point.

"Jude has brought innovation to Queensmill, introducing a secondary school in addition to the primary, and has created a welcoming and caring environment at the school. We are lucky to have Jude, as well as Queensmill, in the borough."