Ben Breeden (now 23) was one of only six pupils who walked through the school gates when Calder House opened back in 1995. This term, having recently graduated with an upper second in philosophy from Cardiff University, Ben has come back to school to spend 12 weeks working as a classroom assistant before returning to university to continue his studies. Since Ben was last here, Calder House has grown from 6 to 40 pupils. Much has changed but, according to Ben, much has stayed the same.

“There are a lot more children and the school itself is much bigger but it still feels the same – it’s the same school I remember,” he explains. “Before I came to Calder House I was pretty miserable at school. There was no way teachers understood my dyslexia and they couldn’t give me the specialist help I needed. Then I came to Calder House and that all changed. The two years I spent here passed really quickly but when it was time for me to leave I felt able to do anything. All my old confidence and self-belief had returned.

My early experience of school squashed my confidence out of me. Calder House gave that back to me. I stopped being afraid about asking questions and stopped worrying about getting things wrong. That’s a huge part of my general attitude today and the way I do things. And it’s something I learned at Calder House.

Everyone at Calder House is delighted to see Ben and we’re terribly proud of the academic success he has gone on to achieve. Ben will be going back to university in September to start a graduate conversion course in Psychology and plans to undertake a PhD in Clinical Psychology. We look forward to hearing how he gets on and hope he will come back and see us again soon!