RISE With Me cards
A card-based way to build more positive experiences at school.
These have been co-created by neurodivergent young people and professionals: they capture many of our experiences, and key questions to help you plan the best ways forward.
Solution-focused support in your hands.
Why RISE With Me cards?
As a product that’s been co-created by autistic young people and professionals, all the content is shaped by lived experiences.
We know first-hand that finding the words to express what we’re feeling can be hard. And that education staff want to make things better, but don’t always know how.
These cards support young people and adults to:
- notice barriers sooner,
- name and understand their experiences,
- explore solutions together, and
- create an action plan that reflects the young person’s needs and identifies the most effective ways forward.
Meeting expectations
We know suppressing internal experiences to meet expectations, show up and keep up, impacts on wellbeing, identity, the ability to learn and — eventually — the capacity to function.
For young people
We want young people to have the tools to recognise and communicate their feelings, build self-advocacy skills and to know their voices are central to plans that affect them.
For educators & professionals
We want educators and professionals to have practical solutions to identifying and meeting needs, so that all young people feel supported and can flourish.
RISE With Me cards support schools to meet the 7 Principles of Inclusion.
Each scenario offers insights into how it’s experienced and the impact it can have, with three conversation prompts for exploring solutions.
45 RISE With ME cards:
✓ Reflect the experiences and needs of neurodivergent young people.
✓ Are accessibly designed.
✓ Are easy to understand and open conversations.
✓ Can be useful to any young person facing barriers at school.
Pre-order your deck ready for September term.
“This card just helped me explain loads of stuff about me, it definitely helped. I never realised I actually struggled with the corridor — and I do.”
~ Student
Who are these cards for?
Young people who are finding aspects of school life hard, and adults they can talk openly to.
Any adult who supports young people will find these useful — a parent, carer, SENCO tutor, pastoral lead, counsellor, mentor, teaching assistant, CAMHS or another practitioner.
The cards capture a lot of common neurodivergent experiences, but RISE With Me can be useful to any young person facing barriers at school: many of these experiences aren’t unique to neurodivergent young people.
And whilst it’s not a diagnostic tool, what is learned about a young person’s experiences builds a picture about them that can be useful evidence for:
- enlisting appropriate external support.
- recognising alignment with certain profiles.
- requesting a diagnostic assessment.
- applying for exam access arrangements.
“Even though I’ve worked with this learner for a while, things came to light that gave me a bit more of an insight into how she could be feeling on a day-to-day basis. I sat there thinking, ‘I wish I’d known that.’”
~ Teaching Assistant
Different ways you can use the cards
On a table
Sorting on a table is the simplest start. What stands out? What doesn’t? Group them by relevance to individual experiences.
Washing line
Arrange cards in a line — these might be what stands out most, or they could sit along a continuum of ‘most’ to ‘least’ relevant.
Around the room
Use the space you have to group cards in different places around the room. This can help separate each category of experiences.
Meet the creators
As well as all our RISE Leaders, and the WayMakers team, we are so grateful for the input of our two student interns — Kit and Toby — and the various young people, parents and professionals who took part in the ‘test phase’ with our prototype. Thank you all!
RISE Workshops
Why not discover more about more about our interactive staff workshop delivered by our RISE Leaders.
We are grateful for the kind support of
Our partners
