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Two Photographs, Eight Years Apart

2026-01-21

Two photographs. Eight years apart. In 2018, in Essex, our son was seven. School was hard. I don’t like the word excluded … it suggests a single moment. This was quieter than that. He simply wasn’t included. He was on th

Two photographs. Eight years apart. In 2018, in Essex, our son was seven. School was hard. I don’t like the word excluded … it suggests a single moment. This was quieter than that. He simply wasn’t included. He was on the SEN register, complex, brilliant, overwhelming for a newly-qualified teacher. Later came an autism diagnosis. Eventually came a decision that changed everything: we moved our family across the country so he could attend a special school in Devon. Fast-forward to early 2026. He’s fourteen now. Thriving. Confident. Happy. We are immensely proud of him … as we always have been. But 2018 was a very hard year. He was welcome at school for two hours a day. 9am to 11am. At 11am I collected him, every day, and the rest of the world carried on without us. At first, we filled the time gently: countryside walks, trips to Subway, taking things apart and putting them back together again … electronics were his language. But reality eventually arrived, as it always does. I had to work. So he came with me. We gave him a uniform. We gave him purpose. We made him part of the day. Sitting on the floor of an empty escape-room unit in Chelmsford, we started drawing together. That’s wh…

Topics: FamilyEscape roomsEscape room franchiseReflection

Matthew Eaves — escape room franchise founder, operator, and writer. Also: franchise, posts, contact.