Review:

Dear Sir/ Madam, I am writing this letter to help you to understand the full impact that GMS has had on my 17 year old son Jaxon and subsequently our entire family. Jaxon has never liked school, from a very early age he showed anxiety, fear and sometimes even aggression at the very thought of going to school on a daily basis. As you can imagine this was very hard for him and also the family, just trying to get him there was an ordeal in itself most days. Jaxon was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD at that stage, even though we had a name it still didn’t make school and often home life any easier for him. Fast forward till 2018, and Jaxon was still struggling at school, was becoming more and more disengaged and depressed, and was shutting down, often spending days in his room, refusing to talk and go to school. We found Jaxon a new Psychiatrist who straight away, and after some lengthy sessions with Jaxon, saw that he was not ADHD, and that instead had Autism (myself and my husband had believed this all along!) and also a dual diagnosis of bi polar, both of which run in our family. It was a relief for Jaxon and for the rest of the family to finally get some answers, and things started to look more positive. This is also when Jaxon started his cert 2 through GMS, through his connect education at Alta 1. Jaxon at this stage was no longer attending mainstream schooling due to his anxiety, and was working from home with Alta 1 connect ed program and was enrolled in the Cert 2 program with GMS. He started the cert feeling very anxious and we were concerned he would regress in his behaviours and depression. But our fears did not last long! Jaxon settled in to the routines at GMS well, I believe this is entirely due to the amazing support and guidance he has received. He completed the cert 2, and was doing weekly work experience hours at GMS for Alta 1 as part of his program. Jaxon has also started to assist in supervising with the next group of students coming through to do their cert 2, and is loving the new role with the responsibilities he has been entrusted with. Jaxon has been offered a traineeship through GMS and hopes to start his cert 3 studies soon. The day he was offered the traineeship, I could see how proud and happy he was of himself, as his mum who has seen Jaxon at some very low points, and the struggles he has endured over the years I cried lots of happy tears that day! GMS has provided a safe, supportive place where Jaxon has been able to be himself, without any anxiety, a place where he has been able to succeed, where he was unable to before. He looks forward to Fridays, is up early and ready for work, this is a massive step forward, before he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for days sometimes. GMS and all the staff have been instrumental in supporting Jaxon in his path to start to recover from his negative experiences, and also provide amazing support and strategies to allow him to achieve success. As a family we couldn’t be more grateful to all the amazing staff, it’s the best feeling in the world to see our Jaxon smile and to see him feel like there is something for him to be able to achieve and succeed in. 

Kind regards Keeley Greenslade