Amy was born in 2000, a beautiful baby boy, who we called Jamie. At 15. Jamie had ASD traits and was able to tell me that he was, in fact, transgender and from then on I must call her Amy and refer to her in female pronouns.

Amy was born in 2000, a beautiful baby boy, who we called Jamie. Jamie was a quiet child and very shy. He found primary school difficult, not really speaking to his teachers, and only making a few friends. During this time, he refused to have his long, blond hair cut, joined the school netball team and was always the female character in any role play or computer game. I worked at his primary school and although he ignored me too, he was an able child, reading very early and did very well at SATs.

At 15, Jamie was able to tell me that he was, in fact, transgender and from then on I have called her Amy and refer to her in female pronouns. She also has ASD traits, anxiety and rarely ventures outside.

I was able to home school Amy so that she passed her English and Maths GCSEs but these were the only two she took, as she never returned to school. We managed to get her an EHCP and tried to get her into college over two years, but each time the placement failed, as her anxiety was too extreme. She is a very intelligent young woman, and I really wanted her to fulfil her potential.

Nisai is helping her to do this. I found out about Nisai through my work as an NVR practitioner, and although I had to constantly push the local authority for the funding, Amy is managing to do IGCSE combined Science and Psychology.

She is able to organise herself and is motivated to study as Nisai provides her with a secure, understanding support network, and although occasionally she logs on late or is sometimes too exhausted to log on, this, to us, has been a huge success so far.