Antonia Hardcastle

Antonia is the Lead Occupational Therapist and CPD middle leader in a Specialist Independent school. She has a passion for developing neurodivergent affirming practice at every level of the school. Antonia completed her BSC in Occupational Therapy at Cardiff university. She started her Occupational Therapy career in a 52 week residential school for autistic children and stayed there for two years. Through her own experiences navigating the education system and then working in it as an autistic person with ADHD and Tourettes, she established her drive to promote neurodivergent affirming practice. Both in her own work and that of her colleagues. Antonia then joined Dovecote school as it first opened in September 2022 as an Occupational Therapist. Dovecote School is an Independent special school focused on delivering an integrated therapeutic curriculum to its neurodivergent students. The school has a large Autistic and PDA population and is a Thrive school of excellence. Her role has dev