Family Testimonials

"We are now a full year on since my first review and our son has developed so much in that time. Faisal faces every challenge standing alongside us parents; his knowledge, skill, patience, empathy and understanding has allowed our son to shed some of the past-trauma of school based education. Faisal works with all other professionals involved in our son's education and care, forming positive relationships to build and lead the team around our son. Faisal's huge creativity gets to the heart of every obstacle and empowers kids (and adults!) to start loving learning again. There will be plenty of challenges along the way but our son has a real chance to thrive with Faisal supporting him."

From Dreading English to Achieving a Grade 7 - "When we first reached out, our son was in Year 10 and completely shut off from English. He would always say how much he hated it. With his Dyslexia, ADHD and Autism, he just didn’t feel like the subject was made for him. He loved maths, physics, and computer science - the logical subjects - but English felt impossible and incredibly stressful for him. What changed everything was Faisal (SEN Manny Mentor) sitting down with him, really understanding how his brain works, and reminding him of the strengths in how he thinks. The first thing he did was go back to what our son used to enjoy - creative writing - and slowly, the pressure around the subject started to lift. Over time, the relationship grew and so did his confidence. Together they worked on his creative writing GCSE coursework, draft after draft, notes after notes, in a friendly way that felt motivating and manageable. Our son worked hard for this, constantly dedicating himself to the piece, even when the school didn’t expect much from him. When he finally submitted work, it left the English department genuinely surprised. He achieved a Grade 7 (A) in his coursework, which counted towards 40% of his final grade. From there, his belief in himself started to build. He began enjoying English again. As we approached the exam, Faisal worked consistently, every week, sometimes every day, breaking things down, building structure, creating a way of approaching questions that suited his mind. It was intense, but it was exactly what he needed. The school had predicted him a 3 for his final exam. On results day, he got a 7. It wasn’t just a win on paper. It was a turning point in how he sees himself. For any parent of a neurodivergent child who is losing confidence in school or in themselves, this kind of support is more than academic. It’s personal and fundamental."

“I really liked my time with Faisal. It was fun because we could do all sorts of things together and all the time we had fun. We played football a lot, and went outside and walked lots of different places in London. Faisal was joyful, funny, and a very fun person to be around. He was also very chill. If I didn’t want to do something, he would try, but didn’t force me to do anything. He was calm, adventurous, and liked telling stories. Faisal was considerate and very kind about any struggles I had, including my anger issues. I would recommend him 100%. He’s one of the best mannys/mentors for people with special needs that I’ve ever had."

"We hired Faisal to care for our 11 year-old son during the summer, while we were visiting London from the United States. Our son is sweet, empathic, imaginative, and funny - and has disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, ADHD, and anxiety. All of which mean that he can become dysregulated easily, and when he does, he can curse and be physically aggressive. We were introduced to Faisal in the summer of 2023 by a former co-worker of his at a school for special needs. Faisal spent several days with our son that summer, and the two of them really hit it off, so we hired Faisal again. He was with our son 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 4 weeks while we were working. They would go on long walks on the local common, play football, explore areas of London, or go see a movie. Occasionally, Faisal also took along one or two of our other sons, though usually it was just him and our 11 year-old. Faisal was kind, thoughtful, and professional. Our son had a great time with him and looked forward to hanging out each day. Faisal really worked to get to know and understand our son. He handled our son’s various social challenges with patience. Faisal was thoughtful in his approach, adapting routines to maximize the chance of a successful day. For instance, transitions are very difficult for our son, making him reluctant to leave the house. However, staying home for long stretches without much to do often leads to dysregulation. So, instead of coming in and hanging out, often Faisal would meet our son at the front door and they would head out immediately to start their adventures. Faisal was communicative with us as parents. He would let us know if there were any concerns, and give his ideas about how to best address them. He came up with good ideas about how the two of them could spend their days, and always was careful to ensure the activity was both interesting and appropriate. He was able to match our son’s energy and was willing to play the imagination games our son craves. We would definitely hire Faisal again and recommend him wholeheartedly to other families!"

"Faisal has been working with our son (12yrs) since November 2023 after first meeting him at his Specialist school ‑ sadly the placement did not succeed but we were over the moon when Faisal came to work with us independently. Our son is ASD/PDA, he is bright, funny and super kind but has various complex needs. Faisal has been instrumental in our son's development over the last year, building confidence, life skills, understanding ‑ basically he ‘gets’ him and they have huge amounts of fun. Faisal works with our son as a learning support mentor/coach and works with a number of other professionals (SALT, EP, CAMHS, OT, Tutor) to ensure that the provision set out in our son's EHCP is delivered holistically. Faisal has enormous enthusiasm, drive and dedication ‑ nothing fazes him and he is an absolute joy to be around. He is dedicated to our son's development and thinks nothing of deep diving into research to discover alternative methods of engagement that might just work for our son when everything else seems to have failed. We have a lot of hope for the future, our son would not have made such progress without Faisal's unique approach and understanding towards kids with complex needs. Thank you Faisal ‑ you're a superstar!"

"Faisal worked with our son for Y11 to prepare him for GCSEs. Asperger's, ADHD and dyslexia were all factors in our son's ability to learn and grow both academically and socially. Faisal was proactive in building teacher relationships to help calibrate their delivery of information in the classroom and also to provide additional academic support. Because Faisal was on the ground in the classroom he was able to see opportunities for working with teachers to help our son. In addition, Faisal took time to develop a professional relationship with our son such that he was comfortable with being open with Faisal about his challenges and concerns. Faisal ensured communications with us as parents, taking the time to share his experience, observations, and suggestions, enabling us as parents to deliver consistent messages and to understand how we could support our son better at home during homework and study time and also to coach him in social situations. Heading into the home stretch for GCSE exams, Faisal did not hesitate to open his schedule to allow us to book additional sessions at mutually agreed time to provide extra support for exam preparation and revision. We could not be more delighted with Faisal's tailored approaches and unreservedly recommend him and SEN Manny Mentor."

"Faisal is a joy to work with. He has such positive energy and passion for helping children. He demonstrates excellent communication skills with children, their families and professionals. Faisal has the awareness and flexibility in his approach to help meet SEN children’s changing needs. He is always keen to learn and share ideas, making our joint intervention even more effective, as we collaborate together with families towards an identified goal. I highly recommend Faisal as a SEN Manny Mentor."

"Faisal is an articulate, scrupulously polite and earnest young man. He poured himself heart and soul into the pastoral support of our students and formed positive but appropriate relationships with them. They were very sad to see him go. He was a positive male role model in their lives."

"Faisal has been an outstanding SEN Learning Mentor for our son who is in senior school - based upon our Y10 experience we unreservedly recommend him. Faisal was able to help channel Thomas's enthusiasm to learn by connecting each teacher with Thomas's needs in the classroom. This improved Thomas's engagement with learning and his academic results improved. Faisal kept in daily touch. He leveraged his SEN experience to tailor approaches which worked for Thomas's learning needs and helped us work with the school to implement them. Faisal made suggestions and engaged in dialogue with Thomas and with us to shape the best options for learning and social engagement. Faisal really got to know our son and his learning and social needs and was proactive in helping to deliver a tailored experience for Thomas which built his personal and social confidence and helped him achieve materially improved academic results."

“In the short time Faisal has been working with our ten year old son he always arrives with a smile, enthusiasm and great energy. Faisal has many ideas and strategies for engagement, taking things at our son’s pace. Our son looks forward to seeing Faisal and has risen to the challenges that he has set for him, thus building resilience and success. Faisal is ultimately led by our son in sessions which is essential in building trust and a dependable relationship. We would highly recommend Faisal to other families.”

“You have something incredibly special Faisal, it doesn’t have a name, it’s so hard to describe, but you have IT. You’re a life line for our kids, literally changing life paths for the better. Crikey we love you!!”

“Faisal offered consultation and advice on navigating systems to ensure a young person could access appropriate SEN support, while also providing life coaching to another young person I work with. He was warm, empathetic, and clearly very knowledgeable, which made it a pleasure to speak with him. His guidance was invaluable, and he created a nurturing space for the young person seeking life coaching support.”

“This changed my life. I can’t recommend Faisal enough. I was nervous going in — not just about finding out my combined ADHD diagnosis so late in life but also about whether I’d be able to articulate my concerns in a way that made sense. Many professionals in the past have struggled to follow my jumbled-up sentences, but Faisal understood me straight away. He made the consultation easy and comfortable, listening without judgment and asking questions that made me feel heard. We managed to create a tailored workflow system to support my acting preparation and other areas of my life. I could feel his passion for helping people like me throughout the whole session, and it left me feeling both understood and equipped with practical tools I can actually use. To say I left the session relieved would be an understatement.”

“SEN Manny Mentor… You are that champion! Without you, my son would not be entering his GCSE exams cycle today with the confidence or preparation he now has. Thank you does not begin to express our gratitude for your mentoring and considerable effort. This is not just a job - it’s a life’s work! Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to know more about what SEN Manny Mentor can offer.”