Dive into Divergence

Dive into Divergence | Raising attainment for neurodivergent learners, by design

When I open my notes, I don’t even know where to start. The words look crowded and the lines slide into one another. By the time I finish a sentence, I can’t remember the start of it. So I read it again, and again, but the words don’t mean anything.

I’m falling asleep by lunchtime, even though it’s my favourite subject, and I worry what people are thinking. Every page has cost me twice as much effort to read, but the words still mean nothing. It is not that I cannot learn.

The page was never built for the way I read.

I cannot change how my brain works, but simple changes can make a huge difference to how I process information. When there are fewer barriers, I am more likely to succeed.

I can be exceptional.

Hard to read. It did not have to be.

Raising attainment for neurodivergent learners, by design. Scroll, and it clears Press Esc to skip the opening, any time.Use Skip the opening, any time.

It was never the learner. It was the design.

Dive into Divergence is an independent consultancy focused on raising attainment for neurodivergent learners, through changes that benefit everyone. I work with schools, colleges, universities, independent training providers and non-formal educational organisations across the UK to design more inclusive ways of working that reduce barriers to learning.

I offer strategic advice, staff CPD, workshops for learners and ready-made e-learning. However we work together, the aim is empowerment: practical approaches shaped to your setting, that build confidence, capacity, understanding, empathy and compassion in you, your colleagues and your learners.

Let’sdobetter.

Who the numbers leave out.

These figures show what has been counted. They do not show the people who were never identified, among them many girls, many people with ADHD, and many diagnosed later in life.

See the wider picture Published findings on work, health and wellbeing, shown as two groups of 100 people. Explore the findings
299,445

Pupils with additional support needs in Scottish schools in 2025.

Pupil census supplementary statistics 2025, table 1.5a, gov.scot
41,285

pupils with autism and 39,036 with dyslexia in Scottish schools

Pupil census 2025, table 1.8, gov.scot
~1 in 5

people estimated to be neurodivergent across the population.

CIPD Neuroinclusion at work 2024, p.2
almost 3×

as likely to leave school without a positive destination

School leaver destinations 2024–25, gov.scot

This is who this work is for, counted or not.

Sources: Scottish Government Pupil census supplementary statistics 2025; Scottish Government Pupil census 2025, table 1.8; Scottish Government 2024–25 school leaver destinations; Thompson, E. and Miller, J. (2024) Neuroinclusion at work report 2024, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London, p.2. Recorded identification and population-prevalence estimates are different measures, so the figures above illustrate an identification gap rather than an exact subtraction.

Notes on these figures

ASN covers all additional support needs, of which neurodivergence is one substantial part. Recorded identification (for example autism 41,285, dyslexia 39,036) and population-prevalence estimates are different measures, so the figures above illustrate an identification gap rather than an exact subtraction. Published prevalence estimates run from about 15% to 20%, so one in five sits at the upper end of the range. Destinations figures relate to mainstream-school leavers; including special schools the gap is wider.

How I can help

The destinations gapNarrow the positive-destination and attainment gap for learners with additional support needs, tracked in Insight against national and virtual-comparator averages.
Attainment by SCQF levelLift pass and progression rates for neurodivergent cohorts at each SCQF level, measured separately from whole-cohort figures.
Accessibility, evidencedKnow where your curriculum and digital provision actually stand against WCAG 2.2 AA and the Equality Act 2010, and fix what a review finds.
Staff confidenceMeasurable shifts in staff confidence and capability, before and after targeted, evidence-based CPD.
Working to: WCAG 2.2 AAEquality Act 2010Universal Design for LearningRegion-specific Professional Standards for educators

Ready-made resources

  • A suite of professional learning products I have developed personally, on a range of key themes and topics.
  • Resources for both staff and learners, to help build a shared language.
  • Available under licence in a range of ways, including hosted on your own VLE with your own branding.
Get in touch to discuss your needs

Learning Access Toolkit

Narrated, playable, self-paced

Videos, reading and game-based scenarios on common barriers to learning, at your own pace.

Practical, adaptable strategies that staff and learners shape together.

Designed around neurodivergence, with changes made for the whole class.

Open the Learning Access Toolkit

Meta-skills Journal

Make meta-skills visible

  • Suitable for learners in school, college, university, apprenticeships, workplace training and development, employability upskilling and lifelong learning. It uses the twelve meta-skills from Skills Development Scotland, in a web browser or the dedicated smartphone app.
  • Learners document their learning in their own words, add photos and pictures, and tag the meta-skills they used.
  • Aligned with the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). Learners can find the level that best matches their skills, and track progress across contexts even if their journey takes them through school, further study and work.
  • Learners can export their reflections, pictures and self-evaluations to share with you or anyone else, as evidence for formal learning, a CV or CPD.
Ask about licensing
Meta-skills Journal, by No Loose Threads

Inside the Meta-skills Journal

Learners write about something they did and choose the meta-skills they used. Each of the twelve meta-skills has its own question, explanation and prompts, written for the stage the learner chooses: primary, secondary or tertiary. From secondary school onwards, self-evaluation uses statements aligned with the SCQF, and saved choices are shown over time.

  • The Home screen. It asks, What did you learn?, with an Add reflection button above the three meta-skill groups.
    Home: start a reflection from a prompt.
  • Explore, showing Focusing in the Self-management group, with its question: What helps you concentrate on a task?
    Explore: each meta-skill, its question and what it involves.
  • A saved reflection titled Looking back over two years, tagged Leading and Sense making.
    Reflections: the learner’s own writing, tagged by meta-skill.
  • A chart of saved self-evaluations across the twelve meta-skills, with earlier self-evaluations shown as fainter outlines.
    Over time: saved self-evaluations, with earlier ones shown faintly.

The screens show a fictional example profile.

Two ways to use it

Hosted by No Loose Threads Ltd

Use the Meta-skills Journal as it is, hosted and delivered for you.

Licensed for your organisation

Integrated within your own branding and your VLE.

Ask about the Meta-skills Journal
Steven Ramage, in black and white, head and shoulders, wearing a dark polo shirt and looking straight at the camera.
Steven Ramage

I’ve been on both sides.

I have spent my career in Scottish tertiary education, in the classroom and in quality enhancement. I design curriculum, qualifications and learning, and I lead the projects and quality processes that sit behind them. My route here came through the creative industries, where I worked my way from an HND in photography through to an MLitt in fine art practice, and spent twenty years in creative practice. I am a qualified further education lecturer, registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I also hold PRINCE2 (Foundation) and CMI qualifications.

I have also been on the other side of the desk. For a long time I was an undiagnosed young person with ADHD and mental health difficulties, trying to find stability and a sense of belonging, and very little about the way things were set up made that easier. The diagnosis came later in life.

Much of that work has involved supporting learners with additional support needs, often undiagnosed or unrecognised, in the classroom and out. Working in this sector is no coincidence: my own college experience is the catalyst for everything that has come since. Dive into Divergence is where the two halves meet: the professional who knows how the system works, and the person who knows what it costs when it does not.

Helping education to work for the mind in front of it.

Tell me what you are trying to change, and who it affects. You do not need a brief or a budget, and you do not need to know yet which service fits. The first reply is a straight answer as to whether I am the right person to help.

Email me

Or write directly: contact@diveintodivergence.co.uk