Today will be one of the biggest in the life of young Charlie Hemmings as he starts life at big school.

It is a day mum Donna Britten believes would not have happened if it had not been for the help she received from Devizes Opportunity Centre.

Ms Britten, of Eastleigh Road, Devizes, is delighted Charlie, four, will be going to Wansdyke Primary.

He only secured his place in the school’s special unit late in July after the centre helped get a statement of special needs from Wiltshire Council.

Ms Britten said: “I couldn’t have done it without them. They did everything really. I don’t know where Charlie might have ended up otherwise. He couldn’t cope in an ordinary classroom with 30 children.”

Charlie was diagnosed with autism in March 2013 three months after he started at the opportunity centre, which is being supported by the Gazette’s Give Us A Chance appeal.

Ms Britten, 42, and her partner Graham Hemmings, 47, also have an older son Jayden, five, who goes to Nursteed Primary. He has recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

Ms Britten said: “On Charlie’s last day at the opportunity centre the manager Betty Newman said to me ‘we are giving you back a different child.’ She was so right – he has changed so much in the 18 months he was at the centre.

“When he went there he only had about five words and now he has about 205. He is very bright in lots of ways and is very good with numbers and letters. I hope one day he might move into a mainstream classroom but he is not ready yet.”

Charlie hates any change to his routine and if his mum takes him shopping she has to go down every aisle or he will scream.

She said: “The other day I just rushed into Morrisons quickly to get some bread and forgot to go down all the aisles and it was terrible. Everyone was staring at me like I was a bad mother.”

Ms Britten, who used to work in Morrisons, and her partner, who is a metal fabricator, have been taught techniques to keep Charlie calm and they are confident the specialist staff at Wansdyke will be able to help him to continue his improvement.