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"The school is an inclusive and welcoming environment where pupils are well supported to strengthen their learning and well-being." Ofsted 2018
What is Lambeth Autism Advisory Service? | Supporting Learning at Home | Measuring Progress and Assessment | Inclusion Across the School |
What Parents can expect from us | Admissions | Transition to Allen Edwards Resource Base | Additional Information and Support for Parents and Carers | Support for Parents
Specialist Support | Speech & Language | Music Therapy | Art Therapy | Occupational Therapy |
Educational Psychologist |
Autism Resource Base
Aims
At Allen Edwards’ Autism Resource Base, we strive to provide an environment where children and their families feel safe, welcome and supported. We aim to provide a calm, safe, secure, positive and caring environment where everyone is valued and respected equally. Our aim is to provide an inclusive education, which develops and encourages good social skills, a respect for self and others, an environment that promotes independence in everyday life.
We aim to enable every child to become the very best they can be by nurturing and encouraging their individual strengths and interests, whilst giving them opportunities to learn new and exciting things in a safe and secure learning environment. Pupils are supported to develop and use strategies that help them to overcome and cope with challenges they are faced with, developing them into resilient young learners. The school focuses on a holistic approach to learning that encourages parents, school staff and other professionals to work together to help develop each individual.
Allen Edwards Resource Base offers an adapted school provision to allow our pupils to thrive. We currently have 3 classrooms. In each classroom, there are 8 children, who are supported by one class teacher and at least 3 support staff to enable us to create a classroom environment that supports the success of our pupils.
Our Classrooms
Base 1:
Teacher: Mr Verga
Support Staff: Ms Fatima, Ms Laura, Ms Visare and Ms Rennish
Base 2:
Teacher: Ms Amoah
Support Staff: Mr Michael, Ms Evelyn and Ms Ana
Base 3:
Teacher: Ms Grosskopf
Support Staff: Ms Maria, Mr Dylan, Ms Sophie, Ms Jennifer, Ms Georgia (part-time) and Mr Dominic (part-time).
Curriculum
The tailored curriculum within the resource base is broad and balanced whilst being individualised to meet the specific needs of the pupils. Through careful baselining and regular observations, the needs of the pupils are identified and taken account when designing the curriculum to ensure the developmental, sensory and regulation needs of the children are met. Learning in meaningful and engaging ways, is of paramount importance in the classroom. We endeavour to ensure that the children are learning in an environment that encourages them to learn through play, with practical hands on activities set against familiar contexts or individual interests. This is alongside more formal learning in some classrooms and where appropriate for the child. This ensures learning is meaningful as well as embedded so that pupils are prepared for their future.
For us, it is paramount that our curriculum focuses on developing the key skills of communication, cognition, independence, physical development and self-care. Developing the children’s communication, language and emotional understanding to promote positive social skills is a key priority in Allen Edwards’ Resource Base. This plays a vital role in helping the children develop friendships as well as positive interactions, confidence, self-assurance and self-esteem. Giving the children the tools they need to communicate effectively in a range of environments to prepare them for their future success. We recognise that where children are accessing more formal learning, they require adapted delivery and environments to allow them to be able to access the demands of the learning task and make progress.
The delivery of the curriculum is adapted and broken down into manageable chunks to meet the needs of our learners and allow them to access a range of exciting learning to prepare them for their futures. Communication, interaction and preparation for the future is paramount to all learning opportunities and is considered in all lessons that the children access.
Our Curriculum, taught by experienced teachers and support staff, ensures that every pupil makes progress at their own pace from their starting points. All children have Educational, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and each child has yearly goals that are directly related to the Curriculum and/or their EHCP outcomes.
Our Curriculum offers different learning journeys from EYFS-Y6, which are differentiated to meet the specific needs of that cohort. Learning journeys cover all core curriculum subjects at an appropriate level and provide a wide range of activities that enhance the children’s learning opportunities and experiences. Content is drawn from the Early Years framework, Pre Key Stage Standards and the National Curriculum, teacher’s professional judgements and our own termly units are developed to suit the specific needs, interests and levels of ability of our children. We pride ourselves on creating a continually adapting curriculum that is flexible and meets the needs of the children as they develop ensuring that it is personalised for each child.
As a result of this, children are grouped in classrooms to allow them to access a curriculum that meets their needs and allows them to thrive.
Stage 1:
Engagement
Children following the Engagement pathway will be working below subject specific learning and will learn through the using the Engagement Model approach.
This focuses on 5 areas:
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EXPLORATION
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REALISATION
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ANTICIPATION
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PERSISTENCE
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INITIATION
As well as developing skills to promote their communication and life skills, the curriculum is experienced through multi-sensory approaches where learning activities / stimuli will be presented to the children to explore and develop their learning.
Stage 2:
Pre-Formal
Children may experience significant and multiple barriers to learning. These include sensory needs, communication difficulties and behaviours that challenge the child to engage with learning. Learning must be personalised and meaningful with an emphasis on engaging them. They will usually be working towards and within Pre-Key Stage Standard. Activities will predominantly be multi-sensory and through play-based learning. We will still focus on using the Engagement philosophy to support learning:
EXPLORATION – REALISATION – ANTICPATION – PERSISTENCE – INITIATION.
Stage 3:
Semi-Formal
Children are able to develop and more consistently access subject specific learning.
They have a preferred / consistent modality of communication.
They may have sensory, behavioural and learning difficulties that present as barriers to learning and need adaptation within the classroom and environment to ensure that they do not impact on the child’s ability to access the curriculum. They will usually be working within Pre Key Stage Standards 2-4.
Stage 4:
Formal
Children are beginning to or engaging more confidently in subject specific study. They can communicate more fluently and some may access a modified mainstream environment where appropriate.
They have learning needs that impact on their retention, attention and understanding as well as experiencing some or all barriers to learning from social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Children accessing a formal curriculum will usually be working within the National Curriculum at least one key stage below their age group.
Children may be accessing learning across two areas of the journey based on their individual needs and we adapt the classroom to ensure that the learning environment meets their individual needs and learning styles.
The curriculum is growing as the resource base expands. Our recent expansion plans agreed by the local authority have allowed us to split the children into two phases based on their age, starting points and learning needs. As a result of this, we have created a three-year rolling curriculum.
This has been planned with the children’s interests at the heart of it to support a life-long love of learning and will be adapted for the child in a personalised manner to meet their needs and support them with their EHCP outcomes. We recognise that all learning must be highly stimulating and fun to engage the pupils at all times. We want to nurture positive learning attitudes at all points and respond to the children’s reactions to tasks and themes, which is why we designed our curriculum with our individual children in mind.
We know that our children need different opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills and embed skills and knowledge that they have already been exposed to. Therefore, in most instances, the themes/ cross curricular units build upon the previous to enable long-term retention of knowledge and skills through regular opportunities for repetition and generalisation across contexts.
Below are the themes that children will access in their time in Allen Edwards Resource Base:
Base 1
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Term 5
Term 6
1
Who am I?
2
3
Toys
Dinosaurs
My Body
Fairy Tales
Fire
People who help us in our community
Space
Pets
My body and how I look after it
The Seasons: Spring and Summer
The Seasons: Autumn and Winter
Where we live
Kings and Queens
Under the Sea
I am growing up!
Plants and Growing
Let's Play - games from around the world
Base 2 and 3
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Term 5
Term 6
1
Who am I?
2
3
Robots
Dinosaurs
When I Grow Up
Traditional Tales
Great Fire of London
Important People
Space Travel
Wild Things - animals around the world
Keeping Myself Safe and Healthy
Caring for Our World
Wonderful Weather
Where we live
Kings and Queens
Under the Sea
I am growing up!
Plants and Growing
Let's Play - games from around the world
Specialist Support to Develop Access to the Curriculum
We recognise that the children within the resource base often need more support to access the curriculum so we provide a full therapeutic offer to compliment, enhance and extend learning in a multi-sensory manner. We know the importance of working with a range of professionals and families to get the most out of the children we work with.
In school, the children have access to:
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Weekly Music Therapy with our trained music therapist, Catherine Price.
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Weekly Speech and Language Therapy sessions, staff training and target reviews with our SALT, Demi Rosen, that feed into our daily speech and language sessions in small groups led by trained adults within the resource base.
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Weekly Art Therapy sessions with Art4Space.
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Educational Psychologist training and support for children, staff and parents.
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Lambeth Autism Advisory Service teacher, Edyta Zjawiony.
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Occupational Therapy.
What is Speech and Language Therapy?
Speech and language therapy supports children to communicate whilst supporting them to develop their speech and language skills. Our speech and language therapists (SALT) work alongside our staff delivering training, assessing children’s needs, developing targets and supporting interventions as well as 121 or small group support with the children on their caseload. They will also work closely with parents providing drop-in sessions, targets and advice where needed. Our Speech and Language offer comes from Words First, who are in the resource base for 1.5 days a week.
In the resource base and across the school, our SALT helps with a range of different speech and language needs:
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Understanding: using and understanding language in social situations.
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Verbal skills: understanding and using spoken language.
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Non-verbal skills: communicating using signs and gestures, body language, turn-taking.
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Expressive skills: getting a message across, verbally or non-verbally.
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Comprehension or receptive skills: understanding of spoken language and sign.
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Voice skills: controlling volume, quality and pitch.
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Speech: pronouncing sounds and words.
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Literacy: developing an awareness of letter-sounds and language skills that are specifically related to reading, spelling and to understanding written text.
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Attention and listening: developing strategies to increase attention and focus to support the children with their understanding.
Speech and Language Interventions that you may hear your child’s teacher discuss with you:
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Lego Therapy: supporting children with their turn taking and social skills.
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Zones of Regulation: supports emotional regulation and understanding of children’s own emotions and those of others.
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Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS): communicating through pictures to support early language development in children with SEND. This is used across school where appropriate. In addition to the PECS used specifically for some children, visuals accompany displays throughout the school building and on signs to enable children to access all areas of the school.
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Other interventions used include: Sequencing Stars, Higher Level Questioning, Zones of Regulation, Social Skills and Colourful Semantics.
What is Music Therapy?
At Allen Edwards, we have a Music Therapist, Catherine Price, who joins our staff for one day a week.
We use Music Therapy to support children’s communication and language skills and social and emotional needs. Music Therapy draws on music to support children with initial language and spontaneous sound making. Music Therapy is also a great support for our children with emotional needs as it often provides a distraction for the mind allowing the children to process trauma and develop lifelong strategies that will support them to regulate their emotions.
Alongside this, we use our music therapy sessions to teach parts of the curriculum for music.
What is Art Therapy?
We have whole class art therapy sessions each week through Art4Space.
We have worked closely with Art4Space, who are a local charity that provide Art therapy for children in Lambeth. They use art as a medium of expression and communication. Art is used to support children with emotional regulation and processing to allow them to access home and school life more positively. Art Therapy is also a great way for children to relax and develop social skills in small group environments.
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy (OT) supports children who have physical, sensory or cognitive needs. It supports children to develop life skills that allow them to become more independent and carry out daily tasks that they might find difficult.
This might include support to help with:
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Eating,
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Washing,
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Using the toilet,
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Fine or gross motor,
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Regulation,
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Transition,
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Playing,
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Sensory Processing.
Often children with autism present with motor, perceptual or sensory challenges. They may be oversensitive to touch, noise or sound. Their attention and behaviour can be affected by these physical or sensory challenges.
Occupational Therapists provide specialist assessments to identify the underlying difficulties impacting on your child's function (for example motor, sensory or perceptual skills). They will then provide therapeutic intervention and recommend appropriate strategies to help children overcome these difficulties working closely with school staff and families so they are supporting all aspects of the child’s life to enable them to be as successful as can be.
Our Occupational Therapy offer comes from Words First and she is in the resource base for 1 day every fortnight. If the child needs more support, we will make a referral to the Evelina Team after discussions with parents.
What does an educational psychologist do?
We commission an educational psychologist (EP) to work together with children, parents and staff as well as other professionals to support school based interventions for the children to help them to make progress. This work usually focuses on observations, consultation and intervention.
If we feel that your child would benefit from an assessment from the educational psychologist, we would arrange a meeting with you and the EP, the EP would meet with your child’s teacher and observe your child in class. They will then write a report outlining their findings and recommendations that we will then implement in school. The EP may provide more informal support and advice for your children within the provision if and when needed.
Our resource base teachers all have supervision each term with the EP to discuss specific children or practice to ensure we are constantly adapting to meet the children’s needs and work with a multi-agency approach to best meet their needs.
What is Lambeth Autism Advisory Service?
At Allen Edwards, our Autism Advisory Teacher is Edyta Zjawiony. She has worked here for several years and has a strong relationship with our children, parents and staff.
She provides support in schools for staff to develop a greater understanding of autism and to empower staff to apply good practice. We aim to have an Autism Friendly environment across school so she reviews our universal offer as well as working with our Autistic children in school to provide support, advice and strategies to promote independence and help them reach their full potential.
Here are some Autism Friendly Strategies used in school:
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TEACCH
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PECS
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Social Stories
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Work Stations
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Visual timetables
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Whole school behaviour policy linked to Red and Green Choices
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Communicate in Print labelling across school
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All staff have Attention Autism training with Gina Davis
We are constantly evolving the therapeutic work that we do at Allen Edwards and looking for new ways to support your children to thrive. If you think that there is a therapy or intervention that you think your child would benefit from, please come and speak with a member of the Inclusion Team and we will discuss this further with you.
Supporting learning at home
As a school, we are always trying to develop our pupils’ learning opportunities both in school and at home.
Here are the strategies we encourage to do so:
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Send home children’s termly targets so parents can work on these at home.
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Share any programmes that the children are working on.
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Children have access to programmes through the website such as Busy Things and Times Table Rock Stars.
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Home learning will be sent home if appropriate.
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Reading books will be sent home.
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Parents are provided with curriculum maps with the objectives being taught in class each term if they choose to support their children further.
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Parents have access to workshops and 121 sessions with therapists to support activities at home.
Further enrichment and extracurricular activities
We offer a range of enrichment activities within the resource base including:
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Cycling Lesson
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Swimming
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121 Piano lessons.
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Group Art Therapy
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Weekly Forest School Trips
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Termly school trips linked to our theme
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Workshops in school
Alongside this, where the children are ready, they access breakfast club, after school club and specialist clubs, such as football, karate and gymnastics within the mainstream environment.
Measuring Progress and Assessment
Across the school and within the resource base, we strive to understand the children’s needs to allow us to successfully support and assess the pupils that we work with. It provides a framework within which educational objectives may be set and children’s progress is expressed and monitored. We understand that the children we work with have a high level of need and make progress at different rates and ensure that we assess the child from their starting point in a holistic manner.
This is done, as much as possible, in partnership with the pupils and parents.
Speech, communication and interaction skills are assessed each term with staff and our SALT working closely together to review targets and provision and adapting these accordingly. All targets are shared with parents and carers each term.
Academic progress is measured against the EYFS Framework, Pre Key Stage Standards and the National Curriculum. We use the B-Squared Assessment Tool to assess pupils, which further breaks down the Pre Key Stage Standards and the National Curriculum into smaller steps and allows us to show the progress over time of the pupils within our provision. For pupils who are not yet engaged in subject-specific learning, we use the Engagement Model to feed into regular observations of the child.
All children have Individual Target Plans with targets linked to the four areas on their EHCPs: Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Sensory and Physical and Social, Mental and Emotional Health, which are assessed each term as part of the assessment cycle for each child to support us to adapt provision and learning to ensure maximum progress of all children.
Across all Key Stages, we track progress towards EHCP outcomes throughout the year and formally assess at annual reviews once a year. Annual review meetings are held to look at progress against the long term and medium term outcomes and to set new outcomes. We ensure the children’s needs are correctly reflected in the EHCP and if necessary adjustments are made during these multi-agency meetings. Each EHCP outcome is personal to that child and will be focused on through the year. We work towards EHCP outcomes throughout the year in all aspects of learning.
These targets may link to specific subject areas or are stand-alone targets linked to the four areas in the EHCP:
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Communication and Interaction
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Cognition and Learning
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Sensory and Physical
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Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Evidence for all assessment and moderation is collated through learning tasks in books and observations and through intervention records.
Therefore, we have adapted and created assessment systems, which accurately and meaningfully allow us to support the progress of our pupils.
Assessment approaches used within the Resource Base
We dynamically assess in every lesson and part of the day to allow us to adapt provision and learning tasks; to track progress and identify strengths and areas of development.
We use the B Squared assessment system to assess English, maths and science. We then use the assessment criteria that we have created as a school based on the National Curriculum for the year group the children are learning within to assess the children in the non-core subjects.
Formative Assessment is the on-going assessment carried out by teachers both formally and informally. Formative Assessment is also known as ‘assessment for learning’. The outcome of formative assessments has a direct impact on the teaching and learning approaches and strategies employed immediately following the assessment. Dynamically assessing the children within the lesson through questioning and observation, marking of children’s work / recording how they achieve tasks is also an important part of formative assessment and this is done through workbooks, photo evidence, video evidence, etc.
Summative Assessment occurs at defined points in the school year. Summative Assessment is also known as ‘assessment of learning’. The outcome of summative assessments assists teachers in determining progress for specific subject areas or of specific skills, check if children are progressing at expected rates and make any necessary adjustments to support learning.
We use assessment:
To help pupils to:
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Develop skills to recognise and take pride in their own achievements,
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Focus on areas and skills that need to be strengthened,
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Allow them to be part of developing their own learning,
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Record their achievements, celebrate their success and share these with others.
To help teachers to:
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Have a knowledge of each pupil’s particular abilities, skills and understanding,
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Plan future learning targets for individual pupils and groups.
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Plan future teaching through evaluation of materials, resources and strategies.
To help the school to:
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Provide continuity and progression within school, to home and beyond,
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Meet statutory requirements,
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Provide progression data for individuals and groups,
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Contribute to effective transitions to secondary schools or alternate provisions.
To help parents/carers to:
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Know how their child is doing,
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Be aware of how best to help and encourage at home,
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Participate in celebrations of achievements.
Inclusion Across the School
Our base is at the heart of our school community. We are committed to ensuring that the children in our resource base access areas of the mainstream provision that are appropriate to their level of need and we work closely with parents and professionals to support with these transitions.
Where it is appropriate for our children, they access lessons, playtimes, assembly times, workshops, after school clubs, school trips and lunchtimes within the mainstream. This is always carefully considered to ensure the positive impact and development of the children we work with.
Across school, we have ensured that the school environment and all classes are Autism Friendly to support the children in those classes and allow children in the base to access the mainstream when appropriate as well as ensuring that all staff are able to support children with Autism and understand their needs. All of our school staff are trained by Gina Davis in Attention Autism training.
As soon as they are ready, all pupils are included in some weekly mainstream sessions to help build their social skills and further enhance their learning experiences.
What Parents Can Expect from Us
Engaging with parents is one of the most important things at Allen Edwards Primary School and in the Resource Base. We want to develop a way of working collaboratively to ensure that each individual will develop to be their best at school and at home. In order for the children to reach their full potential, it is vital that we work closely with parents.
To do so, we:
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Staff are always available before or after school to speak with parents and carers.
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The Deputy Head in charge of the resource base will meet with parents and carers.
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Meetings can be arranged with all staff members to discuss any further support or concerns about your children.
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Parents and carers can send Dojo messages to teachers and other staff in the resource base, which will be responded to outside of teaching times. If the matter is urgent, the Deputy Head in charge of the resource base will respond.
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Targets are reviewed and shared with parents each term showing the progress and areas of continued development for their children.
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You will be invited to a yearly annual review to discuss your child’s progress.
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We provide termly coffee mornings run by professionals working with your children to provide support and training for parents and carers.
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Signposting and support accessing services.
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Organising 121 support or training with our specialists to support specific concerns related to your children.
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Parents Evening.
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Send termly learning maps.
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We hold entry meetings when new pupils start in the resource base (Within first term).
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We send home information via Dojo, letters or by phoning parents.
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We host different events through the year, such as the Summer Fair.
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We ask for opinions through questionnaires and surveys.
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Parents are part of the school’s governing body.
As families, we would like you to be as involved in the school as you can be, we would encourage you to:
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Share experiences you have at home through writing in the home learning book, sending us a DOJO message, emailing us, calling or arranging to meet with a member of the resource base team.
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Engage in training and coffee mornings.
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Come along to school events.
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Join us on our termly school trips.
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Please let us know how you feel through completing the school surveys.
Admissions
The Resource Base for Autism follows a separate admissions process to the main school. Admissions are processed by Lambeth SEN.
Admissions Criteria:
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A diagnosis of Autism
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An Educational Health and Care Plan
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The child fits the profile for the resource base
If parents are considering a specialist provision for their child they should contact Nicola Harris (Deputy Head for Inclusion) to arrange a visit to the school at nharris@allenedwards.lamebth.sch.uk or by calling the school office on 020 7622 3985.
It is of the utmost importance that parents make an informed decision with regard to their child’s educational placement therefore it is advisable that they visit a number and range of specialist provisions in order to assess where they feel their child’s needs would be best met.
Below is an outline of the application process:
For children already at school:
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An annual review must be held and a change of placement needs to be discussed. The SENCO at your child’s current school will then submit a change of placement request in the annual review paperwork that will be sent to Lambeth SEND.
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Lambeth SEND will then send the consultation paperwork to the Deputy Head teacher for Inclusion.
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As part of the assessment process, we will arrange to visit the child in their current setting.
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We will also invite you to Allen Edwards so that you can see our provision and ensure that it is the best fit for your child.
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The Deputy Head teacher in charge of the resource base will send a response to Lambeth SEND within the specified period, stating whether or not we can meet their child’s needs. This will depend on the children currently in the resource base, spaces available and the needs of your child.
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If there are no places available, we will offer to keep the child on a referrals list until a place becomes available.
Transition to Allen Edwards Resource Base
For children starting in our resource base, we will tailor a transition to support your child and your family circumstances.
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Your child will be invited for an initial visit to meet the staff they will be working with and familiarise themselves with the resource base.
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They will be provided with a transition pack to support this process.
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In most instances, we will begin with a staggered start: this prevents your child becoming overwhelmed with a new environment and new people and promote a successful start. It will also allow your child and the other children in the base to familiarise themselves with each other to ensure all children remain calm and happy in the provision.
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We will meet with parents once the child is settled to discuss progress and provide any additional support needed.
Additional Information and Support for Parents and Carers
Engagement Model & Philosophy
(Taken from the Standards and Testing Agency guide)
Information for parents: The Engagement Model
What is the Engagement Model?
The Engagement Model is a teacher assessment tool to help schools support pupils who are at key stage 1 (KS1) and key stage 2 (KS2), working below the level of the National Curriculum and not engaged in subject-specific study.
Your child may be assessed using the Engagement Model if they have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which mean they cannot demonstrate recognisable and specific skills, knowledge and understanding in:
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English language comprehension and reading
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English writing
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Mathematics
As such, they are unable to engage in such subject-specific study.
The engagement model is formed of 5 areas of engagement:
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Exploration
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Realisation
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Anticipation
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Persistence
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Initiation
The Engagement Model will help to improve the school’s understanding of how well your child is engaging in the development of new skills, knowledge and concepts in the school’s curriculum. It will help to understand their achievements and progress in their physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. It is important that your child can show progress, regardless of any additional needs they may have. This will enable the school to better support your child.
Pre-Key Stage
Pre-key stage standards are for pupils who are working below the overall standard of national curriculum assessments, but who are engaged in subject-specific study.
Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework
The standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.
Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
National Curriculum
The national curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.
The national curriculum: Key stage 1 and 2 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
B Squared Progression Steps
Support for Parents
We are always here to help and support you at home.
Ways we can help:
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Be there to listen when you need support.
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Providing strategies and resources that work in school.
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Offering training to support you at home.
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Sign posting to services (see list below).
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Making referrals to relevant professionals or organisations.
There are a number of websites and organisations which offer information and support to families of children with autism: