- We aim to
- – Provide a school community where everyone is valued and supported
- – Offer a positive educational experience for each child in our care
- – Celebrate and nurture every child’s strengths and support their needs
- – Offer opportunities for children to develop skills by offering motivating and meaningful activities.
- – Ensure that the views of everyone involved with the child are considered
- – Provide a safe and secure learning environment
- – Ensure the wellbeing of every child in our care
Woodlark Autism Provision offers a high level of adult support with a class teacher and 3 support staff in each class of our 8 classes. We limit the class size to 8 pupils per class as we feel this is the optimum number to ensure we maintain an autism friendly learning environment.
Our teachers have, or are working towards, specialist SEND qualifications. All staff receive regular training in autism strategies and interventions and many have a great deal of experience of working with pupils who have a diagnosis of autism.
We offer a modified version of the National Curriculum to ensure all of our children are able to access and participate in all areas of the curriculum and learn effectively from their individual starting points. A framework has been developed to cover all the requirements of the National Curriculum.
We use the SCERTS Model and the TEACCH approach which are evidence based interventions that support individuals on the autism spectrum to develop regulation, communication and independence skills. We apply a variety of teaching methods to suit our pupils’ different learning styles. Many children benefit from a multi-sensory approach that accommodates their kinaesthetic and visual learning styles. Tasks and activities are broken into manageable chunks to help students develop their organisation and sequencing skills. We place importance on the generalisation of skills and knowledge, as well as on developing functional skills as part of our independence and life skills curriculum. Our termly themes help to engage children and to connect different areas of our curriculum. Our curriculum planning promotes differentiated targets and outcomes in every area, always tailored towards an individual’s needs.
Heavy emphasis is placed on developing social skills. This is taught in a range of situations over the whole school day and by focusing on individualised targets. It plays a vital role in helping our students develop friendships as well as positive interactions and self-image.
We work closely with a range of professionals including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and Educational Psychologists to support pupils with areas of difficulty and develop their strengths. They also provide training and advice for staff and parents.
We ensure our pupils are given the opportunity to access inclusion with the Larkhall Primary School. Our children join the mainstream school children for playtimes and any other workshops or events we feel they can access and enjoy. Our children are supported by Woodlark Autism Provision staff to access learning activities in the mainstream school wherever possible or appropriate. There are also opportunities for mainstream children to visit our provision to take part in activities with our pupils.
We offer a range of extra curricular activities including BMX bike riding, cycle lessons, swimming and dance. We provide a range of after school clubs including sports, music and art. We offer weekly visits to the local nature garden where the children participate in forest school activities.
Woodlark Autism Provision places high value on fostering positive attitudes towards school. Learning should be fun, and we aim to ensure our students are motivated to achieve their best, proud of their achievements, and confident in their own abilities.