Nic Deller – SEN Assistant and Autism Lead tells us all about the bespoke autism specific intervention at the school.

“Here at Wings School Nots we know that one size does not fit all.”

I became the Autism Lead in September 2017 and since then have taken part in various additional external training to help further my knowledge from autism professionals on how to support our children and young people within the learning environment.

As part of my role I run the Learning Zone, where autism interventions take place, including Lego based Therapy. The Learning Zone is also ran as the school library and we facilitate Library sessions for those children with traits of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) that want to spend some quiet time snuggled up with a good book. This multi-functional room is also for children that at times find the classroom to be overwhelming and it’s quite a space that we use at break and lunch time.

When new staters begin at Wings School Notts, we give them a voice on how they would want their induction to be (within reason obviously!). Some require a bespoke timetable, so we choose their preferred lessons for them to dip into and to gain friendships and confidence. They then spend time in the Learning Zone completing some baseline testing and talking over how the school day works. It also gives me an opportunity to explain the points system we have in place and how that ties in with the enrichment activities that we offer.

We recognize that some children require a staggered start and we try to facilitate this where needed. We take into consideration every child’s individual needs, as we appreciate this is different for each and every child. We also have some children that start in our Future Unit before making their way into the main school. We know that not one size fits all.

We make sure that all our teaching groups have between four and six children with a teacher and a Learning Support Assistant because we aim for our ratios to be no more than 1:3. We try to make sure all our classrooms are not too busy and want to try and make every classroom a sensory friendly environment. Every classroom already has a sensory box in it that includes different fidget toys, timers, noise blockers and overlays to help provide any extra support required for each individual lesson.

As the ASD lead I like to go into classrooms and see how the dynamics are working and see if there is anything we can do to help and improve the classroom to make it a nicer environment for learning. Several classrooms have fish as we find this has a calming effect on some of the children.

We also provide for some of our children with ASD a visual timetable along with instructions for the lesson. This makes it easier for them to process what is being asked of them and works particularly well for our two nurture groups. This means that they can work more independently and at their own pace rather than feeling under pressure to work at the same pace as everyone else in their lesson and then in turn this all helps to build up their confidence, in and out of the classroom.

At lunchtime we have sensory plates that children can choose to use which have dividers so that their food doesn’t touch and after they have eaten lunch the children can choose where to spend their social time. We have different areas of the school open to provide a choice, for example, the ICT suite and sports hall. We also have safe spaces available for those children with ASD that struggle with the raised noise levels that come with the social interaction of 40 plus children!!

We also try to support our ASD children with any sensory issues they have regarding the school uniform e.g. providing shorts for those children who don’t like to wear trousers. All of this information and detail is written into the child’s Behavior Management Plan to prevent any unnecessary issues arising from this.

For more information visit our website or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Youtube!

@KedlestonGroup

https://www.kedlestongroup.com/

Referrals: 0800 024 6985

referrals@kedlestongroup.com