NAS Thames Valley Free School
Welcome
The NAS Thames Valley Free School is an exciting new venture that will
meet the needs of two distinct groups of children and young people with
autism. We are a school who truly respects and values each child as an
individual.
We have the highest expectations for our pupils and hold the belief that
they are able to achieve above and beyond what may previously been
anticipated.
Through the provision of an outstanding, autism specific, highly
personalised education we seek to enable our pupils to be able to lead
successful, fulfilling lives as contributing and accepted members of
society.
The staff at Thames Valley Free School will be knowledgeable,
experienced and committed. They will be trained to the highest possible
standards to deliver autism specific approaches that enable each child to
learn and a challenging and stimulating curriculum.
At Thames Valley Free School parents and carers are regarded as
experts on the needs of their child and important members of the team.
We have an open door policy and want you to feel as much a part of the
school community as your child.
Thames Valley Free School is outward looking and seeks to form strong,
mutually beneficial partnerships with local schools, colleges, employers
and communities so our pupils are able to be successful in the broadest
possible range of contexts and there is an enhanced appreciation of the
very real strengths and abilities of people who have needs on the autistic
spectrum.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
Introduction
NAS Thames Valley Free School will be opening in September 2013.
It will provide education for 50 pupils aged 5-16 years who have autistic
spectrum needs. 44 of these places will be for pupils of average to high
ability who are struggling to maintain a place in a mainstream school
because of their autism related needs. In addition we will offer a further
6 places in our enhanced provision for pupils of any cognitive ability to
have complex needs and extremely challenging behaviour.
The school has been welcomed by the Local Authorities in the Thames
Valley because it will provide a specialised education for children whose
previous placements have been in jeopardy or for those where it has
been difficult to provide an appropriate education within a reasonable
distance of their home.
Each child will have an inclusion plan that will develop their ability to
thrive in a range of environments. Inclusion opportunities will be available
for each child and may included joining classes, after-school clubs or
other social opportunities within a mainstream school, using IT to
participate in a range of learning opportunities offered by other settings
or participating in community events. For some children the first step
toward inclusion will be being able to tolerate being in a classroom with
one or more peers. The school will have a ‘revolving door’ policy for
some of its pupils and it will equip them with the necessary coping and
learning skills to be able to return to mainstream education.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
Educational vision
The NAS has an organisational vision where people with Autism get to
live the life they choose.
The key influence on this is having access to the right education.
The school will be the realisation of this vision: enabling pupils who are
currently not accessing effective or suitable education to have the
highest quality specialist provision. It is our vision to increase choice,
opportunity and achievement.
We will help students develop a core foundation of knowledge and skills
relevant to the future that will lead to increased inclusion in society and
prepare them for further study, university and employment.
We seek to excite our students about school and learning through the
delivery of a flexible and challenging curriculum, which is supported by a
wide range of extra curricular opportunities.
We will give them the pre-requisite “learning to learn” skills, support them
to understand their own difficulties and develop “tool kits” to help them
through stages in life, particularly at transition points.
We will deliver truly personalised learning that capitalises on individual
strengths and removes barriers to learning, enabling our students to
achieve their potential and beyond!
We will build on the experience of six NAS schools to devise and deliver
the highest quality autism- specific curriculum possible.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
We will:
 Have a distinctive ethos and philosophy: from the moment a
person enters the building they will know this is a school where
pupils are respected, achieve beyond what is expected, are
empowered to make positive choices about their own lives and
have rich and varied experiences.
 Build on pupils’ strengths and capitalise on interests, giving them a
reason to learn and instilling a belief in the importance of what they
can achieve.
 Support pupils to achieve GCSE’s and other recognised
qualifications.
 Build on the extensive knowledge and experience of the National
Autistic Society to be creative, pioneering and innovative in our
approach to meeting the needs of our pupils.
 Be regarded as a regional resource; an outward looking school that
shares practice with local schools, colleges, the community and
beyond.
 Have high expectations for all our pupils.
 Recruit staff who have an uncompromising commitment to
delivering outstanding teaching and learning which embraces best
practice in autism and education.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
 Establish a curriculum that enables pupils to overcome their
barriers to learning, develop social skills and coping strategies and
learn to manage their own behaviour.
 Place an emphasis on social skills and citizenship work, supporting
pupils to achieve and make a positive contribution to their
community.
 Provide bespoke education through carefully planned educational
pathways, which are focussed on long-term outcomes and seek to
improve the current and future lives of the pupils, their families and
members of the local community.
 Be innovative in our ‘revolving door policy’, truly addressing the
issue of personalisation and offering the education needed for the
time that it is needed.
 Be pioneering in our autism specific ICT provision.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
The school has set the following challenging core targets:
 75% of pupils who achieve level 4 at key stage 2 in core subjects
to achieve level C or above at GCSE’s
 75% of pupils who achieve level 4 in ICT at key stage 2 to achieve
level C or above at GCSE’s
 75% of pupils to achieve at least one foundation subject GCSE in
an area most aligned with their strengths or special interests.
 100% of pupils who are not entered for GCSE’s to obtain an
ASDAN qualification
 Pupils working at below level 2 at key stage one or below level 4 at
key stage 2 to progress 2 levels per key stage.
 For 80% of pupils to achieve all their Individual Education Plan
targets (rising to 85% after 2 years when the school has had
opportunity to ensure realistic yet challenging targets are being set
and there is an effective system in place for identification and
moderation of targets)
 For 90% of students to attend a mainstream college or take on
meaningful employment after completing year 11.
 For 90% of pupils that return to mainstream schooling to maintain
successful placements
 Pupil attendance to be above 90% and for those where school
refusal and non-attendance has been an issue their attendance to
improve year on year.
 Reduction in incidents of challenging behaviour.
 For the majority of pupils to learn strategies for managing their own
behaviour so as to engage with learning, make a meaningful
contribution to their
community and live with
dignity and independence.
Core Targets Continued ……..
 For no pupils to be excluded.
 For pupils to acquire the technological skills that prepare them for
21st Century life enabling them to be safe, confident users of ICT.
These targets are appropriate for pupils as they are based on an
evaluation of expected intake and general knowledge of the needs of
pupils with Autism who are of average or high cognitive ability. They are
based on knowledge of what parents and pupils within NAS schools and
from the focus groups say they want to achieve and are informed by
achievement of this group of pupils within NAS schools over recent
years. These targets are ambitious and are pitched to challenge pupils
and staff. They go beyond previous NAS data to aim even higher with
the belief that such specialist provision will ensure pupils achieve beyond
what would be possible in other settings.
Pupil targets specific to enhanced provision
 Be included in learning experiences accessing a full weekly
timetable designed to meet their needs.
 Progress at least one P level per key stage
 Show progression on from baseline on standardised assessments
for social, emotional and communication skills.
 Acquire a range of interests and engage in leisure activities
 Access the local community at least once a week.
 Develop relationships with staff
 Show a reduction in incidents of extreme challenging behaviour
(defined as requiring 2 or more staff to manage) and elimination or
reduction in the need for restrictive physical intervention.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
1. How will the school support my child?
We recognise that each pupil will come to the school from a very different
starting point having experienced a range of challenges in their education. This
means that each child will be individually assessed and a highly personalised
educational programme will be developed. Your child’s educational
programme will address their needs in the broadest sense; identifying their
learning targets with regard to the National Curriculum and/or chosen exam
courses, the skills they need in order to be effective, engaged learners,
communication and social interaction goals, skills for developing sensory
integration, emotional regulation and behaviour management. We will develop
a programme that also addresses problem solving, independence and selfoccupation skills as well as any other areas for development identified by the
pupil, their family or the Statement of Educational Need.
We will develop each child’s individual educational programme selecting from
a range of ethical, evidence based teaching approaches that are in line with
those used by the National Autistic Society. These approaches will be
delivered within two key complimentary frameworks, the SCERTS model and
the NAS’s SPELL framework (see separate sheets for brief explanations of
these) and may include the following:
 TEACCH – providing structures that enable a young person to learn to
manage change and develop their independent learning skills.
 Social Stories – to enable individuals to develop social understanding
 Picture Exchange Communication System – PECS
 Social skills and social communication groups
 Music, art or massage therapy
 Intensive Interaction
 Functional behaviour analysis
 Sensory diets
 Innovative use of ICT (particularly for developing life and interaction
skills and increasing inclusion opportunities)
 A family centred philosophy to ensure learning is generalised to all
environments.
Support continued……
This list of approaches is not exhaustive and we recognise that some pupils
will come to us having been using others. Wherever possible we will include
these in the child’s educational programme.
Your key professional contact will be the class teacher who is responsible for
the day to day education plans for your child. Each class teacher will be
supported by learning support assistants who will also work with your child to
achieve their individual targets and to support their access to the curriculum.
Other professionals, such as Educational Psychologists, will work with the
class team to support your child as necessary.
Some pupils will have had previous negative learning experiences and may
not arrive at the school as engaged, motivated learners. They may need to be
taught the necessary learning behaviours before they can access more formal
types of educational experiences. The school will have a programme entitled
‘Being Ready to Learn‘ which will detail how pupils will be supported in
acquiring these pre-requisite skills and behaviours. In the initial period when
your child joins the school it will be essential to support them into becoming
young people who enjoy, recognise and value the benefits of learning.
Consideration of sensory aspects is a critical factor in determining education
for the autistic child; this necessitates a detailed understanding of the multilayered nature of sensory processing aspects of autism. The design of the
school has taken into account the environmental factors that can impede
learning for children and young people with autism, e.g. acoustics and lighting.
We will also use interventions such as sensory diet.
Each child will have individual study time and the length of this will depend on
the individual. Depending on your child’s needs staff will assist your child on
either a daily or weekly basis to plan how they will use their individual study or
homework time, with the intention of pupils acquiring work planning strategies
and becoming increasingly more self directed over time.
Pupils will be taught strategies to recognise
and manage their anxiety levels if they are
not coping in a group setting. A range of
learning environments, such as individual
workstations, and calm zones will be
available for pupils to request to use at
different points during the day.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
2. How will I know how well my child is doing?
Parents will be kept fully informed about their child’s progress through
regular contact.
For daily updates all pupils will have a home-school diary that will be
completed by a member of the class team. We strongly encourage
parents to contribute to the diary so we can work together to achieve the
best possible consistency between school and home.
Each term your child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) will be reviewed
and targets will be modified according to progress made. You and your
child will be included in this process. Progress toward meeting targets
will be monitored across settings, including home, school and
community.
Every year your child will have a formal Annual Review. This will detail
progress in all areas, both academic and social. It will include information
that will show your child’s academic progress measured against national
norms and achievement levels for young people with similar needs. You
will be encouraged as parents to contribute to the review of your child’s
progress and to help identify targets for the coming year to ensure that
the goals reflect the priorities that matter to you and your family. Should
there be significant concerns about a child’s progress during the year the
Annual Review can be brought forward.
We encourage parents to meet with the class teacher throughout the
school year, whenever they wish to discuss their child’s progress or to
talk about any other key issues. Each year there will be a formal Parents’
Evening, but you can request a meeting at any point in the term.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
3. How will the curriculum be matched to my child’s needs?
In accordance with our vision, the objective of the curriculum and
education plan will be to prepare pupils to have the life they choose. We
will help students develop a core foundation of knowledge and skills
relevant to the future that will lead to increased inclusion in society and
prepare them for further study, university, vocational pathways and/or
employment
Each young person is unique and their autism will affect their learning in
different ways. We will adapt and apply our teaching approaches to meet
these needs in a very individualised way.
Your child will be assessed in a number of areas when they start at the
school. The aim of the assessments will be to establish not only what
academic skills they have but also the way in which they learn and how
they behave when they are learning e.g: how long is your child able to
maintain their concentration? What sort of sensory interventions best
support their learning? What skills and strategies does your child have to
regulate their emotions? Are there any teaching approaches to which
your child is particularly averse?
We believe that learning should be intrinsically motivating so wherever
possible we will seek to adapt the curriculum to reflect your child’s
interests. We know that to achieve the best outcomes the curriculum
content must be meaningful and relevant to the pupils so they want to
engage with it.
At Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils will follow the National Curriculum in line
with their peers. All pupils at the school will be on the autism spectrum;
therefore there will be highly specialised differentiation and support to
make the curriculum meaningful and relevant for each pupil. Where
appropriate the curriculum will be taught thematically.
At Key Stage 4 we aim for pupils in the
standard provision to be selecting relevant
GCSE or other nationally accredited
courses.
Curriculum continued…..
We will seek to maximise pupils’ learning opportunities by supporting
them to access facilities within their partner school where possible and
appropriate.
Individual Educational Programmes (IEPs) will target the specific areas
related to their autism that present pupils with particular difficulty and act
as barriers to learning and achievement across all other areas. These
may include targets related to communication, social skills, behaviour,
flexibility of thought, problem solving, citizenship and independence.
There will be increased opportunities for development of communication
and social skills, life skills and PSHE . These areas will be interlinked
and skills practised across settings. For example, a life skills role-play
session where students learn the skills for eating out in a restaurant will
be followed up with opportunities in community based education to
generalise these classroom learnt skills in-situ.
ICT will be part of the core curriculum. We recognise that it is an
important part of preparing our students for living in the 21st century and
we also know that many children and young people choose this as a
preferred method of learning. Whilst this does not mean that other forms
of learning will not be used, it does mean that ICT will be embraced as
an effective tool for pupils’ self-led learning.
We also plan that you and your child will be able to log into the school’s
learning platform to access homework and check lesson plans.
ICT will support pupil’s links with their partner schools, for example by
allowing for virtual attendance in lessons and enabling access to the VLE
of the school.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
4. What support will there be for my child’s overall well being?
Self esteem and the degree to which children feel accepted and valued is crucial to
their well being. The development of a sense of self is very complex and is
developed from within a person and shaped by the people around them. Many of our
pupils will struggle more than their peers with self esteem issues and it is therefore a
fundamental part of the education we offer. Work in this area will be individually
focussed and will compliment the Personal Social & Health Education (PSHE)
lessons. It will include sections such as Knowing Myself, My Strengths and Trusting
Others and will add to the toolbox of strategies we will teach your child so they can
self-regulate and control their own emotions and behaviours.
Understanding the nature of stress and stress-management approaches for children,
families and staff will be a key part of our approach. This will include physical
exercise programmes and low arousal approaches. We will adapt the environment
where appropriate to help individuals to manage their stress levels to enable
maximum learning for all students
Pupil voice is particularly important at the school: enabling the children to be able to
express their opinions about how the school cares for them and to feel that these
opinions are heard and valued. Your child will be fully involved in their weekly, termly
and annual progress and planning meetings. We will have a student council, run by
the pupils for the pupils. It will meet once each term with the Principal and senior
leadership of the school. The school’s annual survey, completed by pupils, parents
and staff, will provide pupils with an opportunity to express their concerns and
highlight areas where they think the school could better meet their needs.
The school will have an Anti Bullying policy, which will detail the school’s
arrangements for tackling bullying; this will be translated into teaching programmes.
Additionally, pupils will be taught how to keep themselves safe on-line and when out
in the community.
A member of the senior leadership team will have responsibility for pastoral care and
will report regularly to the governing body. Two members of the leadership team will
be trained as Designated Child Protection Officers. A specific Governor will have
responsibility for pupil well-being and another for safeguarding.
Because of the ‘revolving door’ and flexible packages on offer, some children will
spend time at local mainstream schools. We will liaise closely with our partnership
schools regarding the vulnerability of our pupils and will, where necessary, provide
support and training for their staff team. We will also seek to work with a child’s peer
group to develop their understanding of autism
and how they can be supportive.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
5. What specialist services and expertise are available at or
accessed by the school?
We are putting together a team of consultant specialists from a range of
professional backgrounds. These consultants will work closely and
extensively with the teaching team to develop and enhance pupils’
learning and to ensure the necessary foundation skills for learning are
being developed. They will do this by working alongside school staff in
the classrooms, by conducting assessments and developing intervention
plans and by providing targeted training for staff. We will have a multidisciplinary teamwork approach where the knowledge and expertise of
each professional is valued; we seek to include parents as members of
this team.
The Speech and Language Therapists will develop communication and
social interaction strategies and support all staff and pupils in the
implementation and use of specific programmes. They will constantly
evaluate the impact of the communication input of the school in providing
pupils with the means to communicate more effectively.
The Educational Psychologist will provide assessment and support on
interventions to support children’s learning and to help them develop
strategies for managing their behaviour.
The Occupational Therapist will support pupils according to their
individual needs with particular regard to overcoming gross and fine
motor difficulties and sensory processing difficulties.
Other professionals, such as art or music therapists and massage
therapists will be consulted according to individual need.
All staff at Thames Valley Free School will follow a structured, autism
specific induction training programme to develop their individual
understanding and expertise.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
6. What training will the staff supporting children and young people
at the school have completed or what training are they going to
have?
As stated in the previous pages we will develop an expert and
knowledgeable team who have the necessary skills to support each
child. All staff will complete an induction programme when they join the
school team and each year the team will receive 5 days of autism
specific training to ensure their skills are maintained and developed. The
core training will include understanding autism and how it affects
learning, safeguarding and health and safety. We see high quality
training in ICT as essential for all staff.
All staff will receive accredited training in positive approaches to
behaviour support which will include physical intervention training.
Physical intervention is not in any way a behaviour approach and will
only be used in emergency situations where it is deemed necessary to
keep a child or others safe from harm. All physical interventions will be
discussed and demonstrated to parents and if it should ever be
necessary to use such an intervention with your child you will be notified
immediately and be fully involved in the de-brief follow up meeting.
In addition all senior staff will attend higher level autism specific training
in our key approaches, such as TEACCH and SCERTS, within their first
year. This training will be disseminated to the whole staff.
Teaching staff will have subject specialisms and developing curriculum
knowledge and expertise will form a key part of each year’s In-Service
Training Programme.
Staff will be encouraged to pursue higher levels of qualifications, it is
expected that the majority of senior staff will have postgraduate
qualifications in special education or autism.
The Thames Valley Free School is
committed to ensuring that all
professionals in the school will receive
diversity and cultural awareness training
so that they are able to understand and
meet the needs of all pupils and their
families
NAS Thames Valley Free School
7. How will I be involved in discussions about and planning for my
child’s education and how will the school help me as a parent or
carer to support my child’s learning?
Research shows that family involvement is a major factor in achieving
successful outcomes for children. We want to establish a strong
relationship between school and family with shared priorities and goals to
improve the quality of life for your child and for the family as a whole.
We believe that direct family involvement is a crucial factor related to a
successful educational plan. You will be fully involved in goal setting and
supported to identify how you can transfer these goals into the home and
wider community.
Parental involvement is an essential part of the SCERTS framework to
which we subscribe. SCERTS is an innovative educational model for
working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their
families. It provides specific guidelines for helping a child become a
competent and confident social communicator, while preventing problem
behaviours that interfere with learning and the development of
relationships. It also is designed to help families, educators and
therapists work co-operatively as a team, in a carefully co-ordinated
manner, to maximize progress in supporting a child
Regular parents’ meetings will be held, providing support and training on
topics as identified by the parent body. We hope that the parent body
will make full use of our facilities and develop support networks amongst
themselves. Individual family support will also be available and where
appropriate we will link you with other agencies who can provide
specialised support.
NAS Thames Valley Free School
8. How will my child be included in activities outside of the
classroom including school trips?
Enabling our pupils to be involved and engaged in their local
communities is a key element of the ethos of the Thames Valley Free
School, therefore identifying structured opportunities where this can
happen and developing the skills necessary to ensure success are very
important. The school will identify inclusion opportunities for all pupils.
The level and nature of these opportunities will be determined by the
child’s abilities, learning, interests, challenges and self-regulation skills
as well as the goals of the family and carers.
After school clubs will be offered to every student as part of our
enrichment curriculum. Your child will be able to select their activity
according to their interests. All activities will seek to address areas of
challenge that young people with autism face, such as working
collaboratively, being part of a team or recognising and managing levels
of stress and anxiety. Examples of enrichment activities that may be on
offer are Yoga, Lego therapy, drumming and Science Investigators. We
are also working with other local schools and colleges to make use of
their facilities and to join with their after school activities.
We will work with local employers to be able to offer our pupils
meaningful work experience opportunities in years 10 and 11.
As the school becomes established we will seek to offer a full
programme of educational visits including residential trips.