“The term autism is used to describe a difference in neurological development that can have profound effects on how people perceive and experience the world around them. This experience varies between people and so autism is now recognised as a spectrum of neurological differences.”
“… right from the start, from the time someone came up with the word ‘autism’, the condition has been judged from the outside, by its appearances, and not from the inside according to how it is experienced.”
Donna Williams
Here at Caldecott School, we have created enabling environments, which assist our pupils and stakeholders, to recognise the strengths and challenges experienced by many autistic people. People with autism may also experience over-or-under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colours. These are all factors we have considered and are part of everyday practice in our NAS (National Autistic Society) awarded specialist education provisions.
Caldecott School provides a nurturing learning environment, where our students can make meaningful progress. Our aim is to encourage them to develop appropriate personal, social and employable skills enabling them to become confident, independent and aspiring young people.
We are passionate that our pupils and their needs, come first; every pupil is truly individual, and we provide an educational setting to nurture those individualities and encourage pupils to prepare for adulthood and become confident young members of society. To do this, it is important that we have the right strategies.
Caldecott School provides a nurturing learning environment, where our students can make meaningful progress. Our aim is to encourage them to develop appropriate personal, social and employable skills enabling them to become confident, independent and aspiring young people.
Our aim is to develop our pupils into responsible young members of the communities, who can be as independent as possible. This is achieved through our curriculum which is underpinned by the Autism Education Trust (AET) framework and Preparation for Adulthood targets. By ensuring our pupils are happy, safe and can regulate their emotions as independently as possible, they are able to learn life and academic skills which are transferable to adulthood.
Continuous professional development is a key priority for The Caldecott Foundation and our Autism specialist, Therapy team and CPD leader are committed to training all staff in the complexity of Autism and co-occurring conditions. We have two on-site licensed trainers for the National Autistic Society (NAS)Essential Autism course, and together they work with all stakeholders to share practice and provide full trained, understanding, and skilled staff.
If they can’t learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn!