Steve joined Arc School Ansley having been out of education for some time. He is on the autism spectrum and also suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is a looked after child and had previously been educated in a mainstream school but found it too complex an environment.
In order to successfully transition Steve from not being in education at all, the team worked with him to establish a personalised timetable and curriculum which would meet his needs and meet the individual needs of his EHC Plan.
Steve initially came into school for one lesson a day with a clear plan in place to increase this in increments, which was successfully established.
The environment for Steve is more suitable as he is supported within the school’s autism specific provision. These learning spaces are low arousal, calm environments where pupils are supported by staff trained in working with children with autism in bespoke settings. Class sizes are small and the peer groups carefully managed which enables Steve to be taught and supported in a consistent, calm way.
The team at the school report that Steve is very happy, lovely to be around and is sitting five GCSEs this summer. His increased ability to engage with education has been in part attributed to the environment the school, being small, is able to offer combined with low arousal settings for teaching and a staff team that understand his needs in place to support.