Quarterly Newsletter July 2020
Embracing autism
Transforming lives
Teamwork came to the fore
to ensure our young people
were able to receive care
and education as part of
our multi-faceted response
to the challenges posed by
coronavirus.
Since the end of March, teaching at
Prior's Court has transitioned from
being based within our school buildings
to, largely, based within our residential
homes.
This was to reduce the number of interperson contacts on site, as our classes
are made up of young people from
different residential homes and a small
number of day pupils.
This transition has also included:
• Introducing new timetables
• Planning to ensure multiple
house groups do not go into the
same learning areas (such as our
horticulture or Countryside Learning
Centre areas) at the same time.
• Assigning teachers and Education
Autism Practitioners to teach in
only one residential home, as far
as practically possible. Autism
Practitioners in our Residential
function have only worked in one
home during this period, again, as
far as practically possible.
• Creating generalised and
personalised social stories to help
our young people understand
coronavirus and the changes going
on around them.
Staff members from both our
Education and Residential functions
have worked to ensure the successful
implementation of this new way of
learning, in which the core facets of
the Prior Approach have been retained
and our young people's learning goals
are still being worked towards.
Meanwhile, learning resources have
been provided to the parents of our
young people who chose to have
their children at home during the
coronavirus pandemic so far and our
small number of day pupils have also
been successfully catered for.
This is in addition to numerous other
changes made across the organisation.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic,
staffing has always remained at a safe
level.
Simultaneously to the changes in
delivering learning, we moved to
support all staff members. This
included the creation of a mental
health resources guide, revisions to
absence policy due to coronavirus,
making alternative lodgings available
for contact staff to reside in to shield
vulnerable family members, staff who
were able to do so embracing working
from home, and ensuring supplies of
PPE and cleaning equipment were
maintained.
Continued on page 2
Team effort to face coronavirus challenges
www.priorscourt.org.uk