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2. Supporting young people
How will the school staff support my child/young person?
As an autism-specific special school, Prior's Court focuses on providing the most
appropriate training to ensure that staff are specialists in autism best practice,
uniting this knowledge with the needs of the individual child to enable them to
make sense of the world around them and make significant progress.
The team is led by a Director of Young People's Learning and a Director of Young
People's Wellbeing who are not only responsible for the operational
management of the school but are committed to developing and delivering the
autism training for staff which is provided from induction onwards. They have
many years of experience of autism best practice and, among other qualifications,
are proud to be Advanced Level Consultant Trainers in the TEACCH methodology,
which is at the heart of the school's autism approach and best practice.
Because Prior's Court uses a Waking Day curriculum, learning taking place
in the education day as well as during first thing in the morning, evenings and
weekends. There is a strong commitment to ensuring that Residential and
Education teams work closely together with shared goals and careful planning to
make learning consistent for the young people.
The Education and Residential Care departments are supported throughout 52
weeks of the year by an experienced operational leadership team and on-site
multi-disciplinary and therapeutic professionals including Speech & Language
Therapists; Occupational Therapists; a Positive Behaviour Support team; Nurses;
and specialist teachers focussing on IT, outdoor learning and physical exercise as
well as vocational instructors to develop skills in areas such as; Horticulture;
Animal Husbandry; Catering & Hospitality; Trade Skills; Digital Skills; and Business
Studies, and in an industry-standard commercial bakery. A Music Therapist is
employed, and additional therapists are contracted in to provide sessions when
identified as a need.
There is a strong focus on training to ensure that all staff are appropriately trained
to create a consistent team to support the young people.
As structured teaching is a core element of our approach, a strong emphasis is
placed on training staff in this area, to ensure consistency and best practice. Staff
also attend regular TEACCH training sessions run by the University of North
Carolina at Prior's Court. See section 7 of this document for further details.