The Ormiston Queensmill resource base opened in Fulham Primary School in 2013. The resource base caters for 30 autistic students each of whom have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP). Students attending the resource base in Fulham Primary School are officially enrolled at Ormiston Queensmill Academy but enjoy the benefits of being part of Fulham Primary Schools mainstream community.
The resource base is comprised of 3 classrooms (Team Daisies, Team Tigers and Team Rhinos) and is staffed with a qualified teacher, higher level teaching assistant and 3 TA’s (5 adults in total). All staff are employed by Ormiston Queensmill Academy and have robust experience in teaching those with additional needs and receive in house and external training to ensure they are able to support our children an d young people. The resource base is overseen by a phase leader (Tessa Harris) and Deputy Head Teacher (Robert Armstrong) who work collaboratively with the teams to ensure the successful day-to-day running of the provision. Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and their assistants work onsite across the week delivering the provision from the students EHCP’s (direct sessions, group sessions, universal support, training and report writing).
As an autism specific provision, there is a strong emphasis on meeting children’s personal development needs and this includes work around developing competencies in social communication and emotional regulation . We believe if the student’s autistic needs are met then their progress in academic learning is more likely to flourish.
One of our goals within the resource base provision is to support students with inclusion and integration. Students share space with their mainstream peers in the playground and lunch hall every day. During these times we are able to support our young people in building and maintaining friendships, understanding social rules of games and communicating with less familiar peers and adults. For those where we feel academic inclusion would be suitable, students will attend some lessons within the mainstream classes accompanied by one of our trained teaching assistants. Children follow adapted National Curriculums. The sequences of learning or topic areas are similar to those in the mainstream to create fluidity and flexibility for inclusion. Creative methods of teaching are employed to engage students, support with attention and focus and build motivation towards learning as much as possible. Children work on vital life skills through other activities such as cooking, PE and community visits. Students are also encouraged to take part in whole school activities or events such as the Christmas fair and pantomime, assembly and sports day.
All Ormiston Queensmill students in the resource base continue to make excellent progress within personalised outcomes. The combination between a highly bespoke and differentiate curriculum, access to inclusion and autism-specific supports are what help us in meeting student needs.
Admissions to the resource base are via the local authority.