Queensmill is specialist school for children and young people (CYP) diagnosed with autism from 3-19. The majority of CYP’s autism would be considered complex but the school places at its heart, learning that is child/young person centred with an emphasis on accepting the child for who they are and helping them understand and cope with the world around them. From this starting point, we are able to help CYP make progress in acquiring academic, communication, social and life skills.
Staff at Queensmill are highly trained in autism and thanks to its in-house expertise (from directly employed therapist and senior leaders), the school commits to training and maintaining staff knowledge and resources so that autistic CYP learn in an environment that understands and is suited to them. The school is proud of its effectiveness and ability to personalise learning so that CYP have unique programmes so that they are motivated and thoroughly supported to make progress. When this progress occurs, we are committed to creating and adapting provision to ensure it can continue. This is evidenced in our two satellite provisions, located within mainstream.
The school is grateful to the local authority for its sustained financial and philosophical commitment, over many years. The school mainly admits pupils from Hammersmith and Fulham but also other neighbouring boroughs such as Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Ealing…
The school remains heavily over-subscribed, and it is envisaged that this will remain the case for the foreseeable future, owing to the school’s strong reputation and ongoing effectiveness. Queensmill has retained its autism accreditation advanced status by the National Autistic Society following their audit in March 2022. The accreditation evidences the school’s autism specific practice remains outstanding and innovative
Following the Ofsted inspection in November 2021 which judged the school as inadequate, the school’s priorities have been shifted to focus on leadership and management which was the area of serious weaknesses. Thanks to the school and the Trust’s prompt action and hard work, after one positive monitoring visit (June 2022) and one full inspection in February 2023 Queensmill is now judged as Good in all areas. Inspectors have rightly acknowledged that despite the inadequate judgement in Leadership and safeguarding, standards did not lower in other areas: Leaders have continued to provide a good quality of education while successfully tackling the serious safeguarding weaknesses identified at the last inspection. This is a strong achievement especially considering the additional financial challenge which remains.
Queensmill continues to be quality assured by external services mainly the School effectiveness department in Hammersmith and Fulham as Ofsted has not inspected the school since 2023. In their most recent audit, H&F has confirmed that all the learning from the 2021 Ofsted inspection has been consolidated and have been maintained. The school is now focusing on its transfer to OAT to resolve the financial challenges so it can finally work towards becoming a centre of excellence in autism specific education.
The school participates in research to draw from the very best of the practice and resources described above. The aim is to create an environment that mirrors the overarching philosophy of being CYP led, ie, we as practitioners tailor learning and activities to best meet the accessibility needs of the CYP.
The school’s approach to behaviour is research informed and draw from SCERTS and the Zones of Regulation approaches. The school does not monitor/ track frequency of behaviour but measures progress in the development of sensory and emotional regulation skills that support the CYP to regulate their emotions. It also measures the impact and effectiveness of strategies implemented to develop those skills. Each student has an Emotional Regulation Support Plan (ERSP) that describes the CYP’s presentation in the different states/ zones of regulation.
Queensmill introduced the Significant Incident (SI) protocol in 2021. If a CYP experiences a dysregulation that is outside of their usual presentation (as described in their ERSP) and/ or has caused an injury (to a student or a member of staff) and/ or required the use of physical intervention or restriction of liberty then this incident will be considered as significant. This will be recorded on the school’s Safeguarding platform (CPOMS) and a debrief will follow. Debriefs are led by a Deputy Head or the Phase leader and includes therapists, a team teach trainer, the class team and any other staff that was present at the time of the incident.
The speech and language team work with the whole staff team to provide a total communication environment. Total communication is a holistic view of communication. It is a way of thinking about how people communicate and how to find the best communication method for the child. It uses a range of communication methods, including:
By using a combination of strategies in a flexible way to meet individual needs, the school aims to give pupils constant opportunities to understand what is said to them and for them to be able to communicate their needs, wants, thoughts, ideas and feelings.
The school is committed to embedding the SCERTS framework which enables CYP to develop and consolidate core skills in social communication and emotional regulation, in settings and situations within and outside the classroom, which is an integral aspect of the SCERTS methodology. Our aim, using the SCERTS approach, is to extend the communication, independence, problem-solving and social abilities of our CYP.
We are committed to supporting parents and carers understand and support their child with the most applicable and up to date knowledge of autism and evidence-based interventions. We offer an extensive range of training courses to enable this. In keeping with our ethos of providing an environment where CYP are able to express and understand their autism in the company of highly trained staff who value them, the school’s policies on child protection and safeguarding, positive handling, equal opportunities, health and safety and assessment place the CYP, at the very centre, so that they are able to be happy, feel safe, can express themselves, develop skills and become independent.