Access Base

We understand how anxious pupils can be during the first few weeks of their new school and planning is put into place to ensure that anxieties are kept to a minimum. During the first few weeks of your child starting at Cantonian’s Access Base, we assess your child’s abilities in Spelling, Reading, Comprehension and Numeracy. This will help us to decide what interventions may need to be implemented in the base. They will then have a personalised timetable, which is adapted for every child to meet their individual needs. Some children will spend more time in mainstream than others; it is dependent on what your child may need. All children will have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) with a set of targets which is reviewed every six months. We also produce a Pupil Passport which highlights areas of strength and difficulty which is made accessible to all teaching staff across the school.

One of the major strengths of our school is the way in which our pupils are included in the life of the school. We are an INCLUSIVE school. All of the teachers understand the needs of the pupils and liaise with us regularly for advice on individual approaches.

As the base has now been running for nearly ten years, we are very familiar with issues that may arise with our pupils which may make it different to attend some mainstream lessons. When this is proving to be difficult, we will access the work and deliver it within the base itself. In addition, we deliver a variety of interventions and courses which we have found to be essential in their personal development. These include social skills, independent life skills, literacy and numeracy support as well as Vocational BTEC courses in key stage 4.

We have a thriving sixth form provision. As well as the courses provided in the mainstream, we have a number of courses that can be delivered in the base. In addition, we run a sixth form Independent Life Skills course which helps our sixth form pupils transition into adult life outside of school.

The base is always staffed at lunch and break times so your child is welcome to stay in there at these times. We have facilities for them to eat a packed lunch, to prepare their own lunch in the kitchen or to bring back lunch from the canteen. We do try and foster a healthy eating ethos in the base. Whilst we understand that the children may be fussy eaters, we do not encourage them to bring in fizzy drinks or large quantities of sweets on a regular basis.

Pupils in key stage 3 are timetabled in the base for social skills lessons once weekly. We follow programmes specifically designed for children with Autism. These include “Talkabout” and the “Zones of Regulation”. These are delivered by our ELSA trained Senior Teaching Assistant, along with one of our other Teaching Assistants. Topics covered include:

• Friendships
• Building Trust
• Social expectations for behaviour
• Recipe for a friend
• Valuing others
• Recognising emotions
• Understanding body language
• Mindfulness

We recognise the need to provide additional sessions over and above those offered in mainstream and we run some sessions during registration times and break and lunch times to try and develop those skills. We currently run a Sensory Activity session once weekly. This helps to develop pupils’ sensory awareness and tolerance of sensory stimuli. All of the activities are designed to be fun and interactive. They have included:

• Parachute games
• Chinese whispers drawing game
• Blindfold fruit and vegetable tasting
• Pick up stix
• Origami
• And lots more…..

We also run a debating club, chess club and much more……

Your child will inevitably receive homework form their class teachers. Staff in the Access Base are happy to support them in completing some of their homework in the base. This may be during registration time or at other agreed, allocated times. We understand the issues that some of them may have about completing homework at home and are happy to discuss this with you if it is, indeed, an issue with your child.