Ambitious College prospectus

An ambitious day college in London for young people aged 16-25 with complex autism

Prospectus

Contents

04 Our co-located model 05 Learning hours/Admissions 06 Funding a placement/Our study programmes 07 Independent living 08 Employment 09 Friends, relationships and community 10 Staff team 11 Family support

Viv Berkeley Principal, Ambitious College

Thank you for your interest in Ambitious College. We partnerships with local employers, services and our are a new and ambitious day college in London for mainstream college partners. young people with complex autism. I am enormously We are currently located at the Grahame Park proud to be the first Principal.

Campus of Barnet and Southgate College and in It is difficult to imagine that as I write these words Southall, co-located with Ealing, Hammersmith and fewer than one in four young people with autism West London College. access any form of education beyond school. Not As our name suggests, we are ambitious for our because they lack the ability or desire to learn; but learners. We are a dedicated team of professionals because they are being held back by a system that lacks the knowledge and expertise to support them. who are passionate about our work supporting young people to live happy and fulfilling lives in Simply put, this is not good enough. At Ambitious their home community. We know that with the right College we think everyone should be entitled to opportunity and support they can achieve their lead a fulfilling, happy and rewarding life; and this potential. I really do hope you choose Ambitious includes young people with autism.

College and look forward to working with you and Our learners are at the heart of everything we do and your son or daughter in the very near future. their curriculum is highly personalised to help them achieve their goals. It is delivered by our very skilled and friendly staff. We offer lots of opportunities to learn in the community through a range of

Thanks

Ambitious College exists thanks to the very generous donations of Pears Foundation, The Garfield Weston Foundation and other donors.

About Ambitious about Autism

Ambitious College is run by Ambitious about Autism, the national charity for children and young people with autism. We provide services, raise awareness and understanding, and campaign to make the ordinary possible for children and young people with autism.

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Ambitious College prospectus

Our co-located model We are aspirational and ambitious for our learners and believe that many of them, with the right support, can access a mainstream setting.

We are based in the same grounds as Barnet and Southgate College in north London and on the

Southall Campus of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. This enables us to extend our curriculum significantly and offer learners a wide range of mainstream vocational learning, social opportunities and work experience.

Learning hours and additional support

The majority of our learners access college 7.5 hours a day, five days a week (Monday to Friday) and for 36 weeks a year. We appreciate that the holidays can be a difficult time for young people with autism and their families so we also offer a 12 week wrap-around support service outside term time. This wrap-around support is offered at set times of the year e.g. mid term breaks, Easter holidays (with the exception of Bank Holidays) and most of the summer holidays. We do not offer the wrap-around service during the Christmas holidays.

Admission to Ambitious College

Our first priority is to get to know each learner and assess whether Ambitious College is the right place for them. We meet the young person and their family and any professionals that are currently supporting them. Families will be involved throughout the assessment process. Initially we encourage parents, carers and young people to attend one of our Open Days. Dates for the Open Days can be found at the college website www. ambitiouscollege.org.uk. You might find it helpful to make your local authority aware that you are considering Ambitious College.

Once an expression of interest has been lodged we ask parents and carers along with their son or daughter and professionals to complete a pre assessment questionnaire. We also ask for any supporting paperwork such as an Education, Health and Care Plan.

At this point our admissions panel will review all the associated paperwork and make a decision about whether we are able to meet the young person’s needs. We try to undertake two assessments – one at home and if the young person is attending school or another college, we will endeavour to visit them there also. If we feel we cannot meet the needs of your son or daughter we will explain the reasons to you.

If we do feel that Ambitious College can meet your son or daughter’s needs, we will work with parents, carers and young people to produce a personalised study programme. This can be used to support a request for the College to be named in a young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan.

When the placement has been agreed we will work with the learner and their family to ensure a successful move from their current school or college to Ambitious College.

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Ambitious College prospectus

Funding a placement at Ambitious College The final decision about placements is made by the learner’s home local authority and takes into account the preference expressed by the family and our assessment. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, a parent or learner can name a preferred college in an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Our study programmes

We’re here to support young people with autism to achieve the life they want. To do this we follow the four pathways developed by Preparing for Adulthood.

Our learners are funded by the Education Funding Agency and local authority usually from education budgets with some input from social care and/or health as best meets their needs. Personal budgets can also be used to contribute to a placement at Ambitious College.

Ambitious College was awarded Section 41 Secretary of State approved status in 2014 and gained Education Funding Agency (EFA) registration in January 2015. Registration means that we are contracted by the EFA to deliver education and training for learners with high needs, for local authorities that agree placements.

For more information on making a referral to us please contact Linda Crewes: Tel: 020 8815 5444 admissions@ambitiouscollege.org.uk

http://www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk/ Learners access each of the four pathways.

How much they access from each is dependent on what they want to do after college. Where possible, learners will be supported in setting their own learning targets. Functional skills such as communication, literacy, numeracy and ICT are developed throughout the entire curriculum. We support our learners to acquire these skills through ‘doing’ rather than in a more traditional classroombased model, as we have seen that is how they learn best.

The approach we use to help our learners acquire new skills and participate in everyday life is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS). This approach helps our learners overcome patterns of challenging or socially isolating behaviours and gives them more opportunities to learn effectively and achieve long term goals.

Where appropriate, we fully support learners to gain qualifications that will further their interests and help them achieve their goals. Ambitious College was awarded Centre Recognition status by OCN London, a national awarding organisation.

Independent living and housing

Preparing learners for adult life underpins everything we do at Ambitious College which is why a large part of our curriculum is delivered in the community through practical learning. We support learners to develop the skills they will need to live as independently as they can and make activities such as shopping, cooking and accessing leisure services an integral part of our curriculum offer.

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Ambitious College prospectus

Employment

Securing employment is very important for many of our learners and can give them a real sense of purpose and community inclusion on leaving college. With this in mind, we put a strong emphasis on developing employability skills.

For some of our learners this will mean working on communication, independence and participation skills. For others, the aim will be to develop skills specific to the job they want to do.

All learners have the opportunity to undertake work experience. This increases their selfconfidence and ability to cope in a range of settings outside the College.

We employ a full time Employment Specialist and we are a member of the British Association of Supported Employment (BASE).

Friends, relationships and community

Communication and social understanding can be a challenge for many of our learners. However, we recognise that forming relationships is an essential part of community life and we support our learners to develop these vital skills at every opportunity.

We operate a Total Communication Environment (TCE) and support the many methods our learners use to communicate. This includes PECS, Makaton, visual supports, word recognition and the use of social stories.

Learner case study: James

James is very sociable and loves to keep fit and active. He is a learner at Ambitious College and requires 1:1 support. Our team spent time getting to know James, what interested him and what he was able to do, as well as looking at various aspects of his life including his home, local community and educational background.

A supported employment planning meeting was held with James, his family and other people in his life who were committed to James getting a job. They asked questions about what was and wasn’t working in supporting James and what would be the ideal conditions for his working environment. What would be his ideal job?

The team then investigated jobs available to James, learning how tasks were performed and what expectations employers had. Time was taken to get to know the working environment and culture to make sure that it was the right fit for both James and the employer.

Good Health

We work with some of the most vulnerable young people in society and their health and safety is of critical importance to us. All activities that feature in our varied curriculum are risk-assessed and the health of learners is monitored carefully on an on-going basis.

James’ first work experience was at a distribution company delivering leaflets. Initially James required a lot of support to carry out the task, but within three hours he was delivering leaflets with the support of a job coach. James enjoyed his day and was laughing and smiling until the end of it. He is now doing similar distribution work for Scrivens Opticians, employed as a casual worker and supported by his job coach. James is working up to six hours a week as a paid employee. He continues to enjoy the role which involves being active, working with people and doing systematic tasks.

Many of our learners have food intolerances and some require medication. We work with learners and their families to manage these needs and encourage learners, wherever possible, to manage their own medication.

We are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and inspected every year. The latest inspection report for our service can be found on the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk.

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Staff team “Staff are caring, excellent and enthusiastic.�

Relative of Ambitious College learner CQC Report 2015

Our learners benefit from a multi-disciplinary team that includes Qualified Teachers, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Learning Behaviour Specialists and a dedicated Family Support team. All learning is overseen by a senior leadership team led by the College Principal who ensures that all staff are trained and motivated to provide an exceptional level of support.

Speech and Language Therapist: supports learners to develop their communication and social interaction skills Occupational Therapist: helps learners to manage sensory issues and develop functional life skills

Behavioural Analyst: works with learners to overcome behavioural issues which could create barriers to learning Employment specialist: supports learners to develop vocational skills and access work experience Learning and Behaviour Specialist: works with learners to access their personcentred curriculum and mainstream and community provision Qualified Teacher: plans and delivers sessions around the four Preparing for Adulthood pathways

Family Support

We know that a key part of supporting learners is supporting their families. That is why we provide a dedicated family support service to all College families. We support families on a range of issues including benefits, equalities, housing and employment.

Safeguarding

Learner safety underpins everything we do but it doesn’t stop us from extending learning into the community and making the curriculum interesting.

We are always very careful to risk-assess all activities so that we are prepared for any situation that may arise. We are fully CQC registered and all staff have on-going training to make sure that we are compliant with all relevant statutory requirements.

This prospectus is designed to give an overview of what Ambitious College has to offer. We’d love to tell you more and would encourage you to get in touch if you would like any further information.

We look forward to working with you in the future.

Tel: 020 8815 5444 admissions@ambitiouscollege.org.uk

Ambitious College prospectus

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Address The Pears National Centre for Autism Education, Woodside Avenue, London N10 3JA Telephone 020 8815 5444

Email info@ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk

Website www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk @ambitiousautism www.facebook.com/ambitiousaboutautism Charity number 1063184 Registered company 3375255

Ambitious College, Barnet and Southgate College, Grahame Park Campus, Grahame Park Way, Colindale, London NW9 5RA Ambitious College, Pears Campus at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, Beaconsfield Road, Southall, Greater London UB1 1DP Telephone 020 8266 4158

Email admin@ambitiouscollege.org.uk Website ambitiouscollege.org.uk @ambitiousautism www.facebook.com/ambitiousaboutautism Charity number 1063184 Registered company 3375255 Published - June 2015