Eagle House 6th Form (Strawberry Lodge)
A supportive route through to the adult world
We aim to inspire learners to move forward into adulthood with confidence, ambition, raised self-esteem and with appropriate learning experiences and opportunities behind them. We focus on preparing them for the life challenges they will face and to provide them with a clear sense of purpose and direction moving forwards.
As with their typical peers, we encourage our learners to have and believe in their aspirations and dreams.
Our Approach
Specialist Learning & Work Skills Coaches
We aim to combine the three ingredients needed to support our learners in their transition to adulthood; a supportive and therapeutic autism educational environment; tailored opportunities for vocational work experience and the right support needed to make college a success.
All learners are supported by specialist Learning & Work Skills Coaches. These are familiar faces, who already know them well and are there to support them through to the next exciting phase of their educational and vocational journey.
All of our learning & work skills coaches are trained to a Level 3 NVQ and receive additional autism-specific training throughout the academic year. Each learner has a specific learning & work skills coach key worker who they can turn to if they have any anxieties or concerns. They ensure learners are fully supported
All learners continue to receive Tier 1 therapy support (higher, if stated in their Education, Health & Care Plan) from our resident autism specialist multidisciplinary team (Curriculum Access Team).
This includes support and access to:
Speech & language therapy
Occupational therapy
Assistant psychology
Pupil wellbeing officer
a supportive route through to the adult world
building towards College
Sixth Form
Our CurriculumFor many of our learners FE colleges are unable to provide for them beyond a certain level of need and can mark the closure of what could be an ambitious and aspirational future.
INTENT
Learners accessing SL are at a point in their development where they ready for a learning environment that stretches them further towards adult independence.
We intend for Learners to access a curriculum that is designed to allows them to develop at their own pace to maximise their future aspirations.
Pupils are prepared for the next stage in their journey towards adulthood with a variety of appropriate provisions, qualifications, independence goals, and work-related skills. The curriculum includes a variety of academic and vocational accreditation such as GCSE, BTEC, AQA and DofE, GCSEs,
and BTECs.
SL provides a FE establishment all set within a nurturing environment centred on shared values.
IMPLEMENTATION
The curriculum offer is built from the National Curriculum and recognised accredited qualifications.
Learners will have an input into what they wish to study and in setting their future goals.
SL is able to offer unique opportunities to stretch learners to attend a mainstream FE college with the support of a Job Coach.
All learners undertake a number of external work experience opportunities and enterprise initiatives in accordance with the Gatsby indicators.
Interview preparation, careers advice and World of Work programmes, coupled with a home skills programme, ensure that our learners can make transitions into independent living accommodation.
IMPACT
Learners further develop and generalise their self-regulation and independence skills to better prepare them for their journey into adulthood.
Learners are resilient and valued members of their community who understand their rights and responsibilities and how they can make a positive contribution to society.
Learners are proud of their academic, vocational and personal achievements.
Our Health and Wellbeing Curriculum
Emotional and Mental Health
It is globally recognised that the prevalence of mental health difficulties in young people is increasing. This is particularly important for young people with autism who often cannot talk about their feelings or engage in conventional talking therapies.
Research shows that early intervention and psychoeducation can be instrumental in reducing the likelihood of young people suffering from mental health difficulties, by better equipping them to recognise the signs or declining mental health and take positive action to help themselves.
To address this need we offer a Mental Health Curriculum to our Learners which compromises of 6 accredited AQA units which have been selected to best meet the emotional and academic needs of the young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
Aims
The intent of this curriculum is to improve the pupil’s mental health awareness so that they can better understand their own and others mental health needs and consequently:
- Be able to implement positive strategies to improve their anxiety and mental wellbeing
- Increase their tolerance of and reduce stigma around mental health
- Become aware of avenues of support so that they are able to seek help for themselves or others
- Achieve accredited AQA qualifications which will broaden their possibilities for employment
- Developing their understanding of abstract concepts
- Promote their independence through utilizing introspective self-reflection in order to manage their emotional and behavioural regulation.
The following Level 1 AQA modules are covered:
1. Managing change
2. Personal resilience: Dealing with challenging situations
3. Exploring mental health
4. Self-concept, stress and depression
5. Peer mentoring
6. The fear project: Identifying human fear and emotion
Emotional and Mental Health
Impact
We obtain regular feedback from each learner to ensure that it is relevant for them and over the course of the first year 100% of the pupils have achieved the accredited qualification for every unit.
Physical Health
We aim to introduce our learners to the world of ‘real life’ leisure activities to establish healthy lifestyle choices for future adulthood. The Duke of Edinburgh award is offered to enable learners to explore the world of hobbies and activities. Whether it is to try something new or choose activities they already love, to gain skills, make friends and achieve a recognised mark of achievement; respected by employers. Visit https://www.dofe.org/
Break times and lunchtimes are structured to offer fun activities and we have a fantastic sports hall and open space for activities such as Basket all, football, cricket and table tennis.
All learners have access to our dedicated Personal Trainer who provides both individual and Group support in areas such as exercise, healthy eating and reaching personal bests! From Aerobics to Yoga, we can tailor our offer to meet individual interests.
Unlike their typical peers:
- Fewer than 1 in 4 young people with an autism spectrum disorder progress to any form of education or training following school;
- Our young people often miss out on the opportunity to continue to develop their learning skills;
- Fewer than 1 in 7 of our young people will ever gain employment.
We aim to challenge these less than positive statistics.
We took national statistics and compared them with some of our own Year 11 leavers from recent years who had gone on to college without specialist support such as ours. We also talked to both ex-pupils and their parents. In general, they found the facilities in local colleges good but they found their experience stressful and worrying at times often due to the lack of understanding of their autism and associated anxiety. Some colleges failed to give a specific ‘named person’ for their child to refer to and others became ‘poor attenders’ due to lack of adequate supervision and support.
These comments have helped us to shape the college experience we are offering and one that our young people have the right to choose. Our 6th Form provides each learner with the experience they enjoy and the outcomes they deserve.
We are also there to prepare and support them beyond college and post 19 – into higher education or a vocational placement wherever possible.
CONTACT US
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Contact us
Eagle House School (Mitcham):
020 8687 7050
Eagle House School (Bramley):
01483 912 080
Eagle House School (Sutton & POST 16 Department):
020 8661 1419
Eagle House School 6th Form (Strawberry Lodge):
020 3745 8760
Schools' Business Office:
020 8770 7788
Schools' Business Office
Eagle House Group Ltd
Chancery House
Ground Floor Suite
St Nicolas Way
Sutton
Surrey
SM1 1JB
