Education

We have to be
careful that
what we’re teaching
doesn’t trigger a
memory of trauma in
some children and
that their sensory
needs are also met”

because of these very difficulties,

teaching the subject to kids with
special educational needs has to
be undertaken sensitively.
How do the experts manage
this? We spoke to several
experienced teachers to find out
their tips for passing on essential
life-skills to pupils with ASD.

GRETTON SCHOOL
David Watkins, head of Key Stage
4 at Gretton School in Cambridge,
is passionate about the benefits of
PSHE. The school offers day and
boarding provision for youngsters
aged five to 19 who have autism or
Asperger’s syndrome.
He explains: “I wish I’d been
given some of this information
Practical when I was a teenager. There’s a
lessons: all huge amount of information to

Real-life
schools now cover, such as financial budgeting,
have to teach personal identity or Islamophobia,
PSHE topics but it’s all beneficial, real-life stuff.
such as “For some of our students,
puberty, drugs PSHE lessons are the only
and managing opportunity they’ll have to learn

learning
For parents guiding their child through life, teaching them about Personal, social, health and
economic (PSHE) education
important issues such as puberty, drugs, abuse and managing encompasses a huge range of
topics. It focuses on health and
their finances is essential. However, it can be fraught with wellbeing, relationships and sex,
employment and managing
difficulties when your child is on the autism spectrum. Since finances. Students might learn, for
example, about safety online,
last year, parents have received a helping hand when it became making friends, and eating a
healthy diet.
compulsory for schools in the UK to teach PSHE – personal, They may also learn about the
risks of drugs and alcohol and how
social, health and economic studies. Fiona McNeill reports to spot abusive relationships.
money, but it
can require
careful planning
when pupils are
on the autism
spectrum
Although there are no exams or
tests on the subject of PSHE,
schools are expected to adapt
their lessons to suit all pupils’ ages
and abilities.
Most educationalists agree that
PSHE is a brilliant way to help
“It’s all beneficial”: launch young people into adult life.
David Watkins of It can be especially useful, they
Gretton School say, for those with autism who
often struggle to grasp social
expectations and understand how
the world ‘works’. However,
about these things.”
Watkins takes a deliberately
matter-of-fact approach to teaching
these topics. “Autistic students
often need a reason to do
something. They understand, for
example, that they study some
subjects to get a qualification,
which might help them find a job,”
he explains. “With PSHE, there is
no assessment, so it’s about
gradually easing them in and
passing on information in an
accessible way.”
He uses a mixture of
worksheets, diagrams, discussion
and online activities in the
classroom, adding a dash of
humour where appropriate.
“Teaching PSHE is massively
rewarding,” he concludes.

30 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2 www.autismeye.com www.autismeye.com Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2 31

Founded in 2001, we combine specialist education and
therapies to ensure each child we support is equipped with
the tools and confidence they need to communicate, explore,
play and engage with the world around them.
Our services for children age 2-12 years
and their families include:
• The Circle Centre specialist pre-school nursery
based in Buckinghamshire
• Independent assessments for children’s
Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCP)
• Speech & language and occupational therapies
• Webinars, workshops, emotional
support & guidance for parents & carers
We also provide UK-wide consultancy and training
courses for practitioners, schools and local authorities.
You will find full details about our services on our website.
T: 01293 733900 W: autismearlysupport.org.uk
© 2020 Autism Early Support Trust Ltd
Company No: 07553552 registered in England
Registered Charity No: 1141868
The Old School, Middle Claydon,
Buckingham, MK18 2ET
Healthy eating: “When you see the penny dropping
it’s one thing and a student ‘gets’ what you’re
to teach about talking about, it’s fantastic.”
it in PSHE, n www.grettonschool.com
but another
to embed the QUORN HALL SCHOOL
understanding Gretton’s sister establishment,
of it in everyday Quorn Hall, is a therapeutic school
life, says in Leicestershire for pupils aged
Amanda Grant six to 17 who have social,
of Maple View emotional and mental health issues
School (SEMH) and autism.
PSHE is fundamental to all
aspects of school life, says
assistant headteacher Vickie
Perkins. “We have very small
Teaching text: classes (no more than eight pupils)
Waiting for and we tailor all lessons to the
Wolf by Sandra individual,” she explains. “We have
Dieckmann to be careful that what we’re
(Hodder teaching doesn’t trigger a memory
Children’s of trauma in some children and that
Books, £6.99), their sensory needs are also met.
with its themes Because of this, teachers work
of friendship closely with the therapeutic team –
and loss, is occupational therapists,
one of the texts psychologists and the SENCo, for
used at Maple example – when planning lessons.”
View School for One of the biggest challenges is
teaching PSHE helping students to understand
puberty, Perkins adds. She usually
starts with a fun exercise where
she gets students to lie down on a
piece of paper, draw round each
other, then add descriptions of
feelings such as ‘butterflies’ or
‘clouds’ to the diagram, showing
where these occur in their bodies.
32 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2 www.autismeye.com www.autismeye.com
You have to
teach in a
factual way, with no
ambiguity. Though
they can learn facts,
they often find it
difficult to apply it
to themselves”
Later, they identify behaviours that
go along with these feelings, such
as ‘fidgeting’ or ‘hair-pulling’ and
look at strategies for self-regulation.
“We keep terminology simple
and relevant and make topics
‘real’,” she says. “Discussing
personal hygiene, for example, and
how you can’t wear the same
clothes every day because of BO, I
come to school in an old jumper
with holes in. I get the students to
smell it and see that, even though
it’s my favourite jumper and I like
wearing it, it’s clean.”
n www.quornhallschool.com
MAPLE VIEW SCHOOL
Maple View School in Derby is a
specialist provision for young
people aged six to 16 with
complex needs and learning
difficulties, including autism. “PSHE
is about life-skills – it’s part and
Education
parcel of what we do every day,”
says headteacher Amanda Grant.
“We’re helping our students to be
happy and safe and become active
members of the community. As
we’re a very small school with a
broad range of abilities, staff adapt
topics to each pupil’s level of
understanding. It could be that a
younger student is more aware
than an immature 16-year-old.”
Grant says Maple View uses a
whole-school text for the children to
access, regardless of ability, in
order to explore wider curriculum
themes. “This is a vital resource for
us for PSHE delivery,” she says.
One text example is Waiting for
Wolf by Sandra Dieckmann, which
deals with friendship and loss.
Assistant head teacher Andrea
Burnett talks about this in a video
on the school’s website, explaining
that the school introduces a new
PSHE-related text every half-term.
It can take a while, Grant
concedes, for young people with
special educational needs to fully
grasp some aspects of the PSHE
curriculum. “You have to teach in a
factual way, with no ambiguity.
Though they can learn facts, they
often find it difficult to apply it to
themselves,” she continues. “For
example, a child might know about
healthy eating and that you need to
eat a variety of fruit and veg. But
every lunchtime, they’ll eat the
same thing – jacket potato, cheese
and beans. We remind them,
‘Remember what we talked about?
Why don’t you try a bit of tomato?’ It
might take two years before they
agree. It’s about seizing every
opportunity to reinforce learning.”
n www.senadgroup.com/mapleview
Learning life skills: a student and
teacher at Maple View School
Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2 33
 Education
AUTISM EARLY SUPPORT
Autism Early Support provides
intervention services for children
with autism or communication
difficulties (with or without a
diagnosis) in north Buckinghamshire
and the surrounding areas. Its
specialist nursery caters for
children aged two to four, while its
outreach provision helps parents
and teachers working with kids
aged two to 12.
Because the children in the
nursery are so young and have a
range of difficulties, the PSHE
focus is on gently encouraging
awareness of emotions, social
situations and personal care.
“We work with specialist
teachers, a speech and language
therapist and an occupational
therapist,” says Laura Gomersall,
head of Children’s Services with
the organisation.
“We get to know each child as
much as possible, learning about
their interests and strengths and
Be like Jack!
View our full list of vacancies at grettonschool.com/recruitment
Gretton School, Cambridge. Part of the Cavendish Education Group
34 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2
We run a ‘Girls’
Club’ where they
do nice things
together like having a
foot spa. This is one
way of addressing
personal hygiene
without calling it that”
providing a nurturing environment.
“Staff might pick up cues when
a child is becoming over-excited,
for example, and feed this back to
them. They might say, ‘You seem
to be getting agitated. Shall we sit
down for a bit?’” Gomersall says.
“We also use a lot of visuals for
recognising emotions and personal
care – hand-washing, for example.”
The organization supports PSHE
in schools by offering teachers
strategies to make the child feel
more secure during related
activities. An example of this might
be finding ways to make someone
less anxious about changing for
PE lessons.
n www.autismearlysupport.org.uk
BEECHWOOD COLLEGE
Beechwood College, near Cardiff,
is a post-16 provision for young
people with a broad range of
autism-related challenges.
PSHE topics are often
embedded in other activities, says
principal Rachel Newman. “For
example, we run a ‘Girls’ Club’
where they do nice things together
like having a foot spa. This is one
way of addressing personal
hygiene without calling it that. We
also have ‘Social Fridays’, where
students spend all day playing
games or taking part in team-
building activities. This also gives
us an opportunity to bring up
different, relevant subjects.”
www.autismeye.com
The PSHE curriculum is very
much student-led, Newman
explains. “We encourage them
to ask questions and we tailor
our discussions and activities
around their needs and what
they want to know.”
Vickie Perkins of Sex education, however, is
Quorn Hall School often the trickiest subject for
their young people, she says –
partly due to potential
embarrassment, but also
because they need space to
explore their feelings. For this
reason, it is taught on a one-to-
one basis at Beechwood.
Amanda Grant of “The students are learning
Maple View School things they might not find out
elsewhere,” Newman says. “It’s
very important that they trust
our staff.”
n www.lshealthcare.co.uk/
beechwood-college/overview/
THE VIEW SCHOOL
Rachel Newman of
Beechwood College
The View School in Edenbridge,
Kent, is an independent
provision for youngsters with
social, emotional and mental
health issues (SEMH) and
neurological challenges,
including autism, attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and pathological
demand avoidance (PDA).
Julian Roberts, the
proprietor, urges schools to find
a way of offering formal PSHE
accreditation to children with
special needs.
“If I would be giving teachers
one piece of advice regarding
teaching PSHE, then that would
be to find a route to providing
some form of accreditation for
the schemes of work that you
cover,” he says.
“I say this because it is my
belief that the areas of personal
development which we ask our
young people to go through are
at least as challenging as any
of the academic subjects that
they study.”
He adds: “When you
consider the core traits which
are associated with being an
autistic person and then relate
them to the topics which are
covered within the PSHE
curriculum, it’s easy to identify
subjects and learning-
outcomes that are going to be
www.autismeye.com
more problematic for a young
person with ASD than their
Years of experience of providing
neurotypical peers.”
Providing accreditation, he high quality specialist Education and
argues, gives PSHE the Support for people with Autism,
recognition it deserves as an
important subject and
learning difficulties and specialist
acknowledges the health needs.
achievements of these
students. “When reviewing EHC
Plans, I often see the phrases
‘positive future outcomes’ and
‘an active member of society’
when describing the young
people’s goals.
“Therefore, it makes
absolute sense to show where
they are making progress and
to reward these outcomes in a
formal manner.”
The positive impact of PSHE
on pupils who struggle with
social communication, Roberts
says, can be long-lasting.
Accreditation, he suggests,
would also support teachers to
be confident in delivering well-
Schools Post 16 TRANSITION ADULT
Age 5-16 AGE 16-19 AGE 19-25 HOMES
pitched lessons via access to
tried-and-tested materials.
n www.theviewschool.org
EQUALS
Equals is a charity supporting
teaching staff and families SENAD COMMUNITY
working with youngsters who
have a range of learning High quality support and personal care
difficulties that might include to people of all ages when and where,
autism. It offers training, advice and for as long as they need it.
and schemes of work where the
national curriculum has been
adapted for children with SEN.
The organisation advocates
a holistic attitude to teaching,
says manager Paul Buskin. “It’s
a cross-curricular approach
which encourages
independence and wellbeing,
rather than focusing on
Wishing everyone a
individual subjects.” Merry Christmas
Relationships and sex
education are always the
& a Happy New Year
trickiest areas of PSHE for
pupils with learning difficulties,
he says. In the context of cross-
curricular learning, this means
staff need to devise
personalised lessons for each
FOR MORE INFORMATION
individual based on the CALL OUR REFERRAL MANAGER
student’s needs and level of 01332 378 840 OR VISIT SENADGROUP.COM
understanding. Lessons should
also account for the young
person’s sensory needs.
n www.equals.co.uk
Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 4 4 2 0 2 1 / 2 2 35