Autism Support Team

Our Service

The AST is a small team of professionals who specialise in autism, this includes specialist Teachers, specialist teaching assistants, specialist speech & language therapist, post diagnosis support worker and early years autism support officer.

We provide an outreach service to Early Years providers and maintained primary schools in the borough of Southwark. The request for support is initiated by the educational setting with parental consent.

The outreach role is to support the class teacher, teaching assistants, early years practitioners and other members of the educational setting to meet the individual teaching, learning and wellbeing needs of autistic children in their nursery/school.

The following support can be provided:

Observation of the child at nursery/school, providing feedback, advice and recommendations, including support with target setting.
Reception Request For Support (RFS) - The AST will be offering whole class support for 2023/2024 to reception classes, this will involve working alongside the class teacher and teaching assistants to develop and build upon autism good practice at a universal level. Click here to download and complete the RFS form. ^{(docx, 1.8mb)}
Planning support- differentiating the curriculum

Resource development- visuals supports, reward system, task checklist

Monthly drop –in for Teaching Assistants

Attendance at meetings- Annual Reviews (AR), Team Around the Child (TAC) and Team Around the Family (TAF)

Transition Support - nursery to reception, year 6 to year 7
- Nursery to School Transition Passport Section B (Nursery) ^{(docx, 260kb)}
- Nursery to Reception Transition Passport Section A (Parent) ^{(docx, 741kb)}
- Secondary Transition Guide 2020 ^{(pdf, 8.6mb)}
- Transition Workbook ^{(pdf, 7.7mb)}

Training - please refer to training details under Professional Development Offer for further information and for parents/carers please refer to the information for families page

We currently do not do offer a service to Southwark Secondary Schools or Post 16 provision, this is something we hope to do in the future.

Early Years Autism Support Officer (EYASO)

We have a single Early Years Autism Support Officer (EYASO) in the team, their support in the most part focusses upon priorities of parents/carers and the nursery setting your child attends. Areas for development that can be addressed in this offer include:

Communication
Interaction & play skills
Independence including toileting, eating, and sleeping

The EYASO also works with the staff at your child nursery setting to develop their knowledge of Autism, this will include modelling strategies appropriate for your child.

Autism Post Diagnosis Support Worker

We have an Autism Post Diagnosis Support Worker, this role provides:

Regular programme of post diagnosis parental training; Next Steps and Cygnet.
Direct contact with parents and carers, providing emotional and practical support, along with signposting parents to other service providers.
Provision of autism awareness training for local service providers.
Co-ordination and delivery of parental coffee mornings for parents of children with ASD.
Delivery of annual conference ‘Let’s Talk About Autism’.

Supports and Interventions for schools

Below is information on specific autism supports and interventions for schools to download

5 Point Scale ^{(pdf, 614kb)}
Power Cards ^{(pdf, 594kb)}
Social Autopsies ^{(pdf, 325kb)}
Task Breakdown ^{(pdf, 778kb)}
Token/working for board ^{(pdf, 561kb)}
ABC Chart ^{(docx, 52kb)}
ABC Chart - How to Complete ^{(pdf, 499kb)}
Behaviour working for chart ^{(pdf, 65kb)}
Working for charts ^{(pdf, 3.2mb)}
Now Next with Symbols Small Size ^{(pdf, 1.6mb)}

Autism and School Exclusions - Guidance

The Autism Education Trust provides information and guidance about school exclusions. Autistic Children are particularly vulnerable to being excluded from school. Sometimes behaviour associated with their autism can be confused with disobedience because of a lack of awareness by both pupils and school staff. Autistic pupils trying to cope with the unstructured social aspects of school life can feel overwhelmed and become anxious and display distressed behaviours. Head teachers may feel that exclusion is the only solution in order to maintain the safety and well-being of other pupils. Indeed, it may be the case that a mainstream school is not the best setting for a child. However, distressed behaviour can be an indication of unmet needs and schools have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to policies and practices to ensure that autistic pupils also feel safe, confident and able to experience success.

Click the link below to access free resources and guidance from the Autism Education Trust about:
- Steps to avoid exclusion of autistic pupils

- School Stress and Anxiety - Emotionally based school avoidance and impact on family life

- Successful re-integration of autistic pupils following school exclusion

- School Exclusions: A guide for parents/carers

- Exclusion: A guide to help governing boards