Skip to main content

National Autistic Society - Leading UK charity for Autistic people

  • Accessibility
  • Community
  • Contact us
  • Work for us
  • News
  • Shop
Donate
Close Button
  • Advice and guidance
    • Advice and guidance
      • Advice and guidance
      • Directory
      • Community
      • Help and support
        • Help and support
        • Autism Helpline
        • Autism Inpatient Mental Health Service
        • Education Rights Helpline
        • Education Tribunal Support Helpline
        • General Enquiries
        • Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
        • School Exclusion Helpline
        • Transition Support Helpline
      • Professional practice
      • Spectrum Live
      • Stories from the Spectrum
      • The Spectrum magazine
        • The Spectrum magazine
        • Articles and features
        • Letters to the editor
        • Poems
        • Previous editions
        • Spectrum Collections
      • What is autism
        • What is autism
        • Asperger syndrome
        • Autism and BAME people
        • Autism and gender identity
        • Autistic women and girls
        • The causes of autism
        • The history of autism
        • Varying support needs
  • What we do
    • What we do
      • What we do
      • Adult residential services
        • Adult residential services
        • Find adult residential services
        • Adult services stories
      • Best practice
        • Best practice
        • Consultancy services
        • Accreditation
        • Professional development
        • Training and conferences
      • Branches
      • Campaign
        • Campaign
        • About our campaign work
        • Sign up to Campaigner Updates
        • Changing the law
        • Transforming Care
      • Diagnostic services
        • Diagnostic services
        • DISCO
        • Meet the team
      • Education and children's services
        • Education and children's services
        • Cullum Centres
        • Our schools
      • Employment
        • Employment
        • Autism at Work programme
        • Job opportunities
      • Help and support
        • Help and support
        • Autism Helpline
        • Autism Inpatient Mental Health Service
        • Education Rights Helpline
        • Education Tribunal Support Helpline
        • General Enquiries
        • Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline
        • School Exclusion Helpline
        • Transition Support Helpline
      • News
      • Support in the community
        • Support in the community
        • Befriending
        • Centres
        • Family support
        • Outreach
        • Social groups
    • www.aaronscottrichards.co.uk Event curve-right

      Autism and Mental Health Conference 2021

      Published on 11, March, 2021

  • Who we are
    • Who we are
      • Who we are
      • Northern Ireland
      • Scotland
      • Wales
      • Who we are
        • Who we are
        • Our leadership team
        • Our patron, president and vice presidents
        • Our trustees
        • Our mission, vision and values
        • Transparency and compliance
      • Work for us
        • Work for us
        • Autistic employees
        • School based roles
        • Support worker roles
  • How you can help
    • How you can help
      • How you can help
      • Autism Friendly Award
      • Campaign
        • Campaign
        • About our campaign work
        • Sign up to Campaigner Updates
        • Changing the law
        • Transforming Care
      • Corporate
        • Corporate
        • Our marketplace community
        • Our partners
      • Donate
        • Donate
        • Donate while you shop
        • Gift Aid and making your donation go further
        • Give in memory
        • Leave a gift in your will
        • Lottery – play now to win £25,000
        • Other ways to donate
        • Payroll Giving
      • Membership
        • Membership
        • Membership FAQs
        • Renew your membership
      • Philanthropy
        • Philanthropy
        • How your support can help change lives
      • Raise money
        • Raise money
        • Do your own thing
        • Fundraising events
        • Fundraise from home
      • Volunteer
      • Work for us
        • Work for us
        • Autistic employees
        • School based roles
        • Support worker roles
Donate
Donate
  1. Home
  2. Our schools
  3. How we operate

How we operate

The appropriate inclusion or integration of students into mainstream is an important stepping stone towards autistic people being fully included as valued members of their local community. It also promotes equal opportunities.

However, autism is a spectrum condition and requires a continuum of provision. Our specialist schools are part of that continuum of provision and local offer. Where a young person’s needs cannot be met full time in mainstream, they will benefit from access to more specialist support. Our schools put significant emphasis on community-based learning and shared activities with partner schools that promote their inclusion into their local community.

The purpose of our schools is to help prepare young people to make a successful transition into adulthood with the confidence and the necessary skills to live as independently as possible and participate in their local community. It is our vision to increase achievement to give our students the best possible opportunity to gain employment or access further education and go on to live the life they choose.

We provide a broad, balanced, relevant and purposeful curriculum which promotes the intellectual, personal, social and physical development of all students. The curriculum takes account of students differing abilities, experiences and profile in order to provide all students with both challenge and opportunity. Students will be able to access both the national curriculum and our own autism specialist curriculum. Our curriculum is based on our tried and tested curriculum within our schools to encapsulate best practice in autism methodology.

Our schools are flexible and will offer a range of different categories of placement designed to meet individual needs.


We will always strive to work collaboratively with local authorities, parents and the local community. Specifically, we provide outreach to local schools to prevent placement breakdowns and aim to share our expertise by providing an information and training hub for local parents and professionals.

Keep up to date with all the great things we're doing

Subscribe for updates
  • Feedback and complaints
  • Cookies, privacy and legal
  • Terms and conditions
  • Transparency and compliance
  • false
  • false
  • false
  • false
  • false

We are registered as a charity in England and Wales (269425) and in Scotland (SC039427). The National Autistic Society is also a company limited by guarantee, registered at Companies House (01205298). VAT registration number: 653370050. © The National Autistic Society 2021

false

Cookies on this site

Our site uses cookies for key functions and to give you the best experience. Use cookie settings to control which cookies are allowed or click on Allow Optional Cookies to allow all cookies. For more detailed information please see our cookie policy.

Your cookie settings