World Autism Awareness Week 30 March – 5 April 2020

Join us and help us spread awareness and increase acceptance of autism. By looking at the resources below which have been provided by the National Autistic Society, you’ll be doing your bit to help autistic people and their families. 

Practical tips

With the help of thousands of autistic people and their families, we have created some handy tips

 Read stories from the spectrum-featuring voices from across the autism spectrum

Free learning resources for parents

Learning resources created for World Autism Awareness Week have been developed for different key stages in line with the National Curriculum, and are a great way to teach about being kind, learning about how we’re the same, and how we’re different, and understanding autism better.  The resources can be used at home during this time.

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Information and resources on coronavirus

We know for many autistic people and their families it is difficult to cope with the changes and impact coronavirus has made to our daily lives. To help, the National Autistic Society have  created some handy tips to help during this time of uncertainty – they have asked us to share these with our school’s parent network.

Support for Learning have put some useful apps, websites and learning activities on Glow as well as the school website for pupils to access at home, during this time of absence from school.

The staff would like all pupils to know that they can contact us at anytime, by following the instructions below:

1. Go onto your Glow Account (any problems see Mr Stratton’s post on the web homepage or the school twitter account)
2. Download Microsoft Team App
3. Join or create a team
4. Join a team with a code
5. Use code cgkux5d

S3 ASDAN had a lovely visit from the Guidedogs today. The class have been busy fundraising for the organisation, so today Jack handed over a cheque to the lovely volunteers for the  money raised.

The class got the chance to meet two beautiful dogs. 

AUTISM AWARENESS

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

© The National Autistic Society 2015 Schools’ Autism Awareness Week: www.autism.org.uk/saaw

When planning your autism awareness activities, make sure you follow these guidelines. Always consider the possible sensitivities of any students who are on the autism spectrum in the class.

• Make sure needs are being met

A student who is on the autism spectrum may experience heightened feelings of anxiety and stress during the week. It’s important that their needs are being met. It could be that you make sure they have an area to escape to, to help them cope with any sensory issues or stressful situations. Some students may need to use noise-cancelling headphones, or a ‘stim toy’ to help them cope with an environment. Talk to them, and their parents/carers, about their needs.

• Be sensitive to the individual person

Autistic people of all ages are people first! Make sure you’re thinking about the individual person’s needs when preparing them for the week or any activities. Avoid making assumptions about how they will find something.

• Don’t single people out

Talking about autism will draw a lot of focus to any student who other students know is autistic. Make sure the pupil does not feel singled out. The added focus could lead to bullying, so put measures in place to prevent this.

Some strategies include:

***have more staff near the student throughout the week (be subtle)

***have staff monitoring any hidden parts of the playground

***put a buddy system in place

***speak to the student throughout the week to find out how they are coping – if speech is an    issue then using talking mats (mats to which pictures can be attached and re-arranged as required) are a good way to find out when a student is feeling happy or sad during the school day.

• Advise beforehand

We recommend you speak to the parents or carers of your autistic students about what will be covered before the activities begin. This will give them a chance to talk through any worries and concerns that the pupil may have. We also recommend the teacher has a conversation with any autistic students before the lessons begin to further prepare them.

• Help your students with Autism feel in control

It’s important that autistic students feel in control of the situation as much as possible. This might mean working with you to create coping strategies for overwhelming situations, and taking an active role in planning the activities with you.

S5/S6 ASDAN class had a great morning visiting Bellshill Mosque.

They are working on a unit looking at different religions and all the class found the visit thoroughly enjoyable and informative.