Thorough transitions
Before offering a place at the school, we will invite the student to visit us for a minimum one-day assessment. This gives us an opportunity to evaluate the young person’s abilities and level of need. For residential pupils, this will usually also involve an overnight stay with us.
Our dedicated assessment co-ordinator will guide the student through their assessment day and write up the outcomes. The Head Teacher, Admissions Co-ordinator, and Therapy department will also have input into the assessment.
Depending on the outcomes of their initial assessment, we may then make an offer to the pupil. As part of this formal offer, we will put together an appropriate transition plan, which has had input from, and been agreed with:
- Parents/carers
- Local authority
- Teachers
- Care team
- Therapy team
Phased transitions
The majority of our students will start with us on a phased transition, typically building up to full time attendance over the course of four to six weeks. This is because a lot of the young people who come to us have not been in school for a while and may struggle with education or with the learning environment.
For residential students who come to us full time straight away, we are able to put an internal phased transition in place. This allows the young person to gradually start accessing the education provision if we feel that moving straight into full time education may cause their placement to fail.
Moving on from North Hill House School
Our aim is for all of our students to leave North Hill House School with the life and communication skills they need to be able to put their academic achievements to full use and become valuable members of society.
We enrol students on our independence programme as soon as we feel that they will be able to cope with it. Most will start developing life skills on-site in our residential settings, gradually progressing to working on these skills within the local community. Our independence programmes support our young people to learn to carry out a variety of everyday tasks, such as:
- Taking journeys on public transport
- Going shopping at the supermarket
- Opening a bank account