Playing with LEGO in a therapy setting promotes social interaction, turn-taking skills, sharing, collaborative problem-solving and the learning of concepts. It can be used to target goals around social skills, language and motor skills. By using a commonly adored tool like LEGO it capitalises on its existing motivation and supports self-esteem by allowing the participants to demonstrate their skills in a social situation. It also sets up a positive opportunity for guided social problem-solving to help develop social skills that can then be used in other situations.

Children with autism sometimes find it challenging to understand what is expected of them in a social situation, particularly within unstructured play activities. LEGO-based Therapy provides a highly structured environment where everyone plays a specific role within the group. This can help children on the autistic spectrum feel calm and relaxed as they are doing something that they enjoy, they know precisely what to expect and what is expected of them.

Drawing and Talking is a therapeutic intervention. It is designed as a short-term pro-active intervention intended to complement, rather than replace, the work of Specialist Mental Health Services. Through a 12-week cycle of sessions this non-intrusive tool allows children and young people to bring what they need to their sessions. Utilising drawing as a way to help them express their feelings differently to ordinary verbal language. The Drawing and Talking therapeutic approach allows individuals to discover and communicate emotions through a non-directed technique.

Lexia is a proven intervention to support students to develop a broad range of literacy skills focused on their ability to decode and comprehend their reading. The programme personalises provision to ensure every learner accesses support to make rapid and sustained progress, building confidence and enjoyment.

We have an Autism Ambassador within our school who is here to make a difference to a person living with Autism and their families.

As an ambassador they will act as an agent for change through:

• Enabling autistic people to have a voice
• Raising an awareness and understanding of autism amongst colleagues, friends and family
• identifying and influencing reasonable adjustments that can be made to:
  • Work processes and practices
  • The environment in school or in the community
  • Support and recognise how people engage and communicate with one another
  • Build knowledge and sharing of best practice through development of networks

Widgit online is used to create both print and interactive materials from a range of easy-to-use templates or from scratch using our intuitive document writer. These resources are available to support our learners who require a more visual approach to their learning.

CAMHS is the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. They are part of the NHS and provide mental health services for young people. The school has a CAMHS ambassador who is also a qualified mental health practitioner.

The Mental Health In Schools Team provide the following target support:

•  Short term low intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) informed interventions for children and young people with anxiety and/or low mood aged between 12 to 17 years
• Support for parents of children under 12 with anxiety and /or who are experiencing behavioural issues using the following evidence-based interventions:

CBT Therapists provide;

• Individual, time limited 1:1 support to young people presenting with Anxiety Disorders, Low mood & OCD.

Southampton MHST also offers support to school and college staff by:

• Delivering training on various mental health topics
• Offering consultations (individual or group) where staff can think through their students or class groups
• Working with staff to support students individually
• Supporting staff wellbeing

An ELSA in a school is an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. Examples of things covered in ELSA sessions include social skills, emotions, bereavement, social stories and therapeutic stories, anger management, self-esteem, counselling skills such as solution focus and friendship (coming soon).

Toe by Toe is a highly structured phonics-based reading manual to help anyone who finds reading difficult. It requires only 20 minutes of coaching a day and you’ll see immediate improvements in your child’s reading confidence.

Sound Foundations Books reading and spelling programmes are: easy-to-use books developed to teach reading and spelling to children and students struggling with literacy.

The ‘Plus 1’ and ‘Power of 2’ books support staff to lead individualised one-to-one mathematics support. Through the use of the ‘Plus 1’ and ‘Power of 2’ books, staff are able to work one-to-one with learners.