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• Autism

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Schools have a responsibility to make provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN).

We provide funding through normal school budgets to help schools to support pupils with special educational needs. We have produced the Derbyshire Descriptors of SEN Provision.

The descriptors offer guidance and advice to primary and secondary schools about the level and type of support they should provide for pupils with additional needs. They are used by the us to monitor provision for pupils with SEN without a statement. They outline how schools should:

• Assess, plan and review provision.

• Arrange teaching groups.

• Adjust the curriculum and teaching methods.

• Provide resources, such as access to additional support from a teaching assistant for up to three hours per week for pupils at School Action or up to eight hours a week for pupils at School Action Plus.

Your child may:

• Have a diagnosis of Autism, Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Asperger’s Syndrome.

• Have difficulties with communication, interaction and imagination which affect his or her learning.

• Have difficulties developing language.

• Have friendship problems.

• Prefer to play alone.

• Have difficulty understanding other people’s feelings.

• Lack conversation skills.

• Find change difficult to cope with.

• Have difficulties getting organised.

• Have sensory issues such as over-sensitivity to noise.

• Show stress at home.

What can your school do?

• Use teacher assessment and observations to establish how your child learns best.

• Find out which ways of teaching are the most effective.

• Discuss your child with relevant professionals who visit the school.

• Use this advice to plan different work for your child.

• Arrange for your child to have some extra help in smaller teaching groups supported by a teaching assistant.

• Have routines that will help your child understand what happens in each day.

• Use visual timetables and prompt sheets.

• Organise groups carefully to promote your child’s opportunities for mixing with other children, using language and understanding and using imagination.

• Plan carefully for transitions when your child moves year groups or schools.

• Follow guidance from Derbyshire’s File for Autism Friendly Schools.

Who else can help?

An Educational Psychologist can make a referral to an Autism Outreach Teacher on behalf of a school.

Other services who can help include:

• The Support Service for Special Educational Needs

• The Local Inclusion Officer Service

If your child has other difficulties as well as autism, all schools have access to county services which can offer support and advice for pupils with:

• behaviour difficulties

• hearing, physical and/or visual difficulties

• learning difficulties

You or your child’s teacher (with your permission) can ask a speech and language therapist to see your child.

Your GP can make a referral for physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and will also advise on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and voluntary services such as Barnardo's.

What other advice is available?

Derbyshire has published comprehensive files of advice and information on autism, speech and language difficulties and dyslexia.

Contact details

Derbyshire Educational Psychology Service
County Hall
Dale Road
Matlock
DE4 3AG
Tel: 01629 580000

Local Inclusion Officer Service
Chesterfield Area Education Office
Sheffield Road
Chesterfield
S41 7LU
Tel: 01246 204851

Derbyshire Parent Partnership
The Community Centre
School Board Lane
Chesterfield
S40 1DD
Tel: 01246 273154/5

The full version of the SEN Descriptors is available in every school.

If you require this and other local inclusion officer service leaflets in large print or another format, please contact the head of Local Inclusion Officer service listed above.