An ambitious day college in London for young people
aged 16-25 with complex autism
Prospectus
Contents
04 Our co-located model
05 Learning hours/Admissions
06 Funding a placement/Our study programmes
07 Independent living
08 Employment
09 Friends, relationships and community
10 Staff team
11 Family support
Viv Berkeley
Principal, Ambitious College
Thank you for your interest in Ambitious College. We partnerships with local employers, services and our
are a new and ambitious day college in London for
mainstream college partners.
young people with complex autism. I am enormously
We are currently located at the Grahame Park
proud to be the first Principal.
Campus of Barnet and Southgate College and in
It is difficult to imagine that as I write these words
Southall, co-located with Ealing, Hammersmith and
fewer than one in four young people with autism
West London College.
access any form of education beyond school. Not
As our name suggests, we are ambitious for our
because they lack the ability or desire to learn; but
learners. We are a dedicated team of professionals
because they are being held back by a system that
lacks the knowledge and expertise to support them. who are passionate about our work supporting
young people to live happy and fulfilling lives in
Simply put, this is not good enough. At Ambitious
their home community. We know that with the right
College we think everyone should be entitled to
opportunity and support they can achieve their
lead a fulfilling, happy and rewarding life; and this
potential. I really do hope you choose Ambitious
includes young people with autism.
College and look forward to working with you and
Our learners are at the heart of everything we do and your son or daughter in the very near future.
their curriculum is highly personalised to help them
achieve their goals. It is delivered by our very skilled
and friendly staff. We offer lots of opportunities
to learn in the community through a range of
Thanks
Ambitious College exists thanks to the very
generous donations of Pears Foundation, The
Garfield Weston Foundation and other donors.
About Ambitious
about Autism
Ambitious College is run by Ambitious about
Autism, the national charity for children and young
people with autism. We provide services, raise
awareness and understanding, and campaign to
make the ordinary possible for children and young
people with autism.
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Ambitious College prospectus
Learning hours and
additional support
The majority of our learners access college 7.5
hours a day, five days a week (Monday to Friday)
and for 36 weeks a year. We appreciate that the
holidays can be a difficult time for young people
with autism and their families so we also offer a
12 week wrap-around support service outside
term time. This wrap-around support is offered at
set times of the year e.g. mid term breaks, Easter
holidays (with the exception of Bank Holidays)
and most of the summer holidays. We do not offer
the wrap-around service during the Christmas
holidays.
Admission to
Ambitious College
Our first priority is to get to know each learner
and assess whether Ambitious College is the
right place for them. We meet the young person
and their family and any professionals that are
currently supporting them. Families will be involved
throughout the assessment process. Initially we
encourage parents, carers and young people to
attend one of our Open Days. Dates for the Open
Days can be found at the college website www.
ambitiouscollege.org.uk. You might find it helpful
to make your local authority aware that you are
considering Ambitious College.
Once an expression of interest has been lodged
we ask parents and carers along with their son
or daughter and professionals to complete a pre
assessment questionnaire. We also ask for any
supporting paperwork such as an Education,
Health and Care Plan.
At this point our admissions panel will review all the
associated paperwork and make a decision about
whether we are able to meet the young person’s
needs. We try to undertake two assessments –
one at home and if the young person is attending
school or another college, we will endeavour to
visit them there also. If we feel we cannot meet the
needs of your son or daughter we will explain the
reasons to you.
If we do feel that Ambitious College can meet your
son or daughter’s needs, we will work with parents,
carers and young people to produce a personalised
study programme. This can be used to support
a request for the College to be named in a young
person’s Education, Health and Care Plan.
Our co-located model
We are aspirational and ambitious for our learners
and believe that many of them, with the right
support, can access a mainstream setting.
We are based in the same grounds as Barnet and
Southgate College in north London and on the
When the placement has been agreed we will
work with the learner and their family to ensure
a successful move from their current school or
college to Ambitious College.
Southall Campus of Ealing, Hammersmith and
West London College. This enables us to extend
our curriculum significantly and offer learners a
wide range of mainstream vocational learning,
social opportunities and work experience.
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Ambitious College prospectus
Funding a placement
at Ambitious College
The final decision about placements is made by
the learner’s home local authority and takes into
account the preference expressed by the family
and our assessment. Under the Children and
Families Act 2014, a parent or learner can name
a preferred college in an Education, Health and
Care Plan.
Our study
programmes
We’re here to support young people with autism
to achieve the life they want. To do this we follow
the four pathways developed by Preparing for
Adulthood.
Independent living and housing
Preparing learners for adult life underpins everything we do at Ambitious College which is why a
large part of our curriculum is delivered in the community through practical learning. We support
learners to develop the skills they will need to live as independently as they can and make
activities such as shopping, cooking and accessing leisure services an integral part of our
curriculum offer.
Our learners are funded by the Education Funding
Agency and local authority usually from education
budgets with some input from social care and/or
health as best meets their needs. Personal budgets
can also be used to contribute to a placement at
Ambitious College.
Ambitious College was awarded Section 41
Secretary of State approved status in 2014
and gained Education Funding Agency (EFA)
registration in January 2015. Registration means
that we are contracted by the EFA to deliver
education and training for learners with high needs,
for local authorities that agree placements.
For more information on making a referral to us
please contact Linda Crewes:
Tel: 020 8815 5444
[email protected]
http://www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk/
Learners access each of the four pathways.
How much they access from each is dependent
on what they want to do after college. Where
possible, learners will be supported in setting their
own learning targets. Functional skills such as
communication, literacy, numeracy and ICT are
developed throughout the entire curriculum. We
support our learners to acquire these skills through
‘doing’ rather than in a more traditional classroombased model, as we have seen that is how they
learn best.
The approach we use to help our learners acquire
new skills and participate in everyday life is Positive
Behaviour Support (PBS). This approach helps
our learners overcome patterns of challenging or
socially isolating behaviours and gives them more
opportunities to learn effectively and achieve long
term goals.
Where appropriate, we fully support learners to
gain qualifications that will further their interests
and help them achieve their goals. Ambitious
College was awarded Centre Recognition status by
OCN London, a national awarding organisation.
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Ambitious College prospectus
Friends, relationships
and community
Communication and social understanding can be
a challenge for many of our learners. However, we
recognise that forming relationships is an essential
part of community life and we support our learners
to develop these vital skills at every opportunity.
We operate a Total Communication Environment
(TCE) and support the many methods our learners
use to communicate. This includes PECS,
Makaton, visual supports, word recognition and
the use of social stories.
Learner
case study: James
James is very sociable and loves to keep
fit and active. He is a learner at Ambitious
College and requires 1:1 support. Our team
spent time getting to know James, what
interested him and what he was able to do,
as well as looking at various aspects of his
life including his home, local community and
educational background.
A supported employment planning meeting
was held with James, his family and other
people in his life who were committed to
James getting a job. They asked questions
about what was and wasn’t working in
supporting James and what would be the
ideal conditions for his working environment.
What would be his ideal job?
The team then investigated jobs available to
James, learning how tasks were performed
and what expectations employers had.
Time was taken to get to know the working
environment and culture to make sure that
it was the right fit for both James and the
employer.
Employment
Securing employment is very important for
many of our learners and can give them a real
sense of purpose and community inclusion on
leaving college. With this in mind, we put a strong
emphasis on developing employability skills.
For some of our learners this will mean
working on communication, independence and
participation skills. For others, the aim will be to
develop skills specific to the job they want to do.
All learners have the opportunity to undertake
work experience. This increases their selfconfidence and ability to cope in a range of
settings outside the College.
We employ a full time Employment Specialist
and we are a member of the British Association
of Supported Employment (BASE).
Good Health
We work with some of the most vulnerable young
people in society and their health and safety is of
critical importance to us. All activities that feature
in our varied curriculum are risk-assessed and the
health of learners is monitored carefully on an
on-going basis.
Many of our learners have food intolerances and
some require medication. We work with learners and
their families to manage these needs and encourage
learners, wherever possible, to manage their own
medication.
James’ first work experience was at a
distribution company delivering leaflets.
Initially James required a lot of support to
carry out the task, but within three hours he
was delivering leaflets with the support of a
job coach. James enjoyed his day and was
laughing and smiling until the end of it. He
is now doing similar distribution work for
Scrivens Opticians, employed as a casual
worker and supported by his job coach.
James is working up to six hours a week as
a paid employee. He continues to enjoy the
role which involves being active, working with
people and doing systematic tasks.
We are registered with the Care Quality Commission
(CQC) and inspected every year. The latest
inspection report for our service can be found on the
CQC website www.cqc.org.uk.
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Staff team
“Staff are caring, excellent and enthusiastic.”
Relative of Ambitious College learner CQC Report 2015
Our learners benefit from a multi-disciplinary team
that includes Qualified Teachers, Speech and
Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists,
Learning Behaviour Specialists and a dedicated
Family Support team. All learning is overseen by a
senior leadership team led by the College Principal
who ensures that all staff are trained and motivated
to provide an exceptional level of support.
Speech and Language Therapist:
supports learners to develop their communication
and social interaction skills
Occupational Therapist:
helps learners to manage sensory issues and
develop functional life skills
Behavioural Analyst:
works with learners to overcome behavioural
issues which could create barriers to learning
Employment specialist:
supports learners to develop vocational skills and
access work experience
Family Support
We know that a key part of supporting learners is
supporting their families. That is why we provide
a dedicated family support service to all College
families. We support families on a range of
issues including benefits, equalities, housing and
employment.
Learning and Behaviour Specialist:
works with learners to access their personcentred curriculum and mainstream and
community provision
Safeguarding
Learner safety underpins everything we do but it
doesn’t stop us from extending learning into the
community and making the curriculum interesting.
We are always very careful to risk-assess all
activities so that we are prepared for any situation
that may arise. We are fully CQC registered and
all staff have on-going training to make sure
that we are compliant with all relevant statutory
requirements.
This prospectus is designed to give an overview
of what Ambitious College has to offer. We’d love
to tell you more and would encourage you to get
in touch if you would like any further information.
We look forward to working with you in the future.
Qualified Teacher:
plans and delivers sessions around the four
Preparing for Adulthood pathways
Tel: 020 8815 5444
[email protected]
Ambitious College prospectus
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Address The Pears National Centre for
Autism Education, Woodside Avenue,
London N10 3JA
Telephone 020 8815 5444
Email [email protected]
Website www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
@ambitiousautism
www.facebook.com/ambitiousaboutautism
Charity number 1063184 Registered company 3375255
Ambitious College, Barnet and Southgate College,
Grahame Park Campus, Grahame Park Way,
Colindale, London NW9 5RA
Ambitious College, Pears Campus at Ealing,
Hammersmith and West London College,
Beaconsfield Road, Southall,
Greater London UB1 1DP
Telephone 020 8266 4158
Email [email protected]
Website ambitiouscollege.org.uk
@ambitiousautism
www.facebook.com/ambitiousaboutautism
Charity number 1063184 Registered company 3375255
Published - June 2015