The Southlands School journey for Adam

Before moving to Southlands

Adam started at Southlands School in June 2020 with a diagnosis of Autism, aged 7. Adam had transitioned from a local mainstream school where he had struggled to engage so therefore had been placed on a reduced timetable and was not accessing the classroom. Adam struggled with complex sensory needs, finding loud noises challenging and would become dysregulated in crowded places.

When he joined Southlands School, Adam continued to struggle to remain focused within the class setting often running out, causing disruption and struggled to regulate his emotions. Adam struggled to control his impulses, therefore this impacted on Adam’s relationships with his peers.

At Southlands School

Year 3

Adam struggled to access any learning; he was very dysregulated with very ‘big’ reactions to ‘small ’problems’; there were a high level of physical interventions. Our Assistant Psychologist tried to support with therapy sessions but he would not engage. He managed short bursts of learning and minimal tasks in the classroom. He could not read or write nor did he know his letter sounds.

Year 4

Adam received a bespoke timetable which included lots of movements breaks as well as off-site activities with the inclusion team; this homed in on Adam’s special interests to enable relationship building. Within these sessions the team were able to gather an in depth understanding of Adam’s needs and wants. Adam started to learn some of his sounds and enjoyed listening to staff reading stories.

Year 5

Adam was the only student in year 5 for 2 terms, until a peer joined, this enabled focused support. A had started to take medication, at the start of the academic year, to support with his ADHD, this helped him to focus and we saw a difference in his ability to tolerate small changes and focus on learning. We did however see OCD dysregulation which impacted on his mental well-being.
Adam engaged in daily 1:1 phonic sessions and started to blend pure sounds together and could write some of these sounds.

Adam slowly began to engage in lessons and was able to work alongside his peers without causing disruption, this in turn improved his confidence and was able to build and maintain positive relationship with his peers.

Adam received holistic therapy with our Holistic Therapist, Champions of Shenga with the Assistant Psychologist, attend Social Thinking and Zones of Regulation lessons and went swimming with the OT and mental health practitioner therapy from Southlands School which Adam engaged extremely well in, he spent time with both the clinical and assistant psychologists.

With Adam’s self-esteem improving he was able to communicate his concerns or worries to trusted members of staff which had a positive knock - on effect on his learning.

Year 6

Adam accessed a full timetable, in a classroom with four other peers. He made huge improvements with his reading and writing, blending words together and writing then down.

Adam engaged well with weekly therapy sessions with our Assistant Psychologist around his OCD needs and continued to attend Relaxation sessions with our Holistic Therapist. He also continued to attend Social Thinking and Zones of Regulation lessons.

Where Adam is now

With an integrated approach, Adam was successfully able to transition to the secondary phase at Southlands School where he was able to cope with the transition, settled well and continued to thrive. We are all very proud of the progress he has made in such a short amount of time.

*Name has been anonymised for confidentiality purposes