Prior’s Court Foundation (operating Prior’s Court School and Young Adult Provision)
Special needs catered for
Autism with learning difficulties. Complex needs including epilepsy, ADHD, and challenging behaviours. National and international catchment area.
Specialist facilities
There are 12 residential homes at Prior’s Court School and a further four within Prior’s Court Young Adult Provision. All homes are designed to provide a comfortable and homely environment that is also autism-specific and suited to the age and needs of the young people living there. Houses are carefully organised, with clearly defined areas (e.g. for socialising, play and relaxation, food preparation, group or individual activities), and visual and physical structure as appropriate to support and encourage independence.
Leisure, exercise and recreational activities include an indoor, heated sensory swimming pool; an all-weather track; indoor and outdoor gym equipment; and a contemporary art and sculpture placed throughout the site, gifted by Founding Patron, Dame Stephanie Shirley CH.
Vocational facilities include an industry-standard bakery; an orchard; Countryside Learning Centre with outdoor classroom, stable yard and paddocks; IT suites; kitchen garden and horticulture area; and fully equipped classrooms for woodworking, metalwork and pottery.
Further specialist facilities to support and extend learning include a Health & Wellbeing Hub; mutli-sensory suite, and a spacious purpose-built dining room.
Support services provided
Learning takes place throughout the entire Waking Day and in all settings, including education, residential homes and within the wider community.
Consistency of approach is achieved through having a shared approach, careful planning and a focus on ensuring expertise for all staff. Education, residential and therapy teams work together with specialists and parents/carers to ensure consistency. This way, each young person has the opportunity to make progress in all areas of learning.
The Prior’s Court Learning Framework outlines seven Areas of Learning: Communication, Positive Behaviour Support, Daily Living Skills, Vocational Learning, Functional Academics, Keeping Me Safe, and Healthiness. Within the framework, each young person has a personalised programme of learning with both group and individual activities. Work is individualised to meet the strengths and interests of each young person and to help them develop in areas where they are challenged. Progress is tracked using our ‘I Can’ measurement system.
Home school links
The relationship between parents and Prior’s Court School is regarded as a partnership and parents/carers and families are involved in discussions at all stages of their child’s stay. Arrangements for contact between parents, carers, relatives and friends are agreed during the preadmission visits. These are to meet the needs of the child and parents/carers and are detailed in the young person’s plan.
Education and residential staff communicate frequently to update parents and families on their child’s progress and wellbeing such as through a telephone call at a pre-arranged time once or twice per week, or email correspondence, depending on parental preference.
Young people are encouraged and supported by staff in communicating with their families in a number of ways such as making a telephone call, video call or sending an email. Parents and families are welcome visitors. A family room and a family flat are available for parents and families to use and stay in during visits.
All parents are invited to the Statutory Annual Review and Looked After Children (LAC) Review (where applicable) of their child’s special educational needs.
All parents have access to the Parent Portal section of our big data platform Prior Insight. This portal consists of core reports on a range of areas including behavioural incident counts, seizure activity, detailed food and drink intake, and any injuries. This helps parents get a closer look at what their child is doing on a day-to-day basis and help them to better understand their child’s autism.
A parent newsletter is sent to parents/ carers approximately once a term, giving an overview of news from the site.
General environment
Space is a key feature of Prior’s Court. Set in approximately 50 acres of gardens, woods and paddocks there is a secure and welcoming environment specifically adapted to suit the needs of the young people with a range of exceptional facilities
The environment is adapted to be:
• highly structured
• calm and tranquil
• safe
• provide opportunities to learn, exercise, socialise and relax onsite
• support transitions
• support the strong focuses within our approach on physical exercise and the development of leisure and vocational skills.
Aims and philosophy
To provide education and residential care for young people with complex autism, aged 5-25 and helping them to be healthy, happy, more independent and have the opportunity to work.
Staff qualification and selection
The staffing community is of a wide cultural and ethnic diversity, with a good balance of male and female staff.
The School aims to provide a very high standard of education and care with well-qualified and well-trained staff. Each class is led by a teacher with the appropriate number of Autism Practitioners to meet young people needs. Each of the residential houses is led by a home manager with a team of Autism Practitioners managed by Senior Autism Practitioners with young people assigned a Key Worker. Waking night staff are responsible for young people throughout the night. A large team of multi-disciplinary and therapeutic professionals include a Speech and Language Therapy team; Occupational Therapists; General Registered Nurses; Positive Behaviour Support specialists; and PE, Swimming, ICT, Horticultural, Countryside Learning and Vocational Skills Instructors.
A core programme of training includes safeguarding, first aid, positive behaviour support, epilepsy, medication dispensing, and infection prevention and control.
To ensure consistency and best practice, a strong emphasis is placed on training staff in structured teaching. Prior’s Court has strong links with the University of North Carolina, where the Structured TEACCHing system was developed. Staff attend regular Structured TEACCHing training sessions run by the University of North Carolina at Prior’s Court. A number of our team are qualified to TEACCH Advanced Consultant level. All of the leadership team, Home Managers and Teachers are encouraged to complete the 5-day TEACCH course to provide a very high level of autism expertise. Prior’s Court School has developed a successful Diploma programme which supports our residential teams to achieve their Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare in line with the government’s Quality Standards for Children’s Homes.
2023/24 School Prospectus
Brochure downloads
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