How Sunderland’s Barbara Priestman Academy is helping autistic pupils through the lockdown

That’s the job of staff at Sunderland’s Barbara Priestman Academy.

The senior school and sixth form, based just outside the city centre, works with some of Wearside’s most vulnerable youngsters, those with autism and other ‘complex learning difficulties’.

But since COVID-19 forced the UK into lockdown it has been forced to find new ways of making sure its families get the support they need, including home visits and virtual discos.

“We don’t have a one size fits all policy, we have a fairly bespoke model,” said headteacher Rachel Hargreaves.

“We have some pupils with a high level of sensory and communication needs, while others have a profile where they excel in some areas, like maths and technology.

“We have to cater for all students.”

Pre-coronavirus, pupils would have had access to the full curriculum, as well as other options tailored specifically to them and their abilities.

Each has a personalised timetable, with individual lessons even broken down into up to 10 separate stages, in some cases.

They are all measures designed to prepare the children for adulthood, whether that be in a sheltered living or learning facility, in further education, or even just being aware of how a supermarket works.

There’s even the opportunity for work experience, with one sixth former ‘mad keen on anything to do with trains and engines’ completing regular placements in a museum which allows him to strip and rebuild machines all day.

But such initiatives have had to stop since the start of the virus outbreak.

Plans were already being made in preparation for the government’s announcement on the measures, particularly around which pupils or staff, or their family members may have been told to ‘shield’.

Hargreaves said: “Families know they can still access and build on a daily and weekly routine.

“We created physical packages of exercise books and pens and pencils so the pupils were prepared.

“There’s been a shared routine of everyone knowing we’re all doing this or that at the same time on a Monday morning.

“We’ve also created other activities to continue to create a sense of school community.

“Some activities needed to give our children and families a sense they were doing things together and were able to access things as a community.”

Other shared activities and projects have included everything from watching Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet documentary series, to virtual discos or growing sunflowers.

Families and teachers were also due to mark VE Day together online, after COVID-19 restrictions forced the original plans to be cancelled.

And some have found other ways of staying active, such as 13-year-old Jack Berry, who started a fundraising step challenge after being inspired by Captain Tom Moore.

The focus has been on maintaining ‘as much structure and routine as possible’ – but also recognising every family is dealing with its own challenges.

Staff have done what they can to help, making home visits to drop off school supplies, as well as other equipment pupils would normally have access to in school.

A surprising inclusion on this list is gym balls – “we can do a huge range of sensory activities with them,” Hargreaves added.

For those who need it, the school remains open, with pupils able to attend in person for anything from a day to a full week, by arrangement.

But, thrown out of their usual routines, many have also shown they are less reliant on the school than they may have first thought.

Hargreaves said: “Some students have really surprised us and have been a credit to the way families have created learning activities for them, reading a book for the first time or potting in gardens.

“In a six-week holiday period, most wouldn’t normally engage like that in the same way because they would be doing other things.”

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