When students join Swalcliffe Park School, we make a genuine commitment to improving their quality of life.   We do not think this is possible without an equal commitment to their families.

We need to know how autism impacts on each family’s life so we an offer support.  Also, we are interested in how we may be able to help families do some of the things they would like to – things we may take for granted – such as sitting down to a family meal together, going to the supermarket, travelling on public transport – things that would improve their quality of life.

To achieve this, we encourage Family Voice and ask families to tell us how things are going through ‘Quality of Life in Autism’ questionnaires.  These provide us with up-to-date information on what issues they are facing so we can then see how best to support them.

We have named contacts for each student and family for regular home school communication and we personalise arrangements to suit each family’s preference.  We provide secure online access to general information about each student’s curriculum, his progress and weekly activities.

Families are invited to a variety of social, training and information-sharing events throughout the school year and we try to link parents together where they have identified that they would like some family-to-family support.

Our Governors take an active role in helping us monitor and develop our work in supporting families. There are two parent governors and a Family Forum to support this aspect of our work.