St. John’s School

Maximising each pupil’s potential to be independent

The aims of St. John’s School are to:

Maximise each pupil’s potential to be as independent as possible in their lives

Ensure all children & young people can engage, progress and achieve within their learning
Enable all children & young people to develop their knowledge and skills in: Maths, Science, English, technological, human & social, physical, aesthetic & creative learning opportunities
Promote the intellectual, personal, spiritual, moral, social, cultural and physical development of all children and young people at the school, together with their sense of citizenship and their place within the school, the wider community and reflect British values.

Our Staff

All our staff are experienced in working effectively with vulnerable children and young people with complex diagnoses, learning difficulties, autistic spectrum conditions and mental health issues.

The relationships, routines and environments are personalised, adapted to help children and young people to develop behaviours for learning, engage with their education, build self-confidence and cultivate ambition and aspiration.

Here is a list of some of the major training and qualifications that all staff working with our young people complete as standard:

Safeguarding
Communication and de-escalation
Autism Awareness
Autism and Sensory
Autism and Communication
NAS Autism Essentials
Maybo Positive Handling skills
L2 Therapeutic Skills
Epilepsy and the administration of emergency medication
Anaphylaxis and the administration of auto-injectors
Diabetes and the administration of medication and auto- injectors
Makaton
LGBT Awareness.

Some of our amazing colleagues also have the opportunity to work towards the following major training and qualifications:

L2 Understanding Autism
L3 Supporting teaching and learning
L3 Education and Training
L3/L4 Children and Young people workforce Diploma
L5 Children and Young People Workforce Diploma
L4 Positive Behaviour Support
L5 Positive Behaviour Support
L5 Teaching Disabled Learners
L5 Dyslexia Support and intervention
L5 Dyscalculia and Maths Learning Difficulties Support and Intervention
L7 in Autism Accreditation that colleagues can work towards
Up to L7 in Leadership and Management opportunities.
First Aid
Sensory Integration
Assessment of Motor and Process Skills
PECs
Talking MATs
Attention Autism
IOSH
TEACCH
Intensive interaction
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
ADHD
OCD
Mental Health
Basic counselling skills
Understanding Attachment
Working with complex trauma
Understanding child and adolescent behaviour
Working with self-injury
Supporting visual impairments
Supporting those with hearing impairments.

Our Campus in Seaford

St. John’s School provides excellent learning and recreational environments, including:

Indoor heated swimming pool
Playing fields & grounds for outdoor learning
Horticulture area including polytunnels and flower garden
Sensory garden
An ‘open all day’ café/venue – Harmonies
IT hub and project space
Science room
Outdoor gym
‘OPTI Music’ studio
Sports hall
Tennis courts/basketball
Youth Club
Sensory room
Music studio
Art room
Fully equipped food tech room
Outdoor play area, including trampolines and swings.

Get Involved

St. John’s is a non-maintained independent specialist school and independent specialist college

School-based Profile

St. John’s offers an inclusive environment for young people, with a diagnosis of autism and other needs, whose learning, social, emotional and/or communication difficulties are too complex for many mainstream educational settings to support.

Many children and young people at St. John’s have complex diagnoses – their needs do not always fit into a single or simple diagnosis, and therefore all C&YP are assessed, and their programmes individually designed to meet their specific needs.

St. John’s supports a wide range of young people with additional and specific needs, such as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA Society Website) and other complex needs.

In particular, we support young people from 7-19 who:

Find communication and interaction difficult
Have complex behaviours
Struggle with their social and emotional functioning
Require personalised community-based programmes of study
Alongside one of these needs identified above are also struggling with issues around identity
May benefit from a Waking-Day Curriculum via our Residential provision.