During these unprecedented times, there has been a disruption of routine and familiarity for everyone, which for someone with Autism must be even more challenging and confusing.

We have needed to implement many changes to keep our pupils, staff and families safe, whilst also striving to keep the daily running of the school as smooth as possible. We have tried to keep life at Quest as similar as possible compared to before the COVID 19 pandemic. Hence, our pupils have been working on their daily learning programmes in school as this provides them with the usual structure they expect when coming to school.

We would like to congratulate Milly Conway on achieving accreditation as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator).
Milly is one of our qualified teachers, and she has been studying for this award for the last 12 months. We know this has involved a great deal of extra work and commitment, and we are delighted that she has completed the course successfully.
Well done Milly!

This week at Quest, we have introduced further changes, to help facilitate increasing numbers of our pupils returning to school, whilst endeavoring to keep everyone as safe as possible.

It is often a very real and significant challenge for people living with autism to adapt to new routines, especially if additional communication difficulties affect their ability to ask questions or to understand our explanations. We must not underestimate how all these changes may be affecting them.

We are therefore incredibly proud of all our students, who have had to adjust to so many changes in their lives, brought about by the Covid-19 crisis. This has been a time of real challenge, which is requiring a great deal of resilience and fortitude.

We would like to pay tribute to our parents, for their patience and co-operation. It has been a challenging time for our parents too, and we really appreciate how you have worked together with us to support our young people, whether in school or at home.

Thank you also to our staff team, who have responded positively to the constant changes, with determination to always do the best we can for our students.

Some of our students have been working at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Where this has been the case, we have been supporting parents by staying in regular contact and sending work home.  Here are some photos of one of our pupils who has been busy baking and creating a dinosaur garden.

Quest School continues to remain open and to make provision for our students, to the fullest extent possible, given the current restrictions.
Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, we have followed Government guidance at every stage, and have taken into consideration the following very important factors:
The needs of every pupil are considered on an individual basis, and in discussion with parents/carers to determine whether each child can continue to be safely cared for at home during this period
Prioritising school attendance for pupils whose parents are key workers, critical to the Covid-19 response effort.
Constantly adapting our daily practice, to implement social distancing measures to the fullest extent possible, notwithstanding the profile of our pupils means, in practice, there are significant challenges to achieving this.
Limiting the total number of pupils onsite each day, in order to help protect pupils and staff and to limit the risks of infection.
We would like to thank all our parents, pupils and staff for their continued support during this very challenging period of time.

Everyone at The Quest School would like to thank all of the essential workers for keeping the country going during these unprecedented times.  We hope everyone has a pleasant Bank Holiday weekend. #staysafe

From Tuesday 21st April 2020 onwards, we are continuing to implement our partial closure system. We are keeping parents informed of which days their children will be in school.
Parents must ONLY send their children in on the designated days.

In line with government advice, we are prioritising the children of Key-workers who are critical to the COVID-19 response. Many parents working in these sectors may be able to ensure their child is kept at home, and every child who can safely be cared for at home should be.

We would like to thank our staff and families for your on-going co-operation in these unprecedented times.

During this time, we would like to remind our parents about the best ways to help keep our pupils safe online.

To find out about keeping your child safe online, please visit our E-Safety tab on our main website (under information for parents) for training slides along with a “Click CEOP” button.  The Click CEOP button will take you straight to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection website for further information on how to report any concerns.  You will also find a link to the parent section of the “Thinkuknow” website.  This is is an education programme for online safety, recommended by the NSPCC.

We understand that this is an extremely worrying time because of the amount of uncertainty around the covid-19 virus. In order to support families of keyworkers we are committed to providing for these children whilst their parents are providing an essential and critical service. We will be opening for these pupils only in the Easter holidays.

In these unprecedented, strange and difficult times we wish to say a heartfelt thank you to our incredible staff and families for your on-going resilience and enthusiasm to provide some level of normality to our pupils.

The Government review for current restrictions is due to take place on the 13th April and we will inform ASAP after this date the plans for term 5.

Today is Autism awareness Day!

Autism is a complex developmental disability. It is considered to be a spectrum disorder, which means that the degree to which people are affected by it varies from mild to severe. Latest research indicates that autism affects approximately 1 in 100 people (approx half a million people in the UK).

Whilst the degree to which each person is impacted by autism may vary, there are common characteristics of an autistic spectrum disorder:

• impairment of verbal and non-verbal communication
• difficulties with developing social relationships
• lack of flexibility leading to repetitive or routine-bound behaviours
• impaired imaginative ability in play or creativity, for example, when writing
• sensory processing difficulties

People with autism sometimes also have additional co-existing conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), dyslexia or dyspraxia.

Autism is a lifelong condition which affects people of every race, background and gender, although it is more prevalent amongst boys than girls. As yet, the causes of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) remain unknown. As it is such a complex disorder, it is likely that there are multiple factors which involve both genetic and environmental triggers.

Just as the causes of autism remain unclear, it is also the case that there is as yet no ‘cure’ for autism. Research demonstrates that fewer than 10% of adults with autism have sufficient skills to enable them to live any form of independent life, and 60% of adults with autism will remain entirely dependent on others for all aspects of their adult lives.