Oaklands College, Springfield & Supported Learning

Main information

Type of service: Assessment, Further & Higher Education

Oaklands College is a large general further education college in Hertfordshire, with specialist provisions catering to students with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs), and additional learning support staffing in place to support individuals with autism who may wish to access mainstream programmes outside of these discreet provisions. Our students may work at pre-entry milestones within the Springfield department, through to Level 3 (A-Level equivalent) with support on mainstream programmes. Within the Springfield department, there are bespoke programmes with an emphasis on holistic thinking, catering for individuals with complex autism and associated support needs, who may historically have challenged other services. These programmes are designed to meet social, educational, and emotional need in order to equip our students with the skills they need to underpin learning and achievement. The supported learning programme is geared towards equipping students with the skills they may need to live and work as independently as possible in the future, and is designed to support students with ASCs in making sense of the outside world. The core focus of our work is ensuring that individual programmes are relevant and differentiated suitably, to enable all students regardless of support need to access education and develop their skills. Qualifications are accessible wherever they are appropriate for the individual, and targets set from RARPA criteria support us in evidencing progress.