Welcome

Longcause Learning For Life

with Respect, Determination and Friendship

Our school motto embraces our passion for giving pupils learning experiences that really are for life - life now and life beyond school.

Our Vision

At Longcause School, we aim to be leading ambassadors and educators for children with Autism in the South West.

Our goal is to provide high quality education for children with Autism, to be a centre of excellence. We respect and celebrate people with Autism. We are committed to enhancing their life, well-being, abilities and success. We have a passion to understand, support, teach and enhance. We value compassion and professional excellence working in partnership with families.

Longcause Community Special School is for children aged 4-16. The school is Autism-friendly, where pupils support one another and staff and families work closely together for the best outcomes for their children.

We specifically cater for the needs of children with communication and interaction difficulties together with cognition and learning. This means that our children usually have a moderate learning difficulty as well as an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC). Many of our pupils have associated difficulties such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyslexia, or other specific Learning Difficulties. This school is the only one of its kind in the West of Devon.

At Longcause we welcome visitors. If you would like to know more about what we do, please make an appointment to come and visit us. You can be assured of a warm welcome and a tour. We have many visitors who on visiting for the first time say ‘it is not at all how I imagined a special school to be!’

Our Values

Our core community values for all are Respect, Determination and Friendship. These are the values which we promote and teach our children about and underpin how we want us all to behave in our school community. Whilst these are values and not school 'rules', we encourage our pupils and the whole school community to live out these values as best as they possibly can. For example, we teach that living respectfully means keeping ourselves and others safe as well as valuing others' differences.

Our Core 3 Staff Values are Authenticity, Connection and Creativity.

These underpin how we choose to behave as a school staff team and how we make our decisions. We ask ourselves is this decision/ action/ behaviour in line with our Longcause core staff values?

Our Ethos:

At Longcause we are passionate about working with children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC). We believe that an outstanding school for children with an ASC needs to have strengths in the areas that are very difficult for someone with ASC- communication, flexibility of thought and social understanding. Therefore at Longcause we aim to be:

Great at communicating with the pupils and families
Flexible in our approach to meet pupils individual needs whatever that may be
And have good social understanding.

Our Autism-friendly approach means:

We try to see things from an Autism perspective in order to help pupils learn the skills and understanding that they need.

Our class sizes are usually between 8-14 pupils with a high staffing ratio in order to best address the needs of the pupils. ·
Strong tutor system with supportive teaching assistants who know pupils well and provide consistency.
Teaching has high visual content.
Structure and routines that support pupils.
Curriculum pathways to meet different pupils' needs.
Tidy, orderly, clutter-free environment and chill out spaces.
Lessons with highly supported transitions.
Highly staffed break and lunch times with structured activities available for those that prefer and many different spaces available to relax

Academic Subject Learning & Life Learning:

At Longcause, pupils make progress in two equally important areas: Academic Subject Learning and Life Learning. Together, these build towards our long-term aim: enabling our pupils to lead fulfilling lives now and in the future – Longcause Learning For Life.

Academic Subject Learning is the knowledge and skills pupils develop within subjects such as English, maths, science, RE and the wider curriculum. For some pupils, this begins at the earliest stages through the EYFS and Explorers pathways, where they experience the foundations of communication, early thinking and first engagement with subject concepts. As pupils develop and progress, this learning becomes increasingly structured, personalised and sequenced so that our learners can access and enjoy success in each subject area.

Life Learning is the learning that happens beyond subjects. It includes attention skills, engagement, communication and interdependence, as well as emotional and sensory regulation, resilience, relationships, problem-solving, independence, and understanding themselves and others. Life Learning is embedded throughout the school day – in routines, transitions, play, community experiences and interactions – because these skills underpin every part of our pupils’ lives now and in adulthood.

These two types of learning work together. As pupils grow in confidence, regulation and independence through Life Learning, their Academic Subject Learning becomes more meaningful and secure. Likewise, the knowledge gained through Academic Subject Learning enriches how they make sense of the world and navigate daily life.

Both forms of learning are celebrated equally at Longcause because, together, they shape the whole-child progress that prepares our pupils for fulfilling, connected and purposeful lives – today, and in the years ahead.