Welcome to Willow class and, for most of you, welcome to Market Field School.
Willow class is part of the 'Autism Resource Base' and the children, at least initially, follow the autism pathway. The curriculum is bespoke to the needs of our children and high staff ratios allow us to set, and work on, individual targets over the course of the week. Communication skills are at the heart of all that we do in Willow class as these are the most important for our children and the classroom is a 'complete communication' environment making use of, for instance, PECs (Picture Exchange Communication), Makaton, core-vocabulary boards as well as verbal communication. We work very closely with the Speech and Language team to ensure SAL targets are worked on throughout each day. We also work on independence, social, play and early academic skills. Most teaching is done on a 1:1 bases with an adult, but skills are generalised through, for example, small group work and regular trips out into the community. We use a range of specialist interventions such as Attention Autism, Intensive Interaction and Colourful Semantics. Visuals are very important to our children, and you will see a range of visuals in the classroom such as the class timetable and visual reminders of processes such as handwashing. We provide a safe, fun, predictable and understanding environment so that our children feel valued and ready to learn.

' We had a great time rehearsing for our Christmas performance.  We really enjoyed being on stage and singing our Santa song. 

Merry Christmas everyone!'