The Amicus School is a DfES registered SEN school and Therapeutic Community, accredited by The Royal College of Psychiatrists and follows our therapeutic model. (Link to our therapeutic model learning page here). Our school welcomes children aged between 5 – 16 (maximum age 11 years old on referral) who are either day pupils living with their families/carers or who live residentially at Amicus.
Amicus school is set in a rural location and an ideal place for learning and exploring. One of our homes is located next door to the school and our other two homes are approximately 5 miles away, so the children have a short but important transition period between their home and education setting.
Children attending our school are vulnerable and have experienced complex trauma in their earlier years and this can often have a detrimental effect on how children feel about education and any form of ‘learning’. Many of our children have extreme anxieties about school and will often have been school refusers. We work with the children in small and less intimidating learning groups and through individual transition plans, group and one-to-one open discussions, and high levels of staffing in time we support the children to address and understand their fears, which helps to begin to break the cycle of behaviours that have historically led to school exclusion.
We work with the children in small and less intimidating learning groups and through individual transition plans, group and one-to-one open discussions, and high levels of staffing in time we support the children to address and understand their fears, which helps to begin to break the cycle of behaviours that have historically led to school exclusion.
Amicus offers a creative and experiential curriculum that enables both discrete learning and emotional well-being development to happen. Every child comes to Amicus with an EHCP, we work with the expected outcomes through an internal interim EHCP process and therapeutic placement and treatment plan, so education is not viewed as separate but as a key part of the whole child’s development.
Our therapeutic education is based on the National Curriculum (Key stages 1 to 4) and is taught at a level that supports the individual child’s emotional and academic development and is planned to ensure that nurture is at the heart of the school day. Our school staff has a wealth of knowledge and experience from teaching in mainstream and SEN schools. Alongside their experience and understanding of teaching within our therapeutic model and specialist training in therapeutic techniques, they have qualifications that include BA Degrees in Primary Education, English, Drama, Psychology, and Sports Studies. Our Education team brings their passions and interests to Amicus and this further enriches our therapeutic educational offering.
Each child has their individual Amicus journey with us throughout their placement. The school challenges children to work to the maximum of their capability to achieve outcomes in their education to move forward in the next stage of their educational journey post-Amicus. We aim for children to have made significant progress educationally and emotionally in their journey with Amicus from their starting points.