Plans for new autistic led school to open in Hampshire called Koala Academy

It looks very promising but I wonder how scalable it is. Most local areas have one maybe 2 special schools and most of their students are going to be intellectually disabled. In such a school you might have one class worth of autistic kids with IQs in the 85+ range. Most of the autistic kids in the. 85+ range are in mainstream schools masking hard or being homeschooled.

the special schools are often not set up to help capable children achieve or stimulate their minds. At secondary level they often teach less than the national curriculum would require and don’t offer a full choice of GCSEs and A levels.

this particular koala school seems to be a primary school maybe one class in size. Were it to be run as a secondary school it would need dedicated teachers for each subject all for the one class.

I think a better solution might be to require mainstream schools to employ a quota of autistic teachers and make them home room teachers for the classes with autistic students.

It looks very promising but I wonder how scalable it is. Most local areas have one maybe 2 special schools and most of their students are going to be intellectually disabled. In such a school you might have one class worth of autistic kids with IQs in the 85+ range. Most of the autistic kids in the. 85+ range are in mainstream schools masking hard or being homeschooled.

the special schools are often not set up to help capable children achieve or stimulate their minds. At secondary level they often teach less than the national curriculum would require and don’t offer a full choice of GCSEs and A levels.

this particular koala school seems to be a primary school maybe one class in size. Were it to be run as a secondary school it would need dedicated teachers for each subject all for the one class.

I think a better solution might be to require mainstream schools to employ a quota of autistic teachers and make them home room teachers for the classes with autistic students.

Peter said:

It looks very promising but I wonder how scalable it is. Most local areas have one maybe 2 special schools and most of their students are going to be intellectually disabled. In such a school you might have one class worth of autistic kids with IQs in the 85+ range. Most of the autistic kids in the. 85+ range are in mainstream schools masking hard or being homeschooled.

I understand your point, hopefully this autistic led school will be designed in a way that suits a whole range of cognitive and intellectual abilities. Given that this school is autistic led, I imagine the need to be academically challenged is well understood. Also if the curriculum is based on an understanding of monotropism then education should be interest based.

Peter said:

t secondary level they often teach less than the national curriculum would require and don’t offer a full choice of GCSEs and A levels.

Yes I completely understand, this is very true. I imagine it is quite hard for a specialist school to offer such a wide range of qualifications.

Peter said:

I think a better solution might be to require mainstream schools to employ a quota of autistic teachers and make them home room teachers for the classes with autistic students.

Great alternative idea!