Our team support autistic children and young people aged 4 to 16 who are on roll at a school in Cornwall. We support schools to include autistic children and young people in all activities. We want autistic children to be able to join in, learn, and thrive.

We mostly work in schools. We sometimes work in the home. We work alongside other teams to encourage joint problem-solving. We promote support and strategies that are neuro-affirming and evidence-based.

About the team
The Autism in Schools Team (AST) includes:

Five Autism Advisors
A highly-specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Eight autism workers and senior autism workers
The team is line-managed by a Senior Educational Psychologist.

We are a neurodiverse team and celebrate the strengths this brings. We have a mixture of professional experience, academic experience, and lived experience.

We are all passionate about supporting autistic children in Cornwall’s schools. We will always try to work in a neuro-affirming way. This means we will support and champion autistic strengths and differences. We will not try to change autistic ways of being.

We believe that autism + environment = outcome (Luke Beardon). Changing aspects of the environment can help autistic people to thrive. We help schools adapt the sensory environment, teaching styles, strategies, and policies. We also offer training on lots of different topics. Our training is co-created by autistic people. It is also often delivered by neurodivergent trainers.

Goals should always be child-centred and linked to things that are important to the child. We will not set goals that encourage masking. Masking is trying to appear ‘less autistic’ to fit in. Masking has long-term negative consequences for mental health and wellbeing.