Hill House School

Telephone: 01590 672147

I am really proud to work with the team at Hill House – we have an integrated approach which embraces collaborative working as Education, Care and Clinical professionals together with Parents and Social workers to form a really united team around each young person.

The mission statement of the school is to enable each and every individual within the school community to reach their personal best; we have four key outcomes which weave throughout all we do: Building Resilience, Learning Self-regulation, Developing Communication and Increasing Independence.

Achievement of these outcome skills will support our young people to have a broader choice of adult lifestyle and wider community access for their next step in life when they leave Hill House – in essence they are the building blocks for a positive future.

Telephone: 01590 672147

I have worked with students with autism for over 20 years and am committed to supporting young people to grow and develop. I oversee the education team at Hill House, providing a curriculum that all students are able to access. We ensure that all our students make progress and an individualised approach to learning enables all students to generalise existing skills and acquire new ones. We believe that all students have the right to access a curriculum that is fun and exciting and pride ourselves in providing a wealth of experiences for all our young people.

Telephone: 01590 672147

I always knew that I wanted to work with young people with autism and complex needs. Since qualifying as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2009, I have been passionate about supporting our students to have a voice and be heard in the inclusive communication environment we have at Hill House. The holistic approach to the care and support we give our students puts their needs at the very heart of what we do, providing them with as many opportunities to explore and engage with the wider community as possible.

Telephone: 01590 672147

Hello. I am Greg and I am the Deputy Head of Education. I have been fortunate to have had a wide and diverse teaching career, working in an inner-city London Comprehensive, a remote bush school on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, and a local mainstream comprehensive with responsibility for (Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Inclusion.

I have been a SEN Co-ordinator since 2006 and I am committed to the principles of inclusion in education. I grew up with a younger sibling with SEND and so have always been keenly aware of the challenges and difficulties some of our young learners’ face with their experience of education.

Often, they will have had a difficult time before coming to Hill House; many will have had barriers to engaging with learning. They may have been segregated from some activities and from other young people and often excluded from school altogether. For most of them, their experience and enjoyment of the world around them had become very limited.

I have always been instinctively aware that effective, quality SEND teaching is teaching that all learners benefit from, no matter their abilities or personal circumstances. I am very proud of the work we do here as a team – across education, care and therapy - to ensure positive outcomes for all our young people who face probably the most challenging circumstances in which to learn and grow.

At Hill House, we have an ambitious and meaningful curriculum. It ensures that our young people are able to engage in and enjoy a broad and rich experience of linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical, aesthetic, and creative education. It has been designed to be appropriate to their needs and takes into account their ages and aptitudes, as well as the various barriers to learning that of all of our young people face.

The curriculum enables our students to acquire communication, self-regulation, listening, literacy and numeracy skills, which prepares them academically, socially and emotionally for the opportunities for their next steps into adult life.

Our young people are great learners and I gain tremendous satisfaction from seeing them thrive as a result of their access to such a rich and broad curriculum offer.

I am the Hill House School therapy dog. I am nearly three years old and have been coming into Hill House since I was a puppy.

My name is derived from a feminine Icelandic name, equivalent to the English name Ruth and it means 'friend' or 'companion'.

Hill House feels like my second home now and I am so pleased to see everyone each day!

I love seeing my staff friends who always make a fuss of me, but my favourite thing to do is to spend time with the children. I get so excited when its time for a 'therapy dog session' and can’t wait to find out what we will be doing. Sometimes we sit in the library quietly and I have my hair brushed and given the occasional treat.

The children like to look at books all about dogs and they have learnt a lot about the different breeds and how to look after them. Other times we might go for a walk in our woodland area where I love playing with my tug toy and exploring all the different smells.

I hope that I have helped to create some special moments for the children, some of whom have been frightened of dogs in the past. My quiet and calm demeanour means that I am always approachable and never say no to a cuddle!