Resource Base

Introduction and Information

Nansen Primary School opened our Resource Base in 2025 to support the needs of young people within the local community with a formal diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC).

Nansen Resource Base staff strive to provide an environment where children and their families feel safe, welcome and supported. The Resource Base team work closely with the SEND teaching staff in the main school and teaching staff as needed based on year groups for integration and developmental needs. Staffing requirements and ratios are based on our current cohort and individual needs of the young people.

We aim to enable every young person to become the very best they can be by nurturing and encouraging their individual strengths and interests, whilst giving them opportunities to learn new and exciting things in a safe and secure learning environment. All young people are supported to develop and use strategies that help them to overcome and cope with challenges they are faced with, developing them into resilient young learners.

Nansen Primary School Resource Base, focuses on delivering a specific educational programme for children identified with an Educational Health Care Plan and a formal diagnosis of ASC, for whom the Local Authority deem Resource Based provision to best meet their needs. Young people are placed within the Resource Base by the Special Educational Needs Assessment and Review Service (SENAR).

A tailored curriculum is provided to meet the individual needs of our Resource Based young people, to develop the ‘whole child’: balancing the development of life and social skills with academic learning.

Resource Based young people are grouped according to need, age and ability, and have access to a wide range of activities, including the National Curriculum where appropriate. They work in small class groupings with high staff ratios. The young people are encouraged to work with different adults to help them gain independence and life skills. Through an understanding of the ‘whole young person’, their sensory, communication, attention and developmental levels enables us to think about where the young person is and identify next steps within their learning.

Resource Based young people access the mainstream environment and work alongside their mainstream peers where appropriate. Attainment and progress are tracked using a ‘small steps’ approach that shows progress in clear and precise stages.

These small increments of progress are used to inform individual, personalised targets. Each young person in the Resource Base work in a structured, ASC-friendly environment where our staff receive training regularly to support the delivery of a variety of ASC strategies and techniques.

We work very closely with our families to support a fully holistic approach all our young people and have daily contact through our home school diaries and daily email link to the Tapestry application.

Across school, we are continuously ensuring that the school environment and all classes are Autism Friendly to support the young people in those classes and allow access to mainstream for all when appropriate. This ensures that all staff are able to support children with Autism and understand their needs. All of our school staff are trained by in Attention Autism training.

Our Resource Base young people have weekly lessons with our trained sports coaches. This allows the children to build relationships with other adults in school in preparation for their futures.

We are always here to help and support parents and families at home.

Ways we can help:

Be there to listen when you need support.
Providing strategies and resources that work in school.
Offering training to support you at home.
Sign posting to services (see list below).
Making referrals to relevant professionals or organisations