Autism Accreditation at Our School

Lead Ms L Thompson 

At Acre View Primary School, we are committed to providing the highest-quality education and support for our autistic pupils. As part of this commitment, we are currently working towards achieving Autism Accreditation, a nationally recognised quality assurance programme delivered by the National Autistic Society (NAS). This accreditation is the UK’s only autism specific quality standard, designed to help schools and organisations demonstrate excellence in their understanding of autism and their provision for autistic children and young people.

What Is Autism Accreditation?

Autism Accreditation is an internationally recognised framework that supports schools in evaluating, improving, and celebrating their autism practice. With more than 30 years of expertise, the programme offers a structured approach to reviewing how well we meet the needs of autistic pupils, ensuring our environment, teaching strategies, and support systems are informed by current best practice in autism education.

Achieving accreditation provides external validation that a school is committed to understanding autism deeply and embedding autism-aware approaches across all aspects of school life. It demonstrates that staff knowledge, classroom practice, communication systems, and sensory environments are carefully designed to support autistic learners.

Why We Are Working Towards Accreditation

Pursuing Autism Accreditation enables us to build on the strong foundations already in place at our school. Participation in the programme encourages reflection, self evaluation, and ongoing professional development, ensuring that our provision remains both high quality and responsive to the needs of our pupils.

The programme highlights several key benefits, many of which directly align with our school’s values and aims:

• A more autism focused service across the whole school, ensuring consistency and clarity for pupils and families.
• Increased staff expertise in understanding autistic communication, sensory needs, and learning differences.
• Improved strategic planning, helping us make informed decisions that shape long term development of our SEND provision.
• Better outcomes for autistic pupils, supported by personalised approaches that empower children to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
• Reassurance for families who can feel confident that their children are learning in an environment grounded in recognised best practice.

How Autism Accreditation Supports Our Pupils

Central to the accreditation process is the belief that autistic children deserve environments that reduce stress, celebrate individuality, and enable success. Through the programme, we are refining our practices in several important areas:

• Creating predictable and supportive learning environments that reduce sensory overwhelm and increase pupils’ ability to engage.
• Developing communication approaches that meet individual needs, whether through spoken language, visual supports, or alternative communication systems.
• Ensuring staff receive high quality training, helping them feel confident and knowledgeable in supporting autistic pupils every day.
• Strengthening partnerships with families, who play an essential role in shaping each child’s personalised provision.