I have worked at Hamilton School for 15 years and have seen the school grow and change massively over these years. I feel privileged to now become Head teacher here and look forward to working with the children, families and staff to help our school continue to grow and flourish.
Hamilton School is a primary special school. All children have a diagnosis of Autism and all children have an EHCP. We have been aspiring for a number of years to become an all age Autism specific school and this is a dream we will not be giving up on!
On our website you will find a lot of information about our curriculum, values and approaches. We have a large staff team here at Hamilton. All staff are dedicated and committed to providing the very best education for the children. We have a very personalised approach to our curriculum. We tailor the learning to the needs of the individual children. We have regular training sessions for staff that are bespoke, in order to help us meet these needs. This ensures that all staff’s knowledge on key areas such as Autism, Communication and Interaction and behaviour management, is kept as up to date as possible in order to equip them to support the children the best they can in their learning. We keep a strong focus on the learning for the children and staff have high expectations in order to support children to achieve the best they possibly can. PSHE is a big focus for children here at Hamilton and we have developed a tailored PSHE/ RSE curriculum which ensures that we are teaching the children important life skills alongside the more core subjects.
We continually assess our learning environment to ensure that it is as Autism Friendly as possible. There is a high level of structure and routine in the school day for all children. We use elements of TEACCH and have a Picture for Object Trading System (POTS) in place to support children’s communication needs. Opportunities for communication development Is key and embedded in all lessons throughout the school day. Input from the Speech and Language Therapist and Occupational Therapist is also embedded into daily classroom practice. This may be general advice or specific advice for individual children. Teaching styles are adapted to ensure the needs of the children in each classroom are addressed as well as ensuring there is some consistency across classes where it is needed.
At Hamilton, we strive to offer a high level of support to our families. Our pastoral team work hard to engage parents and work with them when needed. The pandemic has put a halt to face to face meetings but hopefully we will be able to resume these in the not too distant future. During school holidays, we feel it is important to support our families as much as possible by providing holiday clubs, which are subsidised by our ‘Friends of Hamilton Charity’.
We are part of a Co-operative Trust with 7 other Birmingham Special Schools and various other partners. We look forward to working with other schools as a way to help enrich the work we do here as well as share good practice with others.
Please click on the link below to find out more about ‘What We Stand For’. If you wish to contact the school, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We are happy to answer any queries about the school or arrange visits.
Katie Williams
Head Teacher
