The college identified increasing demand for independent living skills training among its High Needs students, as well as increasing numbers of students with identified sensory processing differences and high levels of expressed anxiety within college. Engaging the advice of external expertise, we developed our understanding of sensory processing needs within a trauma-informed context, reviewed our curriculum offer and reviewed the physical environment of our specialist high needs provision. The result was the construction of a suite of very high specification, fully accessible training rooms, with a design ethos intended to raise students’ aspirations for independent living and meet their access and sensory regulation needs. The facilities incorporate design features that naturally support sensory regulation, as well as providing specialist sensory regulation spaces. Alongside training our staff we also developed a sensory regulation curriculum for our students, empowering them with the insight and skills to manage their own neurodiverse needs. This has greatly strengthened the learner voice for some of our most vulnerable students, who not only played a very active role in designing the new facilities, but are now also established as a standing body, the Neurodiversity Council, helping to drive further change for the benefit of all students.

To find out more about this year's awards and how to apply, please visit: https://www.aoc.co.uk/awards/beacon-awards/beacon-awards-2025-26

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