A warm welcome and thank you for your interest in the Queensmill College Post 19 provisions.

Since a very young age I have been passionate about advocating for young people who have difficulty with communication. This journey started when I was admitted to hospital as a young child and in the bed next to me was a young boy called Troy. He had limited movement (I later discovered this was called Cerebral Palsy) and was a wheelchair user. The technology that there is today wasn’t available then so we started our own communication system. Mostly we were silly and laughed a lot with my father when he came to visit! Following that I did my secondary work experience in the same hospital and was determined to become a nurse. However, I had a change of plan and did my training and started out in my career as a Teacher for the Deaf and from there moved into the field of autism - both have a principal focus on communication and advocating for our young people and their families.

Queensmill School set up Q6 Queensmill College back in 2016. At this time the need arose for a provision for students leaving Queensmill at 19 years old to continue their education journey. We began in premises in Goldhawk Road with seven students. Since then we have moved and expanded but remain a relatively small bespoke specialist setting for young people with complex needs associated with autism. Although it is our aim to enter as many Queensmill students as possible into mainstream college provision, these young people would not be able to currently access other College provisions due to their levels of autism-related anxieties. Q6 provides the specialist on-going development platform for our young adults to move into the next phase of their lives.

Working closely together with parents and professionals our main aim is to support our students to prepare for life outside college by building on their social communication, emotional regulation, and independence skills. We offer a rich and varied personalised curriculum based around the Preparing for Adulthood agenda. Being able to access the community is an important part of the Q6 experience and we are very fortunate that the local area has lots to offer: local cafes, the gym, parks, and shops. Our recent College OFSTED report commented that our students ‘gain confidence in social skills and progress well with their learning programmes’ and ‘make good progress towards their learning goals and EHC Plan outcomes’.

We are, above all, committed to working towards the best experiences and futures for our young people.

Rachel Thompson
Head of College

Queensmill College is recognized by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) as a Specialist Post 16 Institution (PSI).

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