What does an 'Autism Practice Lead' do?

Lesley Fleming, our Autism Practice Lead, has worked at Peterhouse school since 1995. Initially employed as the music teacher Lesley worked across the school supporting music and also developed Music Assisted Communication. Lesley later took on the role of Head of Expressive Arts developing the enrichment and use of Arts as a creative tool to support the development of skills and quality of life for young people with Autism.

More recently Lesley’s role has extended to Autism Practice Lead where she combines her knowledge of autism, curriculum and creativity with Autism Practice that supports our pupils in areas that they find challenging. Lesley is part of the Practice Support Team and combines Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) linking to autism practice which works in partnership to support pupils in proactive ways to reduce behaviours of concern by developing understanding of the functions of behaviour.

Lesley often supports inductions of pupils into school to gain insight and knowledge of each pupil to ensure that we have a clear understanding and picture of the child’s strengths, interests and challenges. Lesley is available for parents to discuss concerns and enjoys working as part of the support team to share the consistent approaches in autism practice that help and develop our pupils.

We consider consistency of approach to be key to successful behaviour support. We seek to work in close partnership with parents, sharing ideas and agreeing responses to behaviour that can be used across different settings e.g. at home, in school, in residential services etc.