At college, we recognise that there are times when our families need additional advice and support. With this in mind, we created our Learner and Family Support Team. The team supports on welfare issues, such as social care, housing, benefits, and transport. They also provide bespoke individualised support for learners and their parents/carers when they are transitioning on from college.  

The involvement of parents and carers is essential in helping learners make good progress. The more closely that college and home work together, the more effective learning can take place. 

We provide parents and carers with full and regular updates on their young person’s progress, as well as regular opportunities to receive advice and support, and to plan for their young person’s transition on from college. These include: 

Transition reviews 

These meetings are held very early in the last year of college life to plan for the next stage of a young person’s life and their onward destination. In reality, for this to be successful, there should be an ongoing conversation between family and college from the very early days of college.  

The Learner and Family Support Team provide bespoke advice on the options available after college and support learners and their families to access their preferred onward placement. For more information, contact our Transitions and Welfare Manager, Sancha Cadogan Poole on scadoganpoole@ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk.

Annual reviews 

This is a meeting to review progress and set targets for the following year. We also use this meeting to update the learner’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, if necessary, to ensure plans are destination focused for a life beyond college. 

College events 

All parents and carers are invited to attend a range of events throughout the year to celebrate our learners’ achievements. We also hold regular events to share information with parents on key topics of interest, such as our Transitions Events. At the end of the year, we hold celebration of achievement events across all of our sites to reflect on the year's successes.

College newsletters 

Newsletters are sent out once per term to inform families about the learning for the term and offer advice on how to support learning at home.

Ambitious parent support group

The online ‘Ambitious parent support group’ is exclusively for parents and carers from our education services and is run by our Learner and Family Services Team. The group meets online once a month giving you the chance to hear from contributors and experts, as well as connect with like-minded parents and carers.
 

Parent coffee mornings

The college holds regular coffee mornings both online and in person. These give parents the opportunity to visit the college, meet the senior leadership team, and connect with one another.