ABSTRACT
Prior to 1986, as at most schools for children with autism, our pupils had gone on walks, occasionally they had scrambled on local rocks and participated in the yearly ‘holiday’ to the seaside, which may have included some pursuit type activities. In 1986, our school experienced change. We had a new principal, quite a large number of new staff and we were starting to get a small number of referrals for children with Asperger’s Syndrome. It was a good time to look at the curriculum we offered over the school’s 24 hours. It was in these circumstances that teachers and residential staff looked for alternative ways of delivering the school’s curriculum to our new pupils and also to our existing ones, many of whom were towards the lower end of the autistic continuum in terms of intellectual ability. Some also presented severely challenging behaviour.
