Blended Curriculum
Ascent Autism Specialist College’s Blended Learning pathway offers a flexible and personalised approach to education, combining online and face-to-face learning to support and enhance meaningful interaction between students and teachers, while also promoting independence, collaboration and self-advocacy.
What are the most important benefits of Blended Learning
Ascent autism specialist college offers specialist education for students aged 16 to 25 with autism, co-occurring diagnoses and additional complex needs. Our students require a bespoke package of support to engage with their learning on multiple levels.
At Ascent, we provide highly specialised teaching and learning support to ensure each student’s needs are understood and we exceed their EHCP outcomes. One of our curricula offers a Blended Learning pathway.
Specialist Staff
The strength of our specialist staff’s relationship with our students is essential to Ascent’s success. Our offer of a Blended Learning curriculum ensures we engage and enable students by identifying what motivates them, what they’re interested in, their strengths, and aspirations and then applying this to determine bespoke educational pathways. Our students have high levels of individual support, meaning that learning opportunities are experiential, purposeful and specific.
Blended Learning
Blended Learning is an educational strategy that combines conventional onsite education with online/virtual learning. The Ascent approach to education and learning is flexible. It can offer those students for whom onsite learning requires an extended transition time a blend of an enriched virtual model alongside a face-to-face model onsite in college or at home.
The Ascent Blended Learning model has many advantages; through the systematic integration of online and face-to-face engagement, we support and enhance meaningful interaction between students, teachers and differentiated resources. Students can work ‘independently’ and at their own pace online but still have access to the personal attention of a specialist teacher and specialist teaching support assistant, accessing the knowledge and resources Ascent provide inclusively to all their students. At the same time, specialist teachers and teaching support assistants can structure bespoke courses and deliver instruction more flexibly or creatively than in a traditional classroom setting.
Blended Learning – the benefits:
- Facilitate information delivery
- Increases motivation, confidence, self – esteem
- Enhances students’ independence
- Creation of personalised educational activities
- Collaboration between specialist staff and students, promoting social inclusion
- Providing online personnel development opportunities for the digital world of work
- Create conditions for self-advocacy and inclusion
- Counter negative perceptions of SEN, supporting students accessing the education curriculum and enabling those with SEN to achieve their full potential
Parents and Professionals
Join Us for a Magical Christmas Market at Ascent Autism College!
Looking for festive fun and holiday cheer? Ascent Autism College is thrilled to invite you to our annual Christmas Market on 13th December! Step into a winter wonderland filled with sparkling lights, seasonal food and drink, live music, and plenty of unique shopping...
Ascent College open morning Friday 22nd November at 10.00-11.30 am
Ascent College will be hosting an Open Morning for families who are looking for a post 16 or post 19 autism specialist educational provision for 2025. This will take place on Friday 22nd November at 10.00-11.30 am. If you are interested & would like to reserve a...
Join Our Next Ascent Autism Advice Forum – November 5th: Meet Our SENCo and Learn About the Annual Review Process
Following the success of our last Ascent Autism Advice Forum we are holding the next one on Tuesday 5th November, you can attend in person or remotely. The forum will give you the opportunity to meet our SENCo Andrea to find out more about her role and the annual...
Specialist College celebrates student achievements with awards evening extravaganza
Ascent Autism Specialist College, based in Newton-le-Willows, recently held its annual Aspire Evening, bringing together students, staff, parents, and community partners to celebrate student achievements. The end-of-year celebration took place at the Mercure Hotel...
Specialist college launch community autism advice forums to help families
Ascent Autism Specialist College, based in Newton-le-Willows, has announced a new initiative to support parents and carers as their child progresses into adulthood. The Ascent Autism Advice Forums, developed in-house by head of adult services Julliet Doherty, employer...
Specialist college named finalists in the Northern Cultural Education Awards
Ascent Autism Specialist College, Newton-le-Willows, has been shortlisted for a Northern Cultural Education Award. The awards aim to shine a light on best practice, innovation and activism in the field of creative and cultural education across the North of England....
Specialist college launch ‘Hubway’ project
Ascent Autism Specialist College, Newton-le-Willows, has launched the ‘Hubway’ project, an initiative run by two students, Will and Tarran, to help them develop entrepreneurial skills and support them to integrate socially with their peers from the college’s main...
Ascent College leader shortlisted for prestigious TES Schools Awards
Julliet Doherty, head of adult services at Ascent Autism Specialist College in Newton-le-Willows, has been named as one of only four finalists in the Specialist Provision School Leader of the Year Award at the TES Schools Awards. The national awards celebrate and...
Specialist college welcomes the local community for spring fayre extravaganza
Ascent Autism Specialist College, based in Newton-le-Willows, recently celebrated the beginning of a new season with its annual spring fayre. The spring fayre, which took place on the college grounds, welcomed students, staff, parents/carers and the local community to...
Ascent Autism Specialist College celebrate Neurodiversity Week with a jam-packed schedule of activities
Ascent Autism Specialist College, based in Newton-le-Willows, recently participated in Neurodiversity Celebration Week from Monday, 18 March to Friday, 22 March. The college, which provides specialist education to autistic individuals aged 16 to 25, is committed to...