Cambian Dilston College

About the students

Located in North East England, Cambian Dilston College offers day and up to 52-week residential placements for young people aged 16-25 with a learning disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder and complex needs.

Typical Student Profile:

✓  Moderate to severe learning disabilities

✓  Autism Spectrum Disorder

✓  Down’s Syndrome

✓  Development Disorders

✓  Communication difficulties

✓  Challenging behaviour

✓  A range of complex needs inc. medical needs

✓  Has an Education, Health & Care Plan

Catchment

We offer residential placements for students nationally and day placements for local students. We recruit staff from our local area including Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle and Durham.

Curriculum

At Cambian Dilston College there is the opportunity for all learners to participate in a full and active curriculum including flexible routes to accredited qualifications from pre-entry to Level 2. 

Subjects include:

Within all our curriculum options, we protectively teach the skills that underpin effective learning and relationship building; promoting emotional health and wellbeing.

The curriculum options we offer provide our students with the opportunity to practice new skills in an environment where they feel safe, try new things and learn more about themselves.

Our Curriculum is person centred,  linked in to students EHCPs, and focused on aspirations and enrichment. Designed to stretch and challenge young people, our approach to learning and development is inclusive, including and supporting the decisions of students around where they want to go and what they want to achieve. 

In the first 6 weeks of when a student joins us, we undergo asessments to ensure we have the correct plans and curiculum alignment in place, and build targets for our students to work towards, with students included in the decision making process.

Specialist facilities

Cambian Dilston College is set in beautiful countryside, providing a range of vocational learning environments including working café and bakery, vocational learning kitchen, horticulture and estates management, forest school, workshops for pottery and woodwork, ICT, creative arts including drama. 

Off-site work experience placements are undertaken within our local community and allow students to gain a real life experience of the world of work.

Our Sensory room offers learners a place where they can fully relax and increase or decrease their sensory experience.

The room features:

• Music that can be customised via Bluetooth to play our students' favourite songs.
• An interactive cube on the floor that can be launched into the air - the colour it lands on changes the colour of the lights in the room.
• LED strip lights that project a variety of colours and brightness levels.
• Touch screen lighting panels whereby students can change the colours, the speed and the fading of light.
• A black soft touch panel that has twinkling lights, and a visually stimulating bubble tube corner with mirrors and fibre optic lights.
• An ultraviolet panel with both fidget and sensory toys.
• A rocker chair for sensory movement and bean bags to relax in.

Residential Care

At Cambian Dilston College we are lucky enough to have an amazing environment in which to teach and care for our students.  Our college buildings are surrounded by 9 acres of grounds which provide not only a unique teaching setting but also the back drop to providing a gentle, caring, therapeutic environment for students to enjoy, relax and develop within.

The environment allows us to give students freedom safely and securely, and the site is tailored to  develop life skills, access to the community, travel skills and independence. 

Most students will live together in small groups with the support of designated Residential staff.  Some students may live individually to meet their needs. 

We have a strong Estates Team on site, who work together to plan student transitions and support students as they are moving in, ensuring moves are seamless and students have everything they need and the facilities they are most interested in are easily accessible from their residential location.

We have 5 beautiful stone cottages within the grounds, providing a broad variey of accommodations for students.  Our living spaces offer students large communal lounges and communal rooms, and fully equipped kitchens with modern appliances. Student bedrooms are clean, well decorated and furnished to a high standard, with en-suite bathrooms.  Students are encouraged and supported to personalise their room to make them feel they are truly staying in a 'home from home'.

We also offer 5 apartments within our main College building, for shared occupancy. We deploy compatibility assessments to blend together our students to ensure they will be able to live together well. Again, the apartments are personalised to student requirements and choices. 

The accomodations are designed to offer lovely views of the greenery, woodland, beautiful trees and gardens surrounding the college environment.

Our student accommodation provides individuals with the opportunity to experience living away from home and developing skills for independence such as cooking, shopping, doing laundry, supported travel training and community awareness.  Gaining these skills will enhance their experience of moving onto Independent Supported Living if they choose this as a future option.

Other information

Here at Cambian Dilston College we have a comprehensive and experienced therapy team who are available to meet the therapeutic and behavioural  needs of all of our students.

Our Therapy Team consists of: