Homefield College

Homefield supports young people aged 16 - 25 with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities. The majority of our students are on the Autistic Spectrum. 

We adapt the teaching and support to meet each student's needs and strengths. Our students study with us for either 3 or 5 days a week and travel in each day. 

We are a regional provider accepting students from across the UK. Most of our students are from Leicester, Leicestershire and Warwickshire, but we do accept applications from those further afield who can travel in each day. 

We have several sites in the East Midlands, based within the villages of Mountsorrel, Sileby and Barrow-upon-Soar, along with our provision in Nuneaton for those located closer to Warwickshire. 

We focus on three main learning pathways:

• Personal Development
• Skills for Life & Work
• Mission Employability

As part of these pathways, we offer social and life skills, vocational training, employability qualifications and therapies, with English, maths and communication embedded into every lesson. 

Our individualised education pathways focus on the outcomes of improving personal care skills, learning how to live independently and finding a place in the world of work

Our Personal Development Pathway is for students who may be reliant on support, are unable to self-manage, face communication difficulties and have narrow interests and experiences. We help them to develop social skills and the ability to look after themselves. We embed therapeutic interventions and enrichment activities into the learning and offer transferable work skills through vocational sessions and structured work place visits when appropriate.

Our Skills for Life & Work Pathway is for students who want to be more independent in their lives but are lacking in practical, living and work skills. They will learn how to look after themselves with minimal support, identify transferable work skills and experience vocational sessions to help them in identifying future careers. They also have access to enriching sessions to develop their ability to be resilient in the world.

Our Mission Employability Pathway is for students who have work aspirations and are committed to achieving future goals, are able to manage anxieties through coping skills and have worked towards qualifications in Functional Skills. Mission Employability students can gain accredited vocational qualifications in their designed areas, attend career workshops and work experience as well as be encouraged to make their own decisions including risk-taking. They attend guidance interviews with a careers practitioner, and have lessons on CV writing, interview techniques and job searching.

Homefield runs several enterprises in order to give our students experience in real-life working environments. Barrow of Treats is formed of a café and sweet shop where students learn hospitality, catering and customer service whilst developing their social, English, maths, communication and team-working skills. Breward's is a coffee shop in the heart of Mountsorrel where students focus on hospitality and customer service and develop their functional ICT abilities.

Additional College facilities include:

• commercial kitchens
• woodwork workshop
• vocational centre
• ICT suite
• smart boards and iPads in classrooms
• horticultural land
• small animals
• residential experience rooms
• sensory room

We take a holistic approach to therapies, inclusion and wellbeing. Our therapy and inclusion teams work together to ensure our students are supported during their time at Homefield.

Our students are supported by our Speech & Language Therapists with their communication needs within the learning environment. Every student has their own communications plan, and our teaching and support staff are trained to use a variety of methods to support communication and language. We regularly use pictorial timetables, high and low tech systems, visual methods, talking mats, Makaton and symbols.  We use art therapy to help reduce our students’ anxieties and provide a safe way to understand emotional conflicts, and our Occupational Therapists ensures that students can access everyday activities.

Each student is allocated a personal tutor who supports them during their time with us, and our person-centred approach to emotional and behavioural support ensures that all our students have equal opportunities to participate in lessons.

We also offer day service provision based in Sileby, providing activities and support 50 weeks a year for adults with learning disabilities and difficulties. Day Services help with social inclusion in the local community, transition training, leisure activities and work experience.

We encourage and support developing friendships and connections to build a sense of belonging in the local community. We attend monthly Safe Well Happy meetings as well as bi-monthly Charnwood Action Group meetings.

On particular occasions we can provide Residential Experience so that people with learning disabilities can experience living away from home in order to promote independence, self-confidence and self-esteem.

For employers, we hold business networking and training opportunities for employers who work with us to offer our students work experience and other career opportunities. If you'd like to hear more about opportunities for your business to get involved, please do contact us.