In the refurbished caretaker’s house, next door to Spa School Bermondsey in South London, sits the School House Café, serving artisan coffee, cake and lunches to the local community.

Our School House Café has been an established part of our work experience offer for our Key Stage 5 pupils at Spa School Bermondsey for many years. Over the past 12 months, we have reviewed how we ensure that the Café is not only an environment our pupils can learn valuable work experience skills in, but also how it models the adaptations that autistic people need to be successful in the world of work. The impact of this review has been fantastic, and our pupils are working with more independence, achieving more, and are more prepared for the world of work beyond our doors. 

Planning for autistic pupils’ work experience in the café: 

We reviewed the support that was in place for our pupils to ensure that the best practice autism support we provide for pupils in class was being replicated in the Café. Just as in the classroom, being able to manage a schedule, recognise when a task is complete and manage your own time are key skills you need in the world of work. Therefore, we needed to make sure the environment was set up in a way to make this possible.  

Our full-time work coach reviewed the assessment criteria pupils would need to fulfil to achieve their ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) accreditation and mapped out how these could best be achieved across the course of a year. Pupil folders were set up in advance, and the first thing pupils do at the start of each shift is ‘sign in’ and check their work schedule. This visual schedule replicates the one they use in their classrooms. Verbal prompts have been successfully faded, and pupils now begin their working day independently and move from one activity to the next with more success.  

Workplace adaptations: 

Visual examples are used throughout the back of house area of the Café. Each task has a visual schedule, from uniform expectations, to how to load the dishwasher, to the step by step instructions on how to make bread dough. All tasks also have a checklist or script so that pupils can engage with all areas of the Café with success.  

Students have been given more autonomy in choosing the areas of Café work they would like to learn about. Six areas have been identified, including barista training, baking training, customer service, cleaning, cooking training and stock management, and pupils review their chosen interest once a term. This has increased pupils’ motivation and engagement in their sessions.  

Pupils always reinforce their practical learning with a written activity which consolidates their learning and provides evidence for their ASDAN accreditation.

Conclusions:

We are so pleased with the impact these changes have had on the pupils’ experience in the Café. Engagement and enjoyment are at an all-time high – this is evident whenever you visit the Café, and the pride the pupils take in their work is brilliant. We have more parents visiting the Café, especially when their child is working, and many have said how impressed they are with what their child is able to do in such an open setting.  

The level of independence pupils demonstrate has also increased dramatically. This is reflected in the higher quality evidence we now have for our ASDAN qualifications and in pupil feedback. The increased use of schedules has increased pupils’ independence and confidence when completing the range of tasks they are learning to do.

Next steps: 

Our next steps are to support our young people to access work experience in other coffee or café settings. We will support these businesses to make visual adaptations so that our pupils can be as successful with them as they are with us.  

There are many things you can do to help remove the barriers autistic people face and make your business or service more autism-friendly. If you are looking to make your business or service more accessible to autistic people, read our autism-friendly guides.