Enquiry Based Research

Staff at Brookfields are encouraged to develop their own knowledge and understanding of the most up to date and effective strategies to help support pupil development. Research, (a PhD and MEd respectively), has taken place both into the efficacy of ‘Education for the Developmentally Young’, an accredited training programme for staff working with children with severe and profound learning disabilities and into Intensive Interaction, an approach developed to support communication skills in pre verbal pupils.

Autism and Emotional Engagement

Recently we have been trialling and researching the validity of P.L.A.Y. (Play and Language for Autistic Youngsters) as a tool to help support the interaction and communication skills of pupils with Autism. We have developed this work further and created an approach called REACh (Relationship Education for the Autistic Child) based on the principals of P.L.A.Y.  We are working in partnership with Prof Richard Rose at Northampton University and his team in the development of REACh.

Sleep

Brookfields has also been linked with Oxford Brookes University and the Parks Hospital Oxford, who have carried out sleep studies with our pupils, many of whom have then gone on to benefit from the interventions offered.

Teacher Training

We also have delivered the keynote lecture on Special Educational Needs at Reading University for several years running now and support students from the university who then express an interest in developing a particular area of research that may be of benefit to our pupils. These have included the use of video to support learning, specific work on combating phobias and the introduction of drawing as a tool to help recall in pupils with Autism.

Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities

Our lead teachers in Complex Learning Difficulties have worked in partnership with Prof Barry Carpenter and his team looking at the engagement of pupils with CLDD. This work has been endorsed by the DFE and is quoted in the governments Green Paper. This work has culminated in a series of training and support materials for parents and professionals working with pupils with CLDD. Click here to find out about the project

MOVE and Cognitive Development

As a MOVE Regional Centre of Excellence we are working in partnership with MOVE Europe looking at the long term impact of the MOVE Programme on the cognitive development.