The Cabins are specialist units for students with Autistic Spectrum Conditions through which we provide a safe, secure and inclusive environment to enable our Students and pupils integrate into mainstream schools and receive a holistic education.
We provide specialist support to help our students to achieve their full academic potential and we also provide social experiences alongside wide ranging interventions to expand their boundaries and develop their confidence, helping them to become more independent.
We help them work towards a positive future in which they can contribute to society by developing their life skills and empowering students to achieve all they can be on leaving school.
We have a dedicated team of professionals offering outstanding facilities for learning.
Our Mission is:
To be a model of excellence for inclusion into mainstream school.
To provide a place of safety and belonging as well as a place of challenge.
To promote social communication and to develop life skills.
To promote individualism appropriate to society.
To enable all pupils to access learning, in order to fulfil their academic and social potential.
To provide effective guidance and realistic and ambitious progress using clear goals and a consistent approach.
To provide a place where each student is valued as an individual and given the support to help them cope.
Excellence for All is our Trust’s aim and it is the driving force behind all that we do at our Cabins. We strive for academic excellence and outstanding opportunities for all pupils and we want every single one of our students to do his or her best and achieve their full potential in life. We seek to ensure that our pupils receive a broad and rounded education and that each of them becomes capable, caring and confident.
Our Cabins have always had an excellent reputation for supporting students with ASD and our school for all types of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
We are proud of our schools fully inclusive environments and all our students are offered equal opportunities to participate fully in the life of the school.
We also take the overall well-being of all students very seriously and offer access to internal and external support services.
The original Cabin opened in 2006 and was a second-hand Portacabin which was brought in, rather spectacularly, by crane! There were three students and 2 CSSs based in it. In 2010 another Cabin (Cabin Too) arrived and we grew to 12 students and more staff!
Our purpose-built Comberton Cabin was opened in 2015 and has the capacity for 50+ students and as many staff! There are 10 rooms, which include study rooms, a Lifeskills room, changing room and toilets, as well as an outdoor space for gardening, enjoying nature and exercise equipment.
We soon found we still lacked space as demand grew and we were taking students from Hertfordshire as well as Cambridge we decided to start a satellite Cabin in Melbourn Village College, we also used this facility to establish a small Cabin station to accommodate girls and still have as many girls as boys in our Melbourn Cabin which can accommodate 25 pupils.
Our next development soon followed with our Cabin in St Peters in Huntingdon, the driving force here being to limit some of the huge distances students were travelling and accommodate the need in Hunts. Again this Cabin soon prospered and we now have a capacity of 25 students there too. This Cabin is situated next to the Nurture class in Huntingdon so that some students who require a slower route into full mainstream experience time in Nurture before accessing the main school.
Our most recent development has been the opening of our Primary Cabin in Gamlingay Village Primary, known as the Cabin Nest. We opened the Nest at the start of lockdown with the challenges that presented but having built a home in the playground in 2021 we now have a capacity of 12 children accessing our wonderful primary school through the first Primary Enhanced Resource Provision for ASD in the county.
Does my child qualify for a Cabin place?
For a student to qualify for a Cabin place they must have:
• A diagnosis of Autism/ASD/ASC/Aspergers
• An EHCP with funding; the Local Authority (LA) will usually put the case to Panel to award a Cabin place
• The ability to cognitively manage in a mainstream setting
How do we apply for a Cabin place?
At the Annual Review for your child you need to request a Cabin place (not a specific school). The LA will review the application and ask all local Cabins (there are a number) if they can meet the needs of your child.
Places are usually allocated to the Cabin closest to where you live. The LA will usually pay for transport to and from the nearest Cabin (and only the nearest, so if you apply for and get a place at one further away you will need to organise your own transport for your child).
The Cabins only have a few spaces available per year. Due to our reputation, we are always oversubscribed and consequently we will try and attend year 6 reviews that we are invited to for those students potentially applying for a Cabin place from a catchment school. We are sorry we cannot necessarily attend others.
What if our child does not meet the above criteria?
If your child does not meet the above criteria but is in the process of a diagnosis or an EHCP application please do let us know, especially if they are in the catchment area for one of our schools. While we cannot offer Teaching Assistant support in lessons without funding, we do have a limited ability to provide some additional pastoral support if it is needed.
The Open Evenings are a good time to visit the Cabins especially if you are looking for a place during phase transfer. If you wish to visit outside of Open Evening times we ask that you come without your child to see the setting and be able to ask any questions you need to.
As and when your child is allocated a place we have a transition program in place that will guide you and your child through the move to Secondary School.
In order to book a visit please call the school of your nearest Cabin and ask for the Cabin. Upon calling you will be booked an appointment and also asked a series of questions about your child and their current setting and EHCP status.
If you have any inquiries you can either call the schools and ask for the Cabin or email the Cabins.
The Cabin has a dedicated team of over 100 professionals working with our students, enabling them to access the curriculum and integrate fully into mainstream classes, inspiring them to achieve their dreams. These include Communication Support Specialists, Teaching Assistants, Teachers, Occupation therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Counsellors and Art and Music therapists. Our Communication Support Specialists (CSSs) work as a pastoral contact with individual students and liaise between school, home and professional bodies to ensure everyone is kept fully informed of progress at all times.
Our TAs work with students in class lessons, small groups and individually, facilitating their success.
Our Therapists run interventions and provide staff training
Our Teachers deliver the curriculum for our students
This year we have over 115 students in our Cabins whom we support in attending mainstream lessons.
Our students also participate in a number of lunchtime and after-school clubs, including Equality and Diversity Group, after school sports and STEM Club. The students also like to play lots of games during breaks and lunchtimes, particularly in the Nest but in secondary too. We particularly like UNO, Lego, board games and exploding kittens.
Some students enjoy quiet reading, spaces during this time and we have some exercising and rocking on our outside play equipment and some spend their time outside, learning to play together well.
Other students are happy to join in with the Mainstream students or bring mainstream friends back to the Cabin area.
Each Cabin is a little different but each child/student has a designated CSS (Communication Support Specialist) who will be the main contact with the school and who will email you regularly with a short report on progress.
Initially, this contact will be frequent, most likely on a daily basis until the student has settled in. The CSS will also keep you up to date with any particular happenings at school. Most schools have parent pages and we suggest you keep abrest of these too.
In our schools there are also student individual Go4Schools / Scholar Pack page, visible to school staff, the student and the adults in their life. These pages hold lots of information like timetables and homework! There is also a space for communication with home to school, however we prefer to use e-mail and will always try to check for any messages from parents first thing in the morning and throughout the day if time allows.
The Cabin has access to all school resources and in addition we have our own laptops, multimedia devices and cameras, life skills room with kitchen facilities, and other specialist equipment.
All new students throughout the Cabins have access to iPads that are used to access class materials and subject content.
In some schools parents reach an arrangement with the school to provide this resource. Some students have County-supplied laptops and these are set up by the school to access the school network.
We also have examination laptops which are used as word processors during examinations for those that require them.
For students wishing to complete their work / homework at lunchtime, our CSSs and TAs are happy to help access resources and give support if required.
Each student has storage drawers and cubby hole within the Cabin to keep their schoolwork and bag in.
We supply daily visual timetables to assist our students in planning their day. We prepare them for any changes, such as a different TA or room, as necessary on a daily basis.
Students can leave their schoolwork at school and if there is homework that needs to be done it is accessed online by students and parents via Go4Schools/ Scholar pack and the CSS will make sure the appropriate resources are sent home.
Students have access to a variety of services including a variety of therapists, therapies and counsellors
Some students have mentors, who could be staff members or Sixth Form Cabin students, ready to chat and help with things like organisation or social skills.
We also runs bespoke PSHE sessions when necessary to help students with social, emotional or health issues, and Social Circuits sessions to assist some students with gross motor skills, interactions and communication skills.
Some students have additional Maths and English lessons in the Cabin dependent on need, some may attend touch typing sessions, some may also be working towards unit awards with AQA focusing on life skills.
There are lots of different after-school activities each term. These include sports clubs (e.g. football, rugby, cricket), Duke of Edinburgh Awards, homework clubs, Cookery Club, Drama Club and others. There are also many students who take music lessons during the school day and participate in various bands if they wish.
We make sure that organisers and staff running these clubs (in a lot of cases from outside school) are fully appraised of the students’ needs so that they can differentiate if necessary.
To enrol in a club, students may need to be able to manage without TA support, as we cannot always provide TA support for many of these after-school activities.
However, should a parent feel that a student is in need of support for an afterschool club or activity, we will endeavour to provide TAs (currently at a cost of £18 per hour). We recommend the use of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for this purpose and the school will support any such application and can help fill in the form if needed.
We also must point out that a challenge for us in accessing clubs for our students is often managing taxi provision in particular where a student shares the Taxi. Parents may need to arrange a pick up to allow access to clubs.
Usually schools organise several trips a year for example those that Cabin students participate in this year are:
Burwell GVP for yr 5 overnight stay
Beaumanor –CVC for year 7– a 4 night stay in an Activity Centre in Leicestershire
Foreign language, History or Geography trips (including those abroad).
Social trips out - such as the theatre, ice skating, bowling.
For all non-curricular trips, cases will be looked at individually and the level of support required will be assessed and suitable arrangements be made (unfortunately social trips may incur a charge for supplying a TA to accompany the student)
There may be times when it is not appropriate for a student to attend a particular trip. You will be informed of these occasions and explanations will be provided.
The CSSs are on hand to discuss any decisions and hear your thoughts.
Each school has a different School day
During break and lunch, food and drinks are available.
Food is served during break and lunch in the Dining Hall. Items can be purchased via the school’s Cashless Catering Card system, which can be topped up online, via the ParentPay system.
Cabin students can have a specific pass that allows them to move to the front of the queue to avoid stress relating to queuing.
Cabin students can eat in the Dining Hall with or without an adult, or in the Cabin should they desire.
During these breaks students are encouraged to socialise, and we often have a wide variety of students, including those not directly supported by the Cabin, join their friends in the Cabin for outside sports, card or board games, or just to spend time with each other.
Staff are also on hand to support students, and even join in at times.
The Cabin supplements each schools reward system by establishing specific targets and rewards linked to students’ Strategy Sheets and their EHCP, to encourage positive integration.
Although reasonable adjustment are made for students in the Cabin, we have expectations of behaviour in line with that expected throughout the school. We still follow the school systems detailed in the school’s ‘Pupil Behaviour and Discipline Policy’, which can be viewed on each school’s website.
The Cabin also has it’s own set of rules which can be found on P16.
We are always aware of the need to maintain a safe environment. Maintaining the health and safety of students and staff is our paramount responsibility.
All students are expected to behave in a manner that is considerate of others and of their surroundings.
DO NOT HURT PEOPLE
(with words or actions includes swearing and offensive language)
DO NOT DAMAGE THINGS
If you are not in a lesson then you need to do the classwork elsewhere.
Try and treat everyone respectfully, at all times, including their belongings, personal space ipads and laptops .
No phones or other electronic devices (except laptop or iPad for typing classwork) to be out or used without gaining permission from a member of staff first.
Only approved school uniform may be worn in lessons, form time or assembly.
If you trash the Cabin (and do not help to put it right afterwards) then you will be banned from using the Cabin for the following day.
If an electronic device is out in lesson time without permission it will be confiscated until the end of the day or you risk it being banned from school.
Damage to property will result in a bill going home for you to pay.
Hurting people with words or actions leads to a sanction which will involve loss of your free time.
Comberton Sixth Form has an excellent reputation for supporting students with special educational needs (SEN) and we consider ourselves to be a fully inclusive environment. This includes providing specialist support in the sixth form for students with a Cabin place from any of our secondary provisions.
We believe that Comberton Sixth Form offers an exceptionally good range of provisions and are confident that our approach of treating every student as an individual means that we can provide tailored support for ALL students.
We have an excellent and highly skilled team of Teaching Assistants (TAs) assigned to the Sixth Form Cabin, who have a wide range of subject specialisms and are very highly qualified to give A level support
For a sixth form Cabin place students do have to have meet the academic entry criteria for the courses they wish to take.
Each year there are a number of students that do progress to University placements and the Cabin support them in their applications and preparation for University life.
We have very good relations with Anglia Ruskin and our students have been successful in getting good degrees locally and it has been a pleasure to keep in touch of how they are doing.