Throughout our 25th anniversary celebrations, we're catching up with members of Prior's Court's alumni, seeing how they are doing now and their families' memories of Prior's Court.

This post focuses on Andrew who was at Prior's Court from January 2001, aged six, to 2014.

How is Andrew now?

"Andrew will be 30 in October. He is a very active guy, he has a packed weekly schedule including going to the gym, cycling club, trampolining, swimming, tenpin bowling, trips to the skate park with his scooter, horse riding, and country walking. He spends his week at a residential facility near Crawley, which is approximately 45 minutes away by car, and he comes home every weekend.

"Andrew joined Prior’s Court in January 2001 when he was 6, and left in 2014. Andrew was the first pupil in West Sussex to attend an out-of-county placement without having previously attended an in-county school. This was following a long legal battle with West Sussex authorities."

What are your memories of Prior's Court as a family?

"We have very fond memories of our son’s time at Prior’s Court School, however they are mixed with very difficult memories of sending our son away to a boarding school placement at a very young age.

"We remember our weekly visits to the school to collect Andrew on a Friday, meeting with staff members and discussing Andrew’s week, the progress he had made and the plans for the week ahead. We always enjoyed feeling that we were all together as a team working to help Andrew become the most he could be, and devising methods of breaking down the learning process to give him the best chance to develop.

"The school team were always really excellent at communicating with us at home on a very regular basis and they kept us as connected to Andrew’s weekly life as possible. This was especially important since Andrew has always been non-verbal, and so in order to form all those mental images of your children’s time when they are not with you, we relied on the staff to paint the picture. This was also helped by regularly being around the school to be able to picture all the different settings that Andrew spent his time in.

"We met some wonderful people at Prior’s Court who did so much to help our family better understand autism, and Andrew. Since Andrew would spend his weekends and holiday periods at home it was important to make sure any learning strategies were applied in both settings to avoid Andrew becoming confused, and impacting on his development. The Prior’s Court team provided all the materials and teaching to help us all keep a common approach, and in fact our house still has lots of PECS materials that we originally received from Prior’s Court to help Andrew be comfortable around the home and leave his PECS book on the peg until we go out!"

Andrew can be seen towards the end of this clip, giving a playful kiss on the cheek to ITV Meridian Presenter Sangeeta Bhabra!