Welcome
The Windmill School opened in September 2023 as an all age special free school for up to 90 pupils aged 5-19 with a primary diagnosis of autism. It has been developed by senior leaders from Oak Lodge School in East Finchley, building on their skills and experience in autism education and supported by a team of specialist academics and education consultants including autistic scholars.
The language used to describe autism is currently the subject of intense discussion. All content on our website includes identity first language (e.g., autistic person’) so that we are respectful to those on the autism spectrum their families and supporters. Universally used langauge across all policy and in the school community promotes a truly inclusive and neurodiversity-affirmative mindset.
The Windmill School complements the existing range of generic special schools and autism specific provisions in mainstream schools, to offer places for children who, because of their autistic profile, find the sensory aspects of those environments too challenging for successful progress in their learning.
We have strong links with IOE Centre for Research in Autism and Education as the Headteacher is a doctoral researcher. Therefore our attention to real world autism research that is directly applicable in the classroom with a positive impact on outcomes has enabled us to design and implement a specialist curriculum.
Testimonials from our research collaborators
Being autistic in a world run by non-autistic people is never going to be straightforward. Windmill responds to this reality by providing an educational environment shaped by research and deeply responsive to the lived experiences of Autistic young people.
This is achieved by ensuring that knowledge about the world is presented in motivating and engaging ways, empowering pupils to figure things out for themselves.
By ensuring that Autistic pupils are genuinely cared for, with close attention to their individual needs, mental health, and emotional wellbeing.
And by ensuring that Autistic pupils are given multiple opportunities to be active participants in decisions about their learning, setting them up to shape their own paths in life.
This is what Windmill offers: a place where Autistic young people can flourish.
(Liz Pellicano, Professor of Autism Research, University College London)
Ginny D’Odorico’s leadership of The Windmill School is genuinely visionary. She has created an educational environment that is not only deeply informed by the latest and most rigorous research but is also - crucially - shaped by the lived experiences, perspectives, and priorities of autistic people themselves.
This combination is rare and powerful. It ensures that practice at Windmill is both evidence-based and meaningfully grounded in the realities of autistic young people’s lives.
The young people at The Windmill and their families are exceptionally fortunate to be part of a school led with such clarity of purpose and commitment to inclusion.
Under Ginny’s outstanding leadership, Windmill is setting a standard for what autism-informed education can and should be.
Professor Laura Crane, Director of the Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER), University of Birmingham