Ark Ayrton school boy with autism starts baking enterprise to raise charity cash for Autism Hampshire

Albie Hodder, 11, who attends Ark Ayrton Primary Academy, started baking dozens of sweet and savoury goods at the start of Year 6 after teachers were eager to find new ways to settle him into school after the pandemic.

Teaching staff tailored a curriculum to support Albie’s additional needs and were eager to introduce his love for cooking into lessons to develop his life skills like money management in the process.

In the past three weeks, Albie has been selling his baked treats to staff while choosing to support a charity close to his heart, Autism Hampshire.

He has so far raised £55 from staff sales of his bakes including sausage rolls, rocky road and pizza pinwheels and hopes to raise as much as he can before he moves to secondary school.

The charity supports children and adults like Albie who are on the autism spectrum to create opportunities for a better future.

Albie said: ‘I started baking a long time ago but I suddenly stopped for some reason.

‘Now it’s a part of what I’m doing at school.

‘I’ve been making pizza, cake, drinks and sausage rolls. I’ve been interested in baking since I was in year three.

‘I would like to do this forever but I can’t. I have to leave school soon.’

When Albie returned to school last year after spending months studying from home, teachers saw a drop in his attendance.

However, teaching assistant Francessca Jefferies says the ‘stricter routine’ combined with twice weekly cooking sessions has ‘helped him feel settled’.

She explained: ‘It’s made him feel like he’s got a very important role in the school.

‘Everyone knows that on a Friday it’s Albie’s bakes. He sells in the staff room and he absolutely loves the attention that he gets from it.

‘It encourages him to come to school because he struggled with attendance a bit.

‘It's helped him to feel like he has a purpose in the school because he has struggled to access the same learning as the peers in his class.’