France's unique secondary school meeting the needs of autistic pupils Mounib, Adam, Rafi, Boubacar, Sanjay and Alioune become the first autistic secondary school students in France, benefiting from a tailor-made programme which forms part of the government's 'Externalised Teaching Unit' (UEE, Unité d'Enseignement Externalisée) programme, designed to give autistic children access to the national curriculum and, in the future, a chance to "work later on in life, be independent enough to have their own apartment". Although there are an estimated 100,000 autistic children of school age in France, this secondary school in Aulnay-sous-Bois to the north of Paris is the first in the country accommodating their needs. France already has 137 UEE's for nursery-age children and 26 for primary school children. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES