The government has unveiled free training resources for schools and post-16 settings, to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Training provider Ambition Institute has developed training materials for schools and post-16 settings which aim to give teachers practical techniques such as breaking down instructions into digestible steps, pre-teaching specialist vocabulary, and carving out time for children and young people to practise it.
The first set of materials includes an introduction to SEND reforms, inclusive teaching, and proposed areas of development, as well as a deeper dive into speech, language and communication development and facilitator guidance for all sessions with support for planning the training.
Training sessions are designed to be delivered by an in-house facilitator and take around an hour to deliver. They can be run as standalone sessions or combined into a training day. The materials are not mandatory to use, but are intended to support settings to embed inclusion.
The training for schools will go hand in hand with online training for early years staff, developed and delivered by early years charity Dingley's Promise, supporting staff to use age-appropriate inclusive practices such as visual timetables, or adapting environments to reduce unnecessary noise.
The move is the first step in the government’s wider £200 million investment into teacher training to transform support for children and young people with SEND.
Further resources will be published in January and April next year, with fully funded training courses launching in the autumn term for teachers, leaders and support staff.
One in three teachers in a recent survey said they want more training on supporting children with SEND, while a quarter of surveyed teaching assistants reported that a lack of sufficient training was a barrier to them effectively providing support for pupils with SEND.
Claire Heywood, vice principal at Kidderminster College, who provided feedback on the materials, said: “The strongest feature of these materials is that they place inclusive practice at the heart of high-quality teaching, recognising that meeting the needs of learners with SEND is an integral part of effective teaching and learning.
"The attention given to vocational and technical learning, learner independence, progression and preparation for adulthood means the resources feel both evidence-informed and genuinely relevant to the further education sector.”
The government’s wider SEND reforms will be taken forward through the Education for All Bill, subject to the outcome of a current consultation.