Current Teachers’ Standards say staff should have a “clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs” and be able to “use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them”.
That’s a noble aim but one that, for many, is tough to achieve given the lack of training to do so.
For example, Ofsted research in May 2023 found only 33 per cent of teachers felt they had taken part in any CPD to support pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) in the last two years.
What’s more, it was only in that same month last year that the Department for Education issued guidance to initial teacher training providers urging them to forge partnerships with special schools in order to provide more opportunities for trainee teachers to learn how to support pupils with SEND.
Now, some 10 months later, the government has issued a new Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework that includes a more overt focus on SEND.
This is welcome but changes like these will not create the systematic change required for teachers to meet this crucial standard of provision.
Taking action on the frontline
This is why schools and trusts need to think about how they can support staff - both early career teachers (ECTs) and those with years of experience in SEND provision, not just through occasional CPD sessions but as a golden thread in their training.
It’s something we strive to do across our 12 schools by threading SEND support throughout trainees’ incremental coaching, lesson observations and face-to-face learning opportunities - work that is supported by our access to experts at our special schools, JFK and Connaught.
What we do
Firstly, all our special school ECTs take part in in-person and virtual training across 30 weeks and a dedicated curriculum, learning evidence-based strategies for site-specific contexts, such as profound and multiple learning difficulties support and needs, Attention Autism, sensory processing difference and planning with effective habits.
A key part of this training’s success is carving out time and space for trainees to reflect on their learning.
Alongside allocated self-study, ECTs take part in expert peer observations where they are encouraged to attend to best practice and reflect on elements from their self-study, supporting active retrieval and insights into the wider spectrum of pupil need.
Secondly, as mentioned, we strive to ensure SEND is a golden thread throughout our schools and are constantly working to include more SEND-specific training content for mainstream teachers and ECTs.
As part of this, all teachers are provided with SEND-specific training using the Bexley Quality First Teaching and SEND Toolkit and learn from experts at JFK on topics such as Attention Autism and Signalong, which enables us to build a consistent approach when identifying pupils’ barriers to learning and/or SEND.
Our central trust also has a SEND School Improvement Team, which supports CPD for all staff and updates on SEND provision, alongside providing dedicated opportunities to share challenges, solutions and best practice.
This overarching focus helps ensure every teacher is a “teacher of SEND”.
How can we get it right?
However, we know this training cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach and we cannot have unrealistic expectations for all teachers to become experts in all areas of pupil need.
Instead, development opportunities should focus on the skills and tools required to understand pupil need and build confidence to make informed and evidence-based decisions to support each young person. Flexibility in training is key for this.
As an example, our mentors personalise resources and training on our development platform according to each ECT’s working context. This reinforces foundational learning through deliberate practice and helps match learning content with SEND characteristics.
Where we see ECTs as benefitting from additional training or key notions, they can access this as an additional supplement to their core learning.
For example, our ECTs based on autism provision have received accredited context-specific training on good autism practice, which is tailored through deliberate practising as part of one-on-one coaching sessions to support the “I do - We do - You do” approach for class instruction.
Similarly, all our special school ECTs receive training sessions on sensory processing differences to increase awareness of sensory systems.
This helps trainees make adaptations when planning to actively engage learners with complex sensory profiles, such as thinking and acting upon interoception.
Becoming the norm
By embedding personalised training opportunities, we ensure all ECTs are receiving crucial training on SEND provision alongside meeting the requirements of the ECF.
While we are proud of what we do, we hope such provision becomes the norm for all teacher training so that support for pupils with SEND is embedded across the sector as standard.
Ashley Eastwood is executive leader at Learning in Harmony Trust
For the latest education news and analysis delivered directly to your inbox every weekday morning, sign up to the Tes Daily newsletter
