About the materials
These training materials were commissioned in response to a Government recommendation, following the Lamb Inquiry (2009).
They are designed to support teachers in mainstream schools who wish to gain advanced and specialist skills for teaching pupils with:
- Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
- Moderate learning difficulties (MLD)
- Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD)
- Dyslexia or specific learning difficulties (SpLD)
- Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)
The materials consist of five learning modules, each of which focuses on one of the above areas of special educational needs and disability (SEND).
The materials feature reading-based and practical training tasks, some of which will need to be completed at school with colleagues, pupils, or parents. We have also created a range of audio/video resources to help with your study, all of which can be accessed via this site – either as you work through each module or by visiting the audio/video library.
Please read all three of the guidance areas in this section, by selecting the ‘Using the materials’ and ‘Our aims’ tabs, before you start using the materials.
Using the materials
The modules are broken up into a series of units, each of which is presented in a PDF that addresses a specific subject. These were prepared in conjunction with the Institute of Education, London, and provide insight, training tasks and activities through a combination of:
- Citations and comparisons of academic texts and studies
- Government data and statistics
- Expert contributions
- Case studies
- The audio/video resources
The PDFs should be your primary training materials and lead your study, supported by the online resources and multimedia features on this site.
You can select the module that’s most suited to your needs on the Choose a module page. Once you have done this, you’ll need to work through its units one-by-one, using the left-hand navigation and pagination controls.
Your first step as you begin each unit should be to download its PDF. You can find out more on the Choose a module page.
Our aims
In February 2010, the Government announced its implementation plan in response to the Lamb Inquiry’s final report (PDF, 2.9MB).
The report highlighted the importance of well-trained teachers in:
- Improving outcomes for pupils with SEND
- Raising parental confidence
It also found that the range of advanced level training that was available to take teachers beyond core skills in SEND varied across the country.
In response to this, it was recommended that the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) – the core functions of which have now become part of the Teaching Agency – should: “develop materials to support training at an advanced level in each of the five main areas of SEN.”
These materials were commissioned following that recommendation.
To improve outcomes for more pupils with these needs, the longer-term aim of the Lamb Inquiry is for there to be at least one teacher with advanced level training in each of these areas in every mainstream school.