What can schools expect from the DfE’s new SEND training?

Teachers, tutors and support staff are being asked to meet a wide range of needs in their classrooms, but almost half of all primary and secondary teachers say more training would help them to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. That’s a gap that needs to be addressed if we want schools to be more inclusive.

The government is putting in place a £200 million programme of professional development on SEND and inclusion for staff across schools, colleges and early years. This week the first wave of that support is being released: a set of free training materials that schools and post-16 settings can use to plan and deliver professional development for their own staff.

This first release introduces inclusive teaching and the key aspects of child development that can help educators understand the challenges learners may face, before going deeper into speech, language and communication. Two further sets of materials will follow during the year.

Critical to the effectiveness of this training will be three foundation stones that underpin everything we have designed alongside the sector.

1. Build on what teachers already know

Inclusive teaching builds on strong practice that will already be familiar to many educators.

Approaches like explicit instruction, scaffolding and effective feedback feature in initial teacher training or education and the Early Career Framework. They also sit within a wider evidence base on high-quality teaching and professional development, including guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation for both schools and 16-19 settings.

The new materials build on those foundations by helping educators to understand how familiar, high-quality teaching approaches can support learners experiencing different barriers. The key message here is that inclusion is not necessarily or always about doing something different.

2. Understand needs more deeply

Good inclusive teaching depends on understanding the barriers that a learner may be experiencing, as well as knowing which teaching approaches might help. Teachers can often feel that they have to deploy a huge range of different strategies, but looking beyond the “label” or the immediate difficulty can help them to make more informed choices about how to respond.

A good example is speech, language and communication. It is the most common primary need among pupils receiving SEN support.

Speech, language and communication underpins so much of what happens in classrooms: understanding explanations, following instructions, taking part in discussion and expressing ideas.

Difficulties in these areas can create barriers across the curriculum, as well as affecting relationships and later outcomes.

The training materials, therefore, show how familiar teaching approaches can be strengthened and adapted to support learners with different needs, including through visual cues, clearer sequencing and structured talk.

3. Make it work in your setting

Teachers, school and college leaders, specialists and sector organisations have been shaping the materials with us, and that input will continue to influence what comes next.

Across that work, one thing has come through clearly: national support needs to be practical and flexible. Different phases, subjects and settings also need different examples, with post-16 colleagues particularly clear that materials need to reflect the realities of colleges and vocational learning.

As a result, we committed to there being no single prescribed route through the package. Schools and colleges can select, adapt, edit and sequence the materials around their own priorities, staff knowledge and learners.

What comes next

This first release is only the start. Further releases will cover other areas of development, including executive function, sensory, motor and physical, and social and emotional development, alongside wider support for professional development.

These materials are obviously only one part of a much bigger programme of SEND reform. Schools and colleges will be working through significant change over the coming years, and professional development alone cannot answer challenges around capacity, funding or specialist support.

But strengthening everyday teaching matters enormously. Helping educators to understand learners’ needs better and make confident, evidence-informed choices in the classroom is one important part of building a more inclusive system where every child and young person can thrive.

Hilary Spencer is chief executive officer of Ambition Institute