Dyslexia toolkit aims to help subject teachers, form tutors and teaching assistants to support dyslexic students in the mainstream classroom at key stage 3 and key stage 4. Whatever your role in supporting students with dyslexia, this toolkit will give you understanding, tangible ideas and practical strategies to enable young people to realise their full potential. What’s included? This 56-page toolkit includes: information about neurodiversity, the strengths of neurodivergent people and some of the challenges they face information about dyslexia and how to identify it in the classroom a CPD PowerPoint for staff training, parents’ evenings and senior leadership meetings advice on avoiding sensory overload games to develop learners’ short-term and working memory templates for sentence starters, task maps and writing planners to reduce the load on learners’ working memory guidance on chunking tasks into manageable steps to help students to process information dyslexia strategies for reading writing strategies for students with dyslexia information about the link between a weak working memory and spelling difficulties, plus dyslexia spelling strategies strategies for supporting students with dyslexia in the maths classroom top tips on harnessing dyslexic strengths such as empathy and problem solving How does it support dyslexic students? Dyslexia toolkit offers dyslexia-friendly strategies that can be used with the whole class so that neurodivergent learners are not put on the spot. There are also approaches that can be carried out in small groups, and suggestions for how dyslexic students can support their classmates, fostering a supportive learning environment and helping young people to feel empowered. Information and activities are provided to raise awareness of what it feels like to have dyslexia, and ways are suggested of playing to dyslexic learners’ strengths. The toolkit includes tick lists for learners to articulate their own areas of challenge and learning preferences, and it provides printable resources to help students to plan written tasks. There is also a step-by-step guide for students to reading for comprehension and an overview of pros and cons of assistive technology such as electronic readers. About the writer Dyslexia toolkit was written by Dr Helen Ross, a leading voice on dyslexia within UK education. She is an experienced public speaker, international consultant and researcher, and contributor to a wide range of publications; Helen is also dyslexic. She supports families, teachers and organisations to better understand the implications of dyslexia, neurodiversity and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In this toolkit, Helen draws on her experiences as a classroom teacher, SENDCo and dyslexia expert to help you to understand what dyslexia is, which aspects of learning can be affected by dyslexia and what you can do to support dyslexic learners.

This practical and accessible toolkit is designed to help teachers and teaching assistants to support key stage 3 and key stage 4 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the mainstream classroom. ADHD toolkit presents an overview of what ADHD is, how it is diagnosed and how it can be treated. It provides a variety of strategies and printable resources to help learners with ADHD thrive in your classroom. What’s included? This 43-page toolkit includes: an overview of the three types of ADHD: combined, hyperactive-impulsive and predominantly inattentive a checklist of ADHD symptoms a summary of the ADHD treatment available, including types of medication and therapeutic support an explanation of how ADHD affects the brain, including impacts on executive functioning an overview of how ADHD affects girls and women comorbid conditions that can occur with ADHD, such as autism and Tourette syndrome classroom strategies for managing ADHD tips and templates for rewarding students’ success a CPD PowerPoint for staff training, parents’ evenings and senior leadership meetings. How does it support students with ADHD? ADHD toolkit helps teachers to recognise behaviours that may be indicative of the three main symptoms of ADHD: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. It offers advice on seating arrangements, turn-taking skills and conflict resolution, with reminders to praise students and showcase their strengths. It also provides classroom strategies to support executive functioning weakness, and teaching strategies for supporting students with memory skills, organisation skills and writing tasks. For students, the toolkit offers self-regulation techniques, tips on how to avoid getting distracted, and planning tools such as timetables and activity planners. The toolkit also suggests sensory supports such as fidget toys that can be beneficial for learners with ADHD and highlights the importance of regular healthy snacks, and of staying hydrated to combat the side effects of ADHD medication. About the writer ADHD toolkit was written by Elizabeth Swan. Lizzy draws upon lived experience and upon professional expertise from over 20 years as a qualified teacher, SENDCo and headteacher in secondary schools and special schools. She exploits her postgraduate study of psychology to present the ‘best bets’ from research-informed approaches to supporting children and young people with ADHD.

A practical toolkit for supporting students with handwriting difficulties at key stage 3 and key stage 4. Dysgraphia toolkit is intended to help young people develop the fine motor skills they may be lacking and offers a full dysgraphia intervention programme targeting specific areas of need. What’s included? This 71-page toolkit includes: information about neurodiversity, the strengths of neurodivergent people and some of the challenges they face information about dysgraphia and the difficulties in obtaining a dysgraphia diagnosis a CPD PowerPoint for staff training, parents’ evenings and senior leadership meetings handwriting assessment tools for you to monitor and record students’ specific difficulties display resources on writing posture and pen grip general classroom strategies, including whole-class warm-ups activity ideas and games for practising visual motor skills and fine motor skills letter tracing worksheets and cursive writing patterns worksheets How does it support dysgraphic students? Dysgraphia toolkit offers time-effective and straightforward ways of diagnosing and supporting dysgraphia in teens. It suggests warm-ups and motor skill activities that are helpful not just for teaching students with dysgraphia but for teaching all young people, and it presents simple ways of supporting dysgraphia in the classroom, without the need for special equipment – although examples of assistive technology are suggested where appropriate. The intervention programme that it proposes does not need to be followed systematically and can be dipped into by subject teachers and teaching assistants in the mainstream classroom. The toolkit presents arguments for and against print and joined/cursive writing and recommends that at secondary school students should not be required to adopt one or the other as long as their handwriting is legible and pain-free. It outlines the additional challenges faced by left-handed students and suggests specific support strategies. Finally, it includes editable handwriting worksheets that can be adapted for any age group and printable handwriting practice sheets for older students. About the writer Dysgraphia toolkit was written by Abigail Hawkins, who runs SENDCO Solutions, an SEN consultancy, and SENsible SENCO CIC, a not-for-profit networking support group. She has been a SENDCo for over 25 years and has taught a multitude of subjects across all phases, from two-year-olds to adults. Abigail works with software companies developing supportive software for SEN and safeguarding purposes, has developed and delivers a teaching assistant apprenticeship programme. She has authored several books on SEN and exclusions, and runs a support network for over 10,000 SENDCos. Abigail has a no-nonsense, practical approach to SEN issues faced by schools, believing that many high-incidence needs can be met in the classroom with basic teaching tweaks.

Writing for different genres – SEND is a downloadable set of lesson plans that can be used to support students with special educational needs and disabilities at key stage 3. It has been adapted specifically for SEND students and reluctant writers, and is designed to work in targeted intervention sessions. It features seven comic strips as prompts to engage neurodiverse students, such as those with dyspraxia, dyslexia or ADD/ADHD. The images, alongside simplified definitions of key terms, vocabulary exercises, word banks and writing prompts will also help to support EAL learners (students who speak English as an additional language) and INA students (International New Arrivals). Seven genres of writing It includes lesson plans, teaching notes, exemplars, scaffolded writing templates and worksheets to help students to learn about the language, structure and form of seven different writing styles. By understanding the writing process, they will learn how to produce a range of text types, some of which might be new genres for students. The writing activities are based on themes to appeal to young adults, such as music, football, aliens and pets, and cover a range of different genres: a fictional diary a formal letter a playscript a fictional recount a list a poem a comic strip. Each lesson includes suggestions for starters, as well as a range of differentiated activities to develop students’ vocabulary and writing skills. Students will feel more confident developing their own writing style and writing in specific genres. They will also understand the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction texts. Key features: It is accompanied by a PowerPoint for use in class, which contains useful checklists of the language features and structure of each writing genre. Includes a lesson plan and teaching notes for each of the seven different writing genres. Includes seven original comic strips as writing prompts. Includes a PowerPoint with 22 slides of checklists and activities, summarising the language features and structures of each text type. Includes a range of carefully scaffolded activities to take students step-by-step through the process of writing for each particular genre, including vocab exercises and word banks, sentence starters and frames, and planning and writing templates. What’s included? There are 57 pages of classroom activities: ‘A Week’s Excuses’ – writing a diary ‘Something Odd Out There’ – writing a formal letter ‘Alien Arrival’ – writing a playscript ‘Jennifer Jones’ – writing a recount ‘Sad I Ams’ – writing a bulleted list ‘StereoHead’– writing poetry ‘The Dark Avenger’ – writing a comic strip