Sian Marsh, Director, Early Years and Education at Best Practice Network, on the role a new collaborative approach to teacher training will play in tackling the SEND crisis.
SEND continues to dominate the education headlines to such an extent that it would be easy to think that the situation might begin to run out of control.
Fortunately, we all live and breathe a sector that isn’t naturally inclined to throw up its hands in despair, preferring instead to buckle down, graft and develop solutions even when the circumstances are challenging.
It’s encouraging that policy makers fully appreciate the impact that ballooning SEND numbers are having on the sector, and we all hope that the DfE’s promised costed plan to reform SEND becomes a reality later this year.
In the meantime, it’s up to us as a sector to think creatively and work through this multi-faceted problem.
The Recruitment Crisis
One key challenge affecting the SEND crisis is teacher training and recruitment. Many teachers have a deep desire to work with SEND children in a specialist setting from the very start of their professional lives, but most are delayed or deflected because they train and gain professional experience in a mainstream environment first.
SEND schools can’t tolerate this situation much longer because, as we all know, there is a recruitment crisis. The NFER has done valuable work looking into the reasons behind this struggle to recruit. And, unsurprisingly, the findings suggest that the government could be pulling various levers to improve the situation. While this may be the case, a major part of the solution also lies with the sector and how organisations such as Supporting Education Group work directly with those at the chalk face.
Collaborating to create SEND Initial Teacher Training
There’s a great example of this close collaboration with Gallery Trust, which is working with Best Practice Network to create a SEND Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme.
The programme went from first conversations to reality in less than two years. It has been created from the ground up as a SEND ITT course, so it isn’t a bolt-on to mainstream ITT. And uniquely, it’s an apprenticeship, which means that trainees can get onto the course with a degree in, for example, youth work, training and earning on the job as they work towards their qualification.
The programme is being delivered by experts and experienced teachers in the sector through Gallery Trust, giving trainees the latest skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes around the four main areas of SEND. It means that once qualified, they will be able to effectively support children’s learning and development.
Our Impact
The first 73 trainees working towards QTS and a Level 6 Teacher Apprenticeship qualification will qualify this summer, but it is already clear that the programme is making a difference to a new generation of SEND teachers and their schools.
Student teachers say they are gaining knowledge and understanding that will directly help them in their teaching careers, while school leaders say they are relieved the programme is available because they couldn’t risk losing their current staff on a mainstream training route.
Our SEND ITT programme is also having an impact on mainstream ITT trainees. Learners from Best Practice Network’s mainstream ITT are opting into ‘SEND surgery’ webinars alongside SEND ITT trainees. This is improving their SEND knowledge in a range of areas, including ADHD, SEMH and cognition.
The current focus is on consolidating what has been achieved so that our trainees can really make a difference to SEND children early on in their careers, but in the longer term, we will be keen to expand the programme further.
It’s a good start, and we’ll be watching closely for our programme’s impact on the recruitment and retention of SEND teachers as we grow in the years to come.
Find out more and apply for Best Practice Network’s SEND ITT courses.