Only two days left to book onto the January cohort for our online SEND Programme

 
If you are looking to enhance your knowledge of SEND and expand your skill set, you may wish to look through the modules available on our flexible masters-level online SEND Programme – see the full list. You can build your own study programme from the available modules and target areas of knowledge and practice that are most relevant to you, your setting and the children in your care. With our online practice-led learning model you can study on your own terms and bring positive changes into your setting from the outset.

“Real Training gives you the opportunity to gain the essential skills and knowledge necessary to master and progress on your chosen career path.” – Kathryn Clark, Real Training delegate 2018

Bring existing credits into the programme

Combine credits you already have from existing level 7 SEND qualifications with further modules on our online SEND programme to gain your desired postgraduate award:

• A Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits)
•  A Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits) or
• The Master of Education in SEND (180 credits)

If the credits were achieved with another provider, simply email us now to request a copy of our Accreditation for Prior Learning (APL) forms.

Start your journey with us

If you don’t already have credits to bring into the programme, don’t worry – you can register for the online SEND Programme and start your learning journey with us straight away. Here’s some advice from Sarah Johnson-Motyl who is currently completing her Masters with us: “Real Training is your gateway to an alternative career – believe in yourself and your ability to influence our next generation of learners.”Only two days left – don’t miss out

Take the next step in your career and start your chosen module(s) this month – complete our online booking form by the end of tomorrow (Tuesday 15 January) to be included in our January cohort. We don’t take a payment at the time of booking but in order to start this month, you will need to complete the required application forms and make an initial payment by the end of the month.

Certificate of Competence in Educational Testing – Manchester

We hope your 2019 is off to a good start. If your school is looking for money-saving projects this year, it would be worthwhile looking at our Certificate of Competence in Educational Testing (CCET) qualification. By completing this course, you will be able to fulfil the majority of your setting’s educational testing requirements, saving money on external providers.

Flexible learning

The CCET course can be completed online or via a 3-day intensive course. Our next face-to-face intensive CCET course will be taking place on 23-25 January at the Cottons Hotel in Knutsford, near Manchester. It is an open access course and is therefore completed by a wide range of education professionals from a variety of settings, including teachers, SENCOs, teaching assistants, tutors and education officers. The intensive option offers a speedy route to completion, with the majority of work undertaken during the 3-day course. The final assignments will then be completed back in your setting and uploaded for review by your dedicated tutor via our flexible online learning platform.

Gain a postgraduate qualification

Once completed you can join Real Training’s SEND programme as if you have 30 credits at level 7. In this way, completing CCET could be the first step towards gaining a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert), Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) or a Master of Education (MEd) in SEND. If educational testing becomes something that you are passionate about, you could complete a PGCert in Educational Testing with only one further module after CCET. The CCET qualification also covers all of the British Psychological Society‘s (BPS) competences and standards so at the end of the course, if you wish, you can become a registered Test User with the BPS.

Be ready for September

By completing the course early in the year, you will save your school money for the rest of the academic year and you will also be well prepared for the busy assessment period in the Autumn term. For those schools required to undertake access arrangements assessments, a follow-on module can be completed after CCET so that you can become an official access arrangements assessor in line with JCQ requirements – to be eligible you simply need to have a qualification to teach or work as a teacher/tutor in an independent setting or in higher or further education.

How to book

If you would like to attend this intensive CCET course this month, please complete the online booking form and ensure you select the Manchester course option on the drop-down list. We will not take payment at the time of booking but we will require a £500 deposit for the intensive course within seven days of booking, just to secure your place.

There are other dates and venues available if Manchester does not suit you this time – you can see our dedicated CCET webpage for full details of these. If you prefer, there is also the option to complete the CCET fully online or via a bespoke course in your own setting.

 
 
Following a meeting with the Department for Education (DfE), we wanted to make it public that the DfE funding for NPQ courses is once again available.

This funding is offered for all NPQ courses for schools in Opportunity Areas and Category 5 & 6 areas.

Real Training offers the full range of school-based NPQs, from Headship and Senior Leader level to the Middle Leader programme suited to less experienced aspiring leaders.

As a DfE-accredited NPQ provider, our programmes contain the core learning outcomes set down by the Department. However, Real Training NPQ courses are different in a number of ways. Our NPQ courses are:

• Delivered fully online. This gives our participants the flexibility to work at a time, place and pace which suits their professional and personal lives.
• Flexible and contain no internal deadlines. As a company owned by former educators, we’ve created flexibility to allow teachers to work when suits them, to avoid adding stress.
• Tutored on a one-to-one basis by highly-experienced, expert tutors.
• Founded on an inclusive ethos, and informed by the latest psychological insight.

If you want to register yourself or members of your team for our January intake, you simply need to complete a registration form.

Please note that schools in funded areas are not limited in the number of participants they can enrol. For as long as the funding is in place, you can sign-up as many eligible team members as you wish.

If you are looking to take advantage of this funding, though, we would strongly recommend registering soon as we are not clear how long the window will be open for.

Flexible learning from the UK’s biggest Professional Assessment training organisation

The challenges educators face in gaining assessments and support for children presenting with SEN are not new – or unique to Scotland. But, based on recent years, the pressures are growing with Scotland facing perhaps the greatest challenges within the UK.

As far back as 2016, The Herald was reporting on the crisis over Educational Psychologists in Scotland. The twin effects of an ever-growing increase in diagnosis, coupled with a drop in the number of qualified EPs has seen a burgeoning scramble to access qualified support for students.

Whilst the Scottish Government’s recent announcement of a £4M bursary to help train up to 90 EPs is certainly welcome, the training process is a long one – and students and schools do not have the luxury of time.

Whilst EPs do offer more than assessment and access arrangements services, at Real Training, we can offer schools a solution to these two challenges. As part of our University-accredited Professional Assessment Programme, we offer two courses for educators, both for assessing students and for carrying out exam access arrangements.

Which course can help your school?

We offer two courses that can carry out some of the functions offered by Educational Psychologists, depending on your intended aims and type of setting:

• Certificate of Competence in Educational Testing (CCET). This course will help you to understand how assessments using psychometric tests are developed, how to use them effectively, and how to interpret the results. Additionally, the Certificate of Competence in Educational Testing will enable you to apply for the BPS Test User Educational qualification and to join the BPS’s Register of Qualifications in Test Use – a publicly searchable database of competence that will bolster your professional reputation.
•  Certificate in Psychometric Testing, Assessment and Access Arrangements (CPT3A). This course will teach you how to use psychometric testing instruments effectively (CCET) and give you the right to apply them in exam access arrangements (AAC) confidently and competently. As this course is partly formed by CCET, you will also be able to join the BPS’s register

As the UK’s largest professional assessment training provider, we’ve trained thousands of people to become qualified test users and access arrangements assessors, so you can be confident studying with Real Training.

Flexible learning, designed by and for educators

As an organisation owned and run by EPs and former educators, we know the pressures on teachers – and have built our courses around educators’ real lives. Real Training Professional Assessment Programme courses are:

•  Delivered fully online. This means our courses are flexible, allowing you to study at times and places which suit you best, and cost-effective as there is no need to pay for classroom cover.
•  Practise-led and informed by positive psychology. We know, from decades’ of experience, that people change their working practises best by embedding learning in their day-to-day working life.
• Recognised. Not only are our courses recognised by the BPS and JCQ, they are also accredited by Middlesex University. Graduates from either course can join our Masters in SEND programme as if they have 30 credits.

What are the next steps?

If you have read enough, and want to register, you can sign up here. Registering takes just a couple of minutes, and no payment is taken at this stage.

 
School leaders have been telling us about their frustrations in being unable to have their teachers without UK QTS access the new skills, confidence and abilities the UK’s National Award in SEN Coordination provides. As things stand, the absence of UK QTS or QTLS is an insurmountable barrier to joining this course. Additionally, even for those who have QTS, the foundation of the course is UK regulations, structures and societal make-up.

Based on that, we have taken the best of the UK award, augmented it and then changed the rest to make the course agnostic to location or geography, and also have a greater focus on issues that matter to leaders in international schools, like third culture kids, and the intersection of local and scholastic language in students with EAL. This isn’t simply a re-hash of the UK award – it’s a bespoke course, designed for – and in partnership with – international schools.

Our iSenco course is:

• Delivered fully online, and without internal deadlines, so delegates can study at a time and pace which suits their real lives. This is also more cost-effective as it means teachers do not need to be away from their learning centre
• Tutored one-to-one by highly experienced experts
• Created bespoke for the international schools market
• Based on the latest psychological insight and expertise
• Founded on experience – Real Training is one of the UK’s largest SENCO trainers
• Practice-led, as we believe we learn best by doing, in a real-world environment
• Delivered on our bespoke virtual learning environment, Campus Online
• University-validated. Graduates will exit with a 60-credit Postgraduate Certificate from Middlesex University. By completing the course you can continue on your masters journey, whether it is with us or another provider
• Based on the highest standards. We are members of the National Award Provider Group in the UK, our courses are all assessed and monitored by Middlesex University and we are members of the British Accrediation Council
• Created in partnership with international partners including school leaders based in international schools and informed by insights gained from our membership of groups including COBIS, BESA and ISCR.

If you are interested in reserving a place, all you need to do is register on our booking form. Registration takes two or three minutes, and no payment is taken at this stage. Additionally, if you want to change your start date further down the line, all you need to do is let us know and we can arrange this – and with no additional cost.

The deadline to register and enrol for the next cohort is January 15, and there are further cohorts in May and September.

Alongside our iSenco course, we also deliver NPQs, the UK National Award, our MEd SEND programme, our world-leading Professional Assessment Programme and more. All our courses are delivered online and suited to delegates based all over the world. In fact, we have current participants in 53 countries across the globe.

 
As you are probably aware, today is World Mental Health Day. Perhaps there are activities in your setting to discuss this and raise awareness of some of the issues – spoken and unspoken – which will affect at least some of the students in your care? According to a study by Green H et al in 2005, one in ten children has a diagnosable mental health disorder. And a more recent study by the Office for National Statistics in 2016 suggested that perhaps unsurprisingly for those on the frontline of education, close to one in four children and young people show some evidence of poor mental health.

Finding effective strategies, allied to empathy

Clearly, as both an educator and a public servant, your first inclination when working with students with social, emotional or mental health challenges is – quite rightly – to be empathetic.

However, what many educators have told us over the years is that, particularly in this area of need, knowing how to approach these issues is fraught with concern. The fear of inadvertently causing distress through well-intentioned actions is true of everyone in society when engaging with people who are suffering from these challenges, but particularly acute with teachers.

Improved insight giving better outcomes

Allied to working with mental health and medical professionals as part of the teacher’s duty of care, there are also training options available to empower educators with practical skills and knowledge to help make a positive difference to students’ scholastic and life outcomes.

Real Training offers a masters module in Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs as part of our MEd SEND programme. This 30-credit module (validated by Middlesex University) can be taken as either a standalone module, combined with our Evidence and Pedagogy for Inclusion module to confer upon graduates a postgraduate certificate in SEND: Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs, or give 30 credits towards a full masters for the module, or 60 when combined with Evidence and Pedagogy for Inclusion.

Whether participants simply want to gain the skills and knowledge from the module itself or make it part of their ongoing progression, our programme is entirely flexible.

What are the benefits of the module?

Full details of the module’s content, outcomes, costs, start dates and more can be found on the Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs webpage. But the core aspects which make our programmes different are that they’re:

• Delivered and tutored by experts. Our Module Leader, Sarah Norris, is a senior Educational Psychologist who has worked extensively with schools and young people with SEND and specialises in the field of mental health. Sarah is supported by other expert tutors in delivering our module.
• Flexibly delivered, fully online. We know that the life of the educator is extremely busy and unpredictable. So our fully-tutored, online courses have no internal deadlines, so you can work at a pace – and at times – to suit your real life.
• Based on psychology. Real Training is founded and owned by Educational Psychologists, so all of our programmes are based on the latest, and most rigorous, psychological insight.

What are the next steps?

If you have seen enough and want to book your place for our next cohort in January, you can book your place today online. Booking online takes just a couple of minutes, and no payment is needed at this stage.

 
At Real Training, we speak to dozens of access arrangements assessors every day – after all, we train more than 500 educators to become qualified access arrangements professionals every year.

What they are telling us on a regular basis is how much they’d value having another member of the team qualified to complete access arrangements – and as we approach Form 8 time it’s a conversation we have ever-more often.

With that in mind, perhaps your school is considering getting an additional resource?

Our Access Arrangements Assessor course (CPT3A) is the most popular in the UK for a variety of reasons. Our CPT3A course is:

• Delivered in a way which suits schools and teachers. Either fully online (saving on travel and arranging cover) or blended, with our acclaimed 3-day intensive CCET course to start, and accelerate the process.
• A path to ongoing development. Our course lets graduates join either of our master’s courses, validated by Middlesex University as if they have 30 credits.
• In line with the standards laid down by the British Psychological Society. Our graduates receive the BPS’s test user educational qualification. 
•  Supported. All of our courses benefit from one-to-one expert tutoring meaning our participants always feel fully supported throughout their learning journey.

Our fully-online courses are available to start at any point, and we’ve upcoming 3-day intensive events for the CCET module in London, Bristol and Manchester.

With the new school year getting fully underway, now is a time we often reflect on new challenges, aims and personal goals the year ahead brings. With that, many will be looking at developing their own skills and those within their team.

World class training for educators across the globe

We’ve always had a fully inclusive ethos, not just for the students under our graduates’ care, but also in how we create and deliver our training. Our globally-acclaimed training programmes have always been delivered largely online, and are all practice-led, meaning that participants across the world, in any type of setting, can use their real-world circumstances to inform their development. As a company created and owned by former educators, we understand the importance of new skills being actionable, practical and giving ongoing improvement. However, listening to our friends and colleagues in British International Schools, we knew we could do more. So we have.