SEND Training for Outwood Grange Academies Trust Schools

Six career-defining reasons to study with us

1. Learn on the job – engage with real-life learning that slots perfectly into your day-to-day and builds on your existing practice.
2. Embrace flexible e-learning – experience our leading virtual campus (Campus Online^TM) and take the latest skills and knowledge into the heart of your setting.
3. Encounter a perfectly weighted practice-led study programme that doesn’t overload you with theory and take the module in any order that suits you.
4. Discover the latest research, policy and guidance and develop truly first-rate skills with our outstanding SEND practitioners.
5. Achieve the gold standard award for SENCOs that drives up teaching standards and outcomes for those with SEND.
6. Master the essential competencies and leadership abilities to fuel your career and attain a Middlesex University Post Graduate Certificate entitled the National Award for SEN Coordination – worth 60 credits towards a Masters.

Add real value to your school

• Gain an internationally respected, highly valued qualification.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the background legislation, policies and evidence that are key to inclusion and SEN provision.
• Secure your knowledge of high-incidence disabilities and their effect on each pupil’s learning and development.

Draw on a broad range of evidence, policy and resources and work with others to influence the delivery of inclusive education.

• Design, implement and evaluate an intervention in your setting to improve the outcomes of one or more SEN pupils.
• Cultivate your collaborative, leadership and staff management skills with multiple stakeholders.
• Explore the importance of interpersonal relationships to achieve robust planning and intervention delivery.
• Enhance your own and others’ personal and professional development.

What makes our National Award special?

• Work with personal tutors who are experienced and qualified practitioner psychologists or specialist teachers.
• Experience the National Award from the comfort of your own setting with Campus Online – the leading virtual learning environment for postgraduate SEND study.
• Learn on the job and encounter a perfectly weighted practice-led study programme that doesn’t overload you with theory.
• Take a course designed by leading educational and child psychologists.
• Attain a Post Graduate Certificate entitled the National Award for SEN Coordination – which can be used as 60 credits towards a Masters.
• Take your first steps on Real Training’s SEND Programme – an unrivalled range of Masters models relevant to SENCOs.
• Connect with SENCOs across the UK.
• Save travel time and money.
• Choose a start date that suits you (September, January or May).

The course is quality assured by Middlesex University and you will receive a Middlesex Award upon completion. Dr Andrew Richards of Exeter University is our external examiner.

A bit of theory first…

Strand 1: The context for inclusive education

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of the background legislation, policies and evidence that inform inclusion and SEN provision.
• Also, learn to appreciate how high-incidence disabilities affect your pupils’ learning and development.
• Activity-wise: you will analyse SEND/inclusion policies within your school and look at their background – and how they relate to the current legislative climate.

Followed by a lot of useful practice…

Strand 2: Developing strategy and policies for inclusive education

• Draw on a broad range of evidence, policy and resources, to work with others to positively influence the delivery of inclusive education – particularly in relation to strategic vision and commitment.
• Activity-wise: you will compare and contrast elements of SEND practice currently under review in your school through a visit to a local school to compare SEND practice in an alternative setting.

Strand 3: The development, planning and application of inclusive practice

• Analyse the intervention choices offered in your setting and evaluate the outcomes of one intervention in detail.
• Draw on the theory, evidence, local practice and external sources of support to design, implement and evaluate a local intervention that will enhance the outcomes of one or more SEND pupils in your school.
• Activity-wise: you will analyse the implementation and monitoring of interventions and practice for children with SEND. You will evaluate your existing systems for SEND data management.

Strand 4: Working with others

• Enhance collaborative, leadership and staff management skills, by fostering an understanding of the key roles and relationships that SENCOs have with multiple stakeholders.
• Focus on the essential nature of interpersonal relationships for the effective planning and delivery of interventions.
• Activity-wise: you will reflect on the impact of the course on your development and leadership skills.

Please note: these strands can be taken in an order that suits you. Our flexible structure allows you to slot the tasks and activities seamlessly into your working life.

You will:

• Submit self-assessment questionnaires as you start and progress through the course to document the development of your confidence, skills and knowledge.
• Write short reflective learning logs that document examples of your school-based SEND practice.
• Collate evidence of your applied practice in managing and interpreting SEND data and in reviewing your commissioning of outside professionals.
• Write three written assignments – one on inclusion research/policy, one comparing your school SEND policy and practice with another provision, and another evaluating an intervention running in your setting.
• Write a reflective evaluation of the impact of the whole course on the development of applied professional knowledge and leadership skills (1,000–1,500 words).

• Discover the collegiate buzz of our virtual campus, the latest library resources (including the EBSCO digital library and our online module guide), the finest lecturers and your fellow students at the click of a mouse via Campus Online^TM.
• Engage with live and recorded webinars run by leading SEND experts (such as Brian Lamb OBE, charity leaders and DfE representatives).

You will need to have completed an undergraduate degree and you should either have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) or Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status.

• If you hold QTS, then you will need to be employed for the duration of the course, either as the SENCO in your setting, or in another position within the setting with the full support of your current SENCO/head teacher. This will enable you to undertake the wide range of tasks and responsibilities of the SENCO role, in addition to your current duties.
• If you hold QTLS status, you will need to be employed as a SENCO to be eligible.