Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship - SEND
Harness new teaching talent in your school
Prioritising Special Educational Needs
The NIoT are delighted to have developed a funded Initial Teacher Education programme for excellent practitioners to train to teach with their main placement in a special school, while being paid to train. This apprenticeship pathway to QTS has been developed in partnership with The Eden Academy Trust to address the recruitment and staffing issues in special schools across the sector.
Why a PGTA with SEND?
The Core Content Framework and Teachers’ Standards assume pupils have ‘age-appropriate’ language skills, enabling them to be taught primarily using language and verbal instruction, and for this learning to be checked via traditional questioning. However, there is a cohort of pupils who are pre-language learners and working below the levels of the National Curriculum throughout their school career.
These pupils’ learning is predominately through actions, play and by doing and it is these actions that are used to track progress. This programme has been designed to support trainee teachers working with such pupils in special school settings or provision units within mainstream schools.
The NIoT feel the best route for SEND specialist teacher training is the PGTA as we know there are many skilled members of staff within special schools doing great work with the children.
These skilled staff members (LSAs, TAs, HLTAs, pastoral care team, therapeutic colleagues, etc.) may not be able to take a year out to train to teach without a salary.
Additionally, schools do not want to lose a member of their trained staff team, who know the children, to go and train to teach in mainstream to gain QTS before returning, if they do.
How does it work?
Apprentices will be on the Primary (3-7) or (5-11) programme, whichever is the most aligned to the capabilities and needs of the pupils rather than their [chronological] age (DfE, 2023) – i.e. not with a secondary subject specialism.
Apprentices will receive an additional 9 days of Special Education focused training days spread throughout the year to support their teaching in their special school context. They will also complete a 6-week placement in a contrasting, mainstream school in the spring term.*
The learning on these days extends what the apprentices have learnt on the Primary mainstream training programme and how to apply their learning in their specialist setting.
*You will be without a member of staff for these 6 weeks, as we cannot swap other mainstream apprentices into your context currently.
What specialist content is included?
The topic list includes:
- early cognitive & communication development
- the impact that early levels of development have on social and emotional learning and self-regulation
- teaching early communication skills;
- the importance of play and a playful approach teaching
- how pupils’ outcomes and progress are recorded reported on
- assessment approaches used in special schools
- the implications of cognitive science understanding when working with this group of pupils
- how to lead and manage a class team
- sessions related to the different cohorts of pupils including those with social and emotional learning needs, physical needs, visual or hearing impairments.
“The course is extremely thorough and will provide the apprentice with everything they need to hit the ground running in their first year as a qualified teacher. It is great to have this route which allows us to take graduate LSAs (who we often attract for a couple of years school experience, before they use that experience as a springboard to other things) and keep and develop them into a member of our teaching team.”
Perdy, Eden Academy Trust
Is the PGTA with SEND the right programme for your school?
Learners:
- Primary-aged learners described as having moderate learning difficulties
- Primary or secondary-ages learners described as having profound and multiple or severe learning disabilities, many with additional or complex needs.
Schools:
- This course is appropriate for Primary and Secondary schools following the primary model of a class teacher teaching the majority of the subjects across the curriculum, whatever this may look like in your school’s bespoke curriculum.
Staff:
- This course is suitable for graduates with experience working in a special school setting.
What if the PGTA with SEND is not the programme for my school?
The programme covers the needs of pupils who are working (often significantly) below national curriculum. As such, the course may not be suitable for schools working with pupils whose primary needs are described under the social and emotional learning umbrella, have moderate learning difficulties and are in a secondary school following subject-specific teaching or have a physical or other impairment but are cognitively working at age related expectations.
It is likely that SEMH schools or PRUs where pupils are working at national curriculum levels will find the content of the core Primary and/or Secondary PGTA or ITE route equips apprentices and/or trainees with the necessary skills to teach in these settings.