The Dyslexia SpLD Trust Information

See The Difference Campaign

The ground-breaking report entitled "Identifying Children and Young People with Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties", written by Sir Jim Rose and published in June 2009, made many excellent recommendations on how to best support pupils struggling to learn. The government has embraced these recommendations and is now providing £10 million to train 4,000 teachers to become Dyslexia-SpLD specialists, in order to fully support pupils.

However, this money is only available for a limited period of time and the deadline for teachers wanting to enrol on a government funded course is March 2011. We would like to see every school make the most of this opportunity and, together with the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), the Dyslexia-SpLD Trust wants to encourage and support teachers coming forward for training through our "See the Difference" campaign.

If you are a teacher and are interested in finding out more about funded training places, please click here to visit the TDA website, where you can assess your own eligibility and register your interest online.

If you are a course provider, accredited by the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) or Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) accredited course provider, please click here for details on how to access this funding, via the TDA website.

So why is the Government dedicating £10 million to the training of specialist teachers in Dyslexia-SpLD, and what difference will it make to you as a parent or as a teacher working with pupils in school? Thats what the "See the Difference" campaign is all about.

Click below to watch a short film explaining why we can all make a difference to the lives of pupils who are struggling to learn, and why it is so important.

No To Failure Video Trailer

The footage and sound files for this film were gathered during a 3 month period towards the end of the No to Failure project. The project spanned two years and worked with three participating Local Authorities to demonstrate and communicate the importance of identifying and supporting pupils at risk of Dyslexia-SpLD and of training teachers to be specialists in this area of education.

The authorities who were engaged on the project and who feature in this footage are: Cornwall, Calderdale and the London Borough of Southwark are all represented here.

Many of the pupils interviewed were not just the ones who had made academic progress but included those who had made significant progress in confidence and self-esteem during the specialist tuition. This was a recurring theme when talking to staff, parents and the pupils themselves.

Although the visits were to gather sound and film footage from pre-arranged interviewees, we were surprised and delighted to twice be met with parents who had come along because they wanted to meet us and thank us for including their children in the No to Failure project.

Much footage has ended up on the cutting room floor (partly due to lack of space, time and budget) but we hope the DVD has allowed those most closely involved in No to Failure to tell us how it was for them, in their own words.

DST Self-Assessment Tool

The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust invites you to complete the following questionnaire which will a) help you by providing some base-line information about your skills and knowledge in dyslexia and b) give the Trust information about the spread and range of specialists within your LA. This information will help us to support the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of this phase of the IDP. You can print out the questionnaire and use it to help with an Action Plan of professional development activities to span one to two terms.

Government Funded Training

Government funding for specialist teacher training is given to accredited course providers in order to offer funded places to teachers who meet the criteria.

Government Funding Criteria

Funded courses lead to either an Approved Teacher Status (ATS) or Associate Member of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA) qualification.

The Government Funded Course Places list published below shows courses starting from September 2010, for which funded places are available. Their training may be for specialist teacher qualifications leading to either Approved Teacher Status (ATS) or Associate Member of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA). You should contact individual providers to confirm what they offer, request course details and find out how to apply for a place if appropriate.

TDA Funded Course Provision 2010-2011

Please note that, as an individual teacher interested in studying on a course, you do not need to apply for the funding yourself; you should just request a place from an accredited provider of your choice and provide them with evidence you meet funding eligibility requirements. You will also have to meet their course entry requirements.

In order to be eligible to apply for a place, you must:

Hold fully qualified teacher status (QTS) and have completed your induction,
Be employed in an eligible school, i.e. a community, foundation or voluntary school, Academy, maintained nursery or Local Authority Support Service in England,
Have written consent from your Headteacher and / or your employer to apply for and enrol on the training. You must continue to have such consent for as long as you remain enrolled on the training.

Generally, the courses take a year or less to complete through part-time study, but this can vary depending on the course provider. They may also require you to take a regular weekday off school the cost of which can be covered by your schools training budget. However, there are various options for study such as distance or blended learning or twilight course sessions but you need to explore these with individual course providers of your choice to find the one that best suits your circumstances.

If you have established your eligibility for funding, please register your interest via the TDA website by clicking here.

Course Provider Information

The TDA welcomes applications from training providers to deliver courses that are recognised by the British Dyslexia Association (BDA). By meeting the necessary requirements, these providers will be able to offer the award of Approved Teacher Status (ATS) or Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA).

Any providers that are interested will be considered for inclusion on the approved supplier list, which will be used by teachers, schools and local authorities in England.

Training providers should bid to run courses starting from September 2010. However, courses starting in January 2011 will also be considered. They will then need to submit written evidence to show that their previous courses have been recognised by the BDA as leading to ATS or AMBDA, or that BDA recognition has been applied for, when they submit their tender to the TDA.

The TDA will then provide funds to approved providers to support the training of eligible teachers.

The TDA operates an e-procurement system for all tenders and no longer accepts paper copies of bids via the post.

Please log on to http://www.delta-ets.com and click on 'Vault' to access a tender information pack using the tender access code 04T889742.

Are You A Tutor?

We are looking for AMBDA-level trained tutors who might be available to help with the delivery of (or support with) Dyslexia-SpLD teacher training courses. The Government has fully supported the recommendations of the Rose review and is funding the training of 4000 specialist teachers to AMBDA or ATS level by the end of 2011. Current providers are looking to expand capacity of their AMBDA and ATS level courses to meet increased demand.

Tutors could provide some of the following on ATS or AMBDA level courses: course delivery tutorial support, marking work, help with observations or teaching practice and training in diagnostic assessment skills. The types of work required may vary depending on the model of delivery employed, e.g. face-to-face or on-line. The work would be remunerated by the course provider. Some training providers advertise for tutors and their more specific requirements may be posted on their websites.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete the form below and and we will pass your details on to the accredited course providers who are planning to expand funded course provision for 2010-11.

Friends of The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust

We exist to:

Promote understanding and awareness
Enable practitioners to access training and expertise
Promote best practice in supporting those with Dyslexia or SpLD
Enable organisations to work together to build on good practice

You can help by:

Promoting our key messages
Encouraging a national increase in specialist teacher provision
Offering your expertise and advice to the Trust
Providing examples of good practice

If you would like to become a Friend of the Trust and help us in achieving our key objectives, please complete the section below:

Would you like the Trust to promote your course?

We already publish the list of approved courses with Government funding as well as email the lists as they become available directly to potential applicants who have signed up online with us. However, we are also able to mail applicants who have indicated a particular preference with information about specific courses that may be of interest. For example, if you offer an attendance course in a specific location beginning in Spring 2010, we are able to filter registrations by course delivery preference and by postcode and target these with information.

If you would like us to help you in this way, please email a maximum of 150 words for us to include in an email, or send us an information flyer (preferably in Word or PDF format) to: info@thedyslexia-spldtrust.org.uk