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Free training on using teaching assistants to support SEN pupils

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A new project is offering free training to raise awareness of ways that senior leaders and SENCOs can better and more effectively use teaching assistants to support the 1.8 million pupils with SEN in our schools.

It has been launched by charity Mencap and comes after its Inspired Educators scheme trained more than 1,500 headteachers, SENCOs and teachers on the effective deployment of teaching assistants to support pupils with SEN.

The charity worked with the Institute of Education and six Teaching Schools on the programme and now plans to deliver free seminars across the country throughout this academic year.

Entitled Inspired Educators: Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants, the training programme is aiming to reach more than 600 mainstream schools in England. An analysis of the initial training programme by Canterbury Christ Church University found that 

70 per cent of the schools were using teaching assistants to support SEN pupils. However, at the same time only 5.4 per cent were confident that their teaching assistants had enough information about the pupils’ needs and what support they had to provide.

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