DfE has today updated both the Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) and special schools guidance, to further support accredited providers to ensure that their programmes are offering trainee teachers the best possible training in meeting the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with additional needs. High quality ITT is the fundamental first step in ensuring high quality teaching.
The practices that are particularly effective for pupils with SEND are effective for the teaching of all pupils. SEND should not be positioned as something fundamentally separate from core teaching practices and approaches.
Strong ITT provision in SEND and adaptive teaching is intentionally designed and embedded into the ITT curriculum from the outset, including ensuring effective alignment between school-based and centre-led experiences. While elements of this approach are reflected across existing ITT provision, opportunities to develop or enhance SEND practice within ITT curriculum design include:
- School placements and experiences – learning in specialist settings is valuable for all trainees, not only those with a specific interest in teaching in specialist settings.
- Mentor training and support aligned to curriculum design and ITAP.
- ITAP development and delivery – The intensive nature of ITAP offers an opportunity to deepen trainees’ understanding and practice of pivotal elements of teaching and consider how these can be used successfully with pupils, including pupils with SEND. Focusing on certain pupils in particular, ITAP may allow trainees to develop greater depth of understanding at key moments in teaching practice, rather than the focus on the whole-class, which may be more common in other areas of training.
There are 2 ways to deliver ITAP on SEND:
- A lens of SEND and adaptive teaching being woven throughout ITAP. This includes considering how approaches to SEND are part of ITAP focus areas such as classroom routines, questioning or scaffolding. This would allow trainees to consider pupils with SEND at each step of the ITAP cycle from reviewing the evidence, and seeing it modelled to critically evaluating, practicing and gaining feedback.
- ITAP on specific SEND-related teaching elements on areas such as working with pupils who have challenges in executive function.
ITAP can also provide an opportunity to be more granular in trainee disposition and self-efficacy, especially in relation to pupils who need extra support at times.
To support accredited providers to ensure that their programmes offer trainee teachers the best possible training in supporting pupils with SEND, DfE has updated two key pieces of guidance:
- The ITAP guidance has been updated to support accredited providers to consider how ITAP can support trainees to develop their practice around SEND as part of a well-integrated curriculum.
- The special school guidance has been updated to support accredited providers to consider how they could offer placements in specialist settings.
Ofsted will flag these updates as part of their routine inspector training for 2026/27.