What is a Specialist Teacher?
Specialist teachers in the Advisory Service have experience of working in mainstream and special school settings (including ASD bases); skilled in advising educational professionals who teach children and young people with communication difficulties and in particular, those on the Autistic Spectrum.

Education Specialist Teachers in schools
We work with school management and staff to advise on strategic developments in order to meet the needs of the students with ASD, and/ or Semantic Pragmatic Difficulties within a mainstream environment. The aim is to enable every school in the authority to become an “ASD friendly” environment and so improve the teaching and learning provision for all pupils. We liaise closely with community therapists, the Inclusion and SIP teams.

What aspects do we focus on?
We will negotiate individual goals, depending upon student, family and school needs. Some focal areas of intervention are:

ADVISING:

• On differentiation and bespoke strategies
• On adapting and improving the school and classroom environment
• On devising and delivering programmes to address specific needs
  • For individuals
  • For groups
• On providing appropriate individualised resources for pupils
• On adapting timetables and providing staff with additional support

TRAINING:

• Providing CPD and group training to school staff.
• Enabling effective learning support
• Increasing the confidence of staff to improve teaching and learning styles

SUPPORTING:

• The implementation of effective provision mapping
• The writing of appropriate IEP, Annual Review and PSP targets
• How to evidence progress for students with ASD and/or semantic pragmatic difficulties
• Parents through meetings, training and forums
• The statutory assessment process through observation reporting
• The students, schools and parents through the secondary transfer process, transition between Key Stages and transition to adulthood

LIAISING

• With the School Improvement Team to enable success in reaching ECM outcomes
• With therapists and EPs to provide effective multi-agency input

MONITORING AND EVALUATING:

• The implementation of strategies through the school
• The success of interventions
• The progress of students