How you can help

Ordinarily Available Provision

Buckinghamshire Council’s Ordinarily Available Provision document includes a key section on suggested provision and strategies for supporting children and young people with cognition and learning difficulties.

Metacognition

Metacognitive strategies are those which help children and young people to think about their own learning. Research from the Education Endowment Foundation indicates that the potential for positive impact of metacognitive approaches is very high, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Strategies should be introduced alongside existing teaching (rather than being taught in ‘standalone sessions’) to promote pupils’ application to their learning.

The Education Endowment Foundation’s website provides a range of free to download tools and resources for metacognition and self-regulated learning.

Schemes for Literacy Difficulties

There is a wide range of published intervention schemes to support the development of reading and writing in children and young people.

Greg Brooks has compiled a directory of those schemes that have been used – and evaluated – in UK schools. The publication 'What Works for Literacy Difficulties' is now in its 6^th Edition, and is complemented by an interactive website that allows easy searching of the interventions that have been evaluated.

Schemes for Numeracy Difficulties

Ann Dowker worked with the Department for Children, Schools and Families to produce the guidance document 'What Works for Children with Mathematical Difficulties', which provides information on the implementation and effectiveness of a variety of school-based interventions for supporting the development of learners’ numeracy knowledge and skills.

Teaching for Neurodiversity

The British Dyslexia Association’s website provides a range of guidance for educators in supporting individuals with specific learning difficulties. In particular, there are a series of free recorded webinars on the topic of ‘teaching for neurodiversity’, with associated advice on creating a more dyslexia-friendly approach at a lesson resource and whole-school level.

Support for Developmental Coordination Disorder

In the UK, the Dyspraxia Foundation is a charity that aims to increase awareness and knowledge of developmental coordination disorder. The organisation’s website includes advice for teachers and parents about what can be done to help support children and young people with DCD in the school environment.