These courses are designed for anyone involved in the access arrangements process in their centre, and for Access Arrangements Assessors carrying out assessments for access arrangements or the disabled student’s allowance. Communicate-ed is an Authorised Assessment CPD provider for the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC). Most of our SBCPD courses are SASC approved core hours for renewal of SpLD Assessment Practising Certificates. Please see the ‘What does the course cover’ tab for more information.

Communicate-ed has developed a number of short courses about assessing for access arrangements and the administration and interpretation of a range of tests. All courses with a * are SASC approved for Core CPD hours. Each course is worth one core hour (even if the course itself is longer).

Courses about Access Arrangements in Exams:

1. Providing Evidence of Normal Way of Working: 75 mins Lia Castiglione examines the JCQ interpretation of ‘normal way of working’ and explores resources used in a variety of centres to provide evidence for differing needs.
2. Using Assistive Technology in Exams: 75 mins Malcolm Litten presents the types of technology that a candidate can use in exams, with suggestions for specific software.
3. *Assessing Students with English as an Additional Language for Access Arrangements: 60 mins Caroline Read and Gurinder Grewal outline the issues faced when assessing candidates with English as an Additional Language for Exam Access Arrangements. They make suggestions for how to decide whether their difficulty is due to EAL or an underlying learning difficulty.
4. *Collating/Interpreting Evidence for Access Arrangements: 100 mins Caroline Read takes delegates step by step through how to collate and interpret the evidence needed to decide what Access Arrangements a candidate needs and qualifies for.
5. Understanding the Impact of Neurodiversity on Examinations: 100 mins Lia Castiglione gives an overview of the main Neurodiversity and makes suggestions for appropriate Exam Access Arrangements.
6. The Equality Act 2010 and Examination Access Arrangements for General Qualifications: 75 mins Caroline Read explains the requirements of the EQA 2010 in relation to qualifications, what the Act says and how awarding bodies and centres can be sure that they are complying with the law.

†Courses covering the administration and interpretation of individual tests:

1. *Academic Achievement Battery 80 mins
2. *Adult Reading Test 2: 60 mins
3. *British Picture Vocabulary Scale 3: 45 mins
4. *Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing 2: 90 mins
5. *Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting: 70 mins
6. *Dyslexia Portfolio: 70 mins
7. *Diagnostic Reading Analysis 3 & Access Reading Test 3: 70 mins
8. *Gray Oral Reading Tests 5: 70 mins
9. * Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition (KTEA-3) 120 mins
10. *SPaRCS 50 mins
11. *Test of Word Reading Efficiency 2: 30 mins
12. *Test of Memory and Learning 2: 90 min
13. *Wechsler Individual Achievement Test III^ukT: 120 mins
14. *Wide Range Achievement Test 5: 50 mins
15. *Wide Range Intelligence Test: 110 mins
16. *York Assessment of Reading Comprehension: 90 mins
17. * Woodcock Johnson VI UK and IRE edition: 120 mins

†If you have access to a copy of the test(s) you have chosen you will find it helpful to have the manual to refer to during the presentation. However, this is not essential as the presenter will show the appropriate pages on the screen. Most of the tests have record/examiner forms produced by the publishers; you will need an original copy of the appropriate form(s) for each test you have chosen. We can supply you with a form for a small fee, .

The course tutors include Caroline Read, Sarah Beard and Abi James.

Caroline Read

Caroline is a Specialist Teacher who has practical experience in all areas of the Access Arrangements process and trains for LAs, Universities and SEN Services. Caroline contributed to the PATOSS/JCQ publication ‘Dyslexia: Assessing the need for Access Arrangements’, has been published in academic journals and has worked with various publishers to develop tests. She was part of the working party which set up ‘Access Arrangements Online’ and has been involved with other DfE and Ofqual training and policy projects.

Lia Castiglione

Lia Castiglione is Head of Training at Communicate-ed. She has been teaching and supporting learners of all ages for over 25 years and in varying educational settings. She is a specialist teacher who is highly experienced in all aspects of access arrangements, has held a current Assessment Practising Certificate since 2008 and regularly assesses in schools and colleges. Lia is the co-creator of a postgraduate access arrangements assessor course and is the author of the Patoss/JCQ book, ‘Assessing the Need for Access Arrangements.’ Lia serves on the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) Board of Directors.

Abi James

Abi is an assistive technology consultant and researcher, specialising in how technology can assist learners with dyslexia and other disabilities. Over the past decade she has led projects to develop, deploy and evaluate how both mainstream and assistive technology removes barriers to learning. Abi also works as a Research Fellow with the ECS Accessibility Team at the University of Southampton and chairs the British Dyslexia Association New Technologies Committee where she advises on the accessibility issues within exams.

Sarah Beard

Sarah is a Specialist Teacher who runs a number of accredited dyslexia courses through her company dittas Ltd (http://www.dyslexiatraining.net) She also offers teaching and assessment of dyslexic learners of all ages, through dyslexia services (http://www.dyslexiaservices.net) and works closely with local schools. Sarah has extensive experience of teaching and assessing learners of all ages, having worked for over twenty years supporting dyslexic learners, including ten years in a College of Further and Adult Education. Sarah also lectures locally and nationally on the subject of dyslexia and SpLD and was joint founder of the PAPAA course. She holds APC and AMBDA status.

These courses are available online for you to access at a time and place of your choice. Delegates will have 10 days to login and watch all of the courses they book.

To view our 5 minute Introduction to Communicate-ed Online video please CLICK HERE.

For nearly two decades we have been running courses across the country, aiming to provide high quality, value for money training for education professionals working in the area of special needs. Many of our delegates are telling us that it is increasingly difficult for busy professionals to take the opportunity to attend courses ‘off-site’. In response to this, we now offer a number of online training courses, focusing on Examination Access Arrangements, Assessment, and Supporting SEN Students.

With the internet now so accessible, the advantages of online courses are clear:

• They can be accessed at the delegate’s convenience, in the workplace or home
• Delegates don’t need to travel, saving time and transport costs
• Running costs are lower, allowing us to pass savings on to our delegates

Courses can be viewed at any time, and in any venue where there is a good internet reception.

As standard, you will have 10 days (or for some courses 20 days) from the start date you choose, to login and view the course. You can run the course as many times as you want to within this 10/20 day period. We also run special offers for some courses which give unlimited access to courses to the end of an academic year.

N.B. Delegates will need a good broadband connection to access our online courses.