Interactive SEND CPD training for TAs and teachers: 26 modules, branching classroom simulations, printable tools and certificates. Module 1 free, no sign-up.
Most SEND training asks you to watch someone talk, then answer a question about what they said. This does the opposite. Each of the twenty-six modules puts you in a situation you will recognise — a child who has stopped responding, a transition that is falling apart, a parent conversation that is going badly — and asks what you do next. Your decision changes what happens after it. Choose to move a child on quickly and you deal with the consequence of that two screens later, not in a summary at the end. Because the simulation branches, two members of staff can complete the same module and have genuinely different experiences of it, which is what makes the discussion afterwards worth having. Module 1, Behaviour is Communication, is free to try with no sign-up, so you can judge the approach before anyone commits to anything.
The platform is organised into six strands, each ending in an extended capstone simulation that pulls the strand together. Foundations covers the ground every member of staff needs before anything else makes sense. Communication moves through total communication, AAC and the practicalities of modelling without pressure. Regulation and Behaviour deals with what is actually happening when a child is dysregulated, and what helps. Classroom Practice is the day-to-day: adaptations, scaffolding, working alongside a teacher. The Journey follows a child through identification, support and review, so staff understand where their part sits. Needs Awareness covers specific profiles without reducing children to labels. Altogether it comes to roughly eight hours of CPD, and it is designed to be taken in short sessions rather than one sitting.
Training that is forgotten by Friday is not training, it is an afternoon. Three things in the design work against that. Modules ask retrieval questions about earlier modules, so knowledge is revisited rather than filed. Each module ends with a workplace commitment — something specific you intend to try — and you are asked about it the next time you log in, which quietly turns intention into practice. And every module hands over printable tools you can use the next morning, rather than theory you would have to translate yourself first. There is a quiz at the end of each module, and a printable certificate for your training record.
Module 1 is free and needs no account. It takes the single idea that changes the most for the most staff — that behaviour is a message rather than a misbehaviour — and works it through in situations that will feel familiar. For many teaching assistants it is the first time the theory has been put next to a scenario they have actually lived. Schools often use it as a staff meeting item before deciding on the full platform: everyone completes the same free module, then the discussion afterwards is grounded in a shared experience rather than a shared slide deck.
Each certificate is individually referenced and recorded, so a school can verify a member of staff genuinely completed the module rather than taking a printout at face value. That matters when training files are inspected. Being straight about what this is: it is provider-certified CPD. It is not yet accredited by an external awarding organisation — formal CPD accreditation review will follow completion of the specialist peer-review process currently under way. It supports your school's own policies and the guidance of qualified professionals rather than replacing either. If you need externally accredited certification for a particular role, check that requirement first.
The full platform is £99 a year as a school licence, and that covers unlimited staff. There is no charge per head, which is deliberate: SEND practice improves when everyone who works with a child has the same grounding, not just the one person whose training budget stretched far enough. A lunchtime supervisor benefits from Behaviour is Communication as much as a SENCO does. Because access runs for the year, new starters can work through the strands when they arrive rather than waiting for the next INSET day to come round.
It is written first for teaching assistants, because they spend the most time with the children and are offered the least training. It works equally for class teachers who did not cover SEND in any depth during initial training, for early years practitioners, for newly appointed SENCOs who want a structured base for their team, and for lunchtime and support staff who handle some of the hardest moments of the day with no preparation at all. If you are putting a wider offer together for your setting, the free EYFS sensory curriculum and the free classroom resources sit naturally alongside the training.
Free SEND resources for teachers
The practical pattern most settings land on is straightforward. Use the free module as a whole-staff session first, so everyone shares a reference point. Then release one strand at a time rather than the whole platform, giving people a few weeks with each. Because modules are short and self-paced, they fit into the gaps that already exist — a staff meeting slot, the quiet half hour of an INSET afternoon, a supply-covered period. Ask staff to bring their workplace commitment to the following meeting; that single habit does more for follow-through than any amount of monitoring. Keep the printable tools somewhere shared, so the resources outlive the training.
Email: support@sensoryspark.co.uk
Address: United Kingdom
It is provider-certified CPD with individually referenced certificates that a school can verify for staff training files. It is not yet accredited by an external awarding organisation; formal CPD accreditation review follows the specialist peer-review process currently under way.
Yes. Module 1, Behaviour is Communication, is free and needs no sign-up or account. Many schools complete it as a whole-staff session before deciding on the full platform.
The £99 annual school licence covers unlimited staff, with no per-person charge, so teaching assistants, teachers and support staff can all work through the modules.
Around eight hours across twenty-six modules and six capstone simulations. It is built for short self-paced sessions rather than a single training day.