We do have candidates doing the course who are not working in a school.  Some candidates work with students in their homes after school or at weekends (subject to prior safeguarding procedures).  We also have some candidates who 'volunteer' their time (1 hour a week) in a local school to offer specialist 1.1 support to a learner who would benefit from this.  It may be worth you contacting the SENCo /SEN support staff at a local school to see if this would be an option for you?  We could supply you with a letter to give to them explaining what you would be doing if necessary.  You will need to be in touch with the learner's teacher at points of the course, especially during assessment, as some of their knowledge of the learner will be invaluable.  You are also required to document teacher meetings as part of your portfolio.

We are currently investigating funding options. You can pay by credit card.

Schools and colleges can often claim the VAT back.  You would need to ask your setting whether this applies to them.

We do not offer payment by instalments for our courses, but we do take credit card payments.

3 units are practical teaching.  The other unit is an assignment about legislation regarding Dyslexia/SpLD and another assignment to show understanding of dyslexia, specific learning difficulties and barriers to learning.

No, basic I.T skills will be perfectly fine. We do expect you to use I.T in your teaching with your learners. You do need regular access to the internet.

All of the lectures and the power points are exactly the same; the only difference is that you do the course individually at home rather than with colleagues. You are given extra tutor time to compensate for the fact that you won’t be able to ask a question face to face.  You are also offered an online forum to discuss activities with other candidates.

You will be assigned a minimum of 2 specialist teachers during the course.  The first tutors/assessors will support you with the course evidence requirements.  A second specialist teacher will review your portfolio and provide opportunities, where appropriate, to extend and demonstrate your growing expertise as a specialist teacher.

You are told how to manage your portfolio digitally.  If there is a requirement to post any copies of documents, you are responsible for the postage costs.  You are required to keep a hard copy and a digital copy of all of your work.

You will have 13 months to complete your Level 5 qualification.   The study hours can vary between candidate to candidate depending on previous knowledge and experience.  It is a good idea to allocate between 5-9 hours a week.

You must complete the course by your given deadline date. There is no penalty if you do not, however, you won’t gain the qualification or have any fees returned.

In some cases an extension may be allocated, but there is a cost.

In the level 5 course you are taught how to use informal tests only and you will not be qualified to write a diagnostic report. In the level 7 course you will be taught using published standardised assessments for a diagnostic report. You will need to have the Level 5 qualification in order to enrol on to the Level 7 course.

You will be required to film two 1 hour lessons with each learner for the Level 5 Diploma. You will need to have written permission to do this.   All of your lessons will be sent in to your assessor to be marked before you can teach them, the whole course is portfolio based.

You are not expected to read all of the books; however we are looking for evidence of you having read a minimum of 4 key texts and at least 10 different sources when you do your Unit 1 assignments.

No, we do not send your work back. You are expected to keep a digital and a  hard copy yourself.

Your assessor will be available via email to support you on your journey; however, the expectation at Level 5 is for candidates to study independently.  You will be given a document which explains what studying at level 5 involves.

 You may apply as long as you have a Level 3 or equivalent qualification.  You will need access to 2 students and in our experience schools are very welcoming of our candidates as it is a highly regarded course. Your teaching portfolio will consist of a total of 20 hours teaching time.  Learner 1 must be taught literacy only for 10 hours.  Learner 2 with be taught the remaining 10 hours with both literacy and numeracy (between 25-50% numeracy) You will need to work with 2 learners from 2 consecutive key stages, or 2 adults (provided they have as different needs as possible). You can work with a key stage 5 and anadult.  Your learners do not need a diagnosis of Dyslexia.

No, you will be shown how to assess learners using informal assessments so that you can devise an effective intervention programme, but you will not be qualified to diagnose. For that you would need to go onto the level 7 course.

No, for the level 7 Diploma you will need to have completed 30 hours of supervised teaching practice. 20 of those hours come from the level 5 qualification. Candidates who have extensive experience of dyslexia may be allowed to complete 20 hours of teaching practice before starting the level 7, without having to do the rest of the level 5 qualification, at the discretion of the directors.

You will need to work with 2 learners from 2 consecutive key stages, or 2 adults (provided they have as different needs as possible). You can work with a key stage 5 and an adult.

It is best to check the appropriateness and ages of your learners with your tutor before you commit to an age group or any individual.

Your first step is to complete Unit 1. Then, once you have completed a range of activities you will begin your teaching.

Candidates cannot teach the learners concurrently – the idea is that candidates learn from their experiences with learner 1 before going on to teach learner 2. 

It is not ideal for candidates to teach 2 lessons a week, as there is insufficient time for reflection and for candidates to take on board advice given by the assessor. In exceptional circumstances, we do sometimes allow candidates to teach 2 lessons a week, but this is only towards the end of their teaching practice, when we are sure of the quality of both the lessons and the paperwork, and the candidate is building on their previous experience.

No, they will be too old as your learner’s needs may be different. For example, they may have received intervention since your initial assessment. You are required to teach your learner within 2 weeks of their assessment.

Yes. You are provided with a timeline. It is important that you stick to your timeline in order to complete on time.  This is your responsibility.

Yes, both locally and nationally.  For those candidates who live near Cambridge, East Anglia PATOSS is very good value and active, with regular seminars for CPD, and we would recommend you register with them. There may be other PATOSS groups in your area. Alternatively, there may be local BDA groups.

You have to do the L5 first which gives you specialist teacher status before doing the L7 which then allows you to assess. The level 5 is actually 2 of the units (units 4 and 5) you need to complete in order to gain the level 7 qualification.

You will be assigned two specialist teachers for each unit of work. Your first assessor will support you with the course evidence requirements as you produce your portfolio.  A second specialist teacher will review your portfolio and provide opportunities, where appropriate, to extend and demonstrate your growing expertise as a specialist teacher.  Your work will then be subject to internal quality assurance (IQA) This is an internal process that is always followed by our monitoring and standardising assessment processes, to ensure that the quality of each candidate's work and assessor's marking and guidance are of a suitable standard.  Finally, your work will be quality assured by an OCN/Gateway appointed External Quality Assurer (EQA).  Your deadline date is therefore not the date when work is submitted for external quality assurance.  The EQA scrutinizes portfolios on speciifed dates in the year, you will be informed when the date that applies to you occurs.  

Dyslexia Matters will have two visits a year from the External Quality Assurer. The External Quality Assurer checks and verifies our assessment judgements. Over the years of delivering this course we have always had excellent Quality Assurance Reports and have never had a judgement questioned. We will let you know the outcome of the External Verifier’s inspection straight after the visit, and your certificate will be sent to you a few weeks after that, as soon as we receive them from Gateway.

On our website, click on the course that you are interested in and complete an application form. 

For the Level 5 Diploma and Level 7 courses, you will receive a phone call to discuss processing your application.

30^th September.

We do not offer instalments, but you can pay by credit card.

No, the price is based on the assumption that candidates have already completed 20 hours of supervised Teaching Practice at Level 5.

If you have not been a candidate with us before we would require evidence of the standard of your work in the form of your Unit 1 legislation essay, to ensure that you could manage the rigours of the Level 7 units.

Our Level 7 course is a blended learning course.  You will be required to attend 5 face to face days and also work online.

The Level 7 course that we offer is dependent on the candidate having completed teaching practice of 20 hours for the Level 5 within the last 3 years- an exception can be made for teaching practices completed longer than 3 years ago if there is evidence of appropriate continued teaching practice and CPD.

All candidates will need to have completed 20 hours of teaching practice before starting the Level 7 units. These can come from the Level 5 course, or for candidates with extensive experience in the field of dyslexia/specific learning difficulties can be undertaken with us without the need to do all the Level 5.  There would be an additional charge for this teaching practice.

The Level 7 takes 2 years to complete.  The number of study hours can vary hugely from person to person, and at different stages in the course, but as a rough estimate, allocate between 7-10 hours a week, or roughly one day a week.

You will need to buy/borrow your own research books, and will be given a booklist with suggestions, but you will be given online resources from us. You will have access to various standardised tests during the blended learning sessions, but we do not provide these for candidates to keep throughout the course.  During the session and early on in the course, you are encouraged to consider how you are going to access the standardised tests both for your coursework and in the long-term for when you are qualified.  We can loan some tests out, but this is dependent on what we have in stock and is only for a limited time.  Candidates in previous cohorts have arranged to borrow tests from local secondary schools, PATOSS/BDA groups, have brought tests on a reciprocal arrangement with other candidates/schools, or have enlisted the support of their setting.

Yes we do. Please contact info@dyslexiamatters.co.ukfor all test kit enquiries.  There is a document on the online learning platform which outlines the current costs.  You can order test papers from us even if you do not want to borrow an assessment.

You are told how to manage your portfolio digitally.  If there is a requirement to post any copies of documents, you are responsible for the postage costs.  You are required to keep a hard copy and a digital copy of all of your work.

Gateway Level 7 Diploma in Teaching and Assessing Learners with Dyslexia/Specific Learning Difficulties/Barriers to Literacy- candidates must complete as a minimum Units 2,3,4, and 5 in order to be issued with a practising certificate.  More information can be found at http://www.sasc.org.uk/SASC_Default.aspx?id=16

Your files will be sent off to a second specialist teacher who will look at your portfolio as a whole to identify areas where your skills could be further enriched, so that you become the best specialist teacher you can be. This is an internal process that is always followed by our monitoring and standardising assessment processes, to ensure that the quality of each candidate’s work and assessor’s marking and guidance are of a suitable standard. These final checks are overseen by the Internal Quality Assurers (IQAs).

Dyslexia Matters are required to have two visits a year from the External Quality Assurer. The External Quality Assurer checks and verifies our assessment judgements. Over the years of delivering this course we have always had excellent Quality Assurance reports and have never had a judgement questioned. We will let you know the outcome for the External Verifier’s inspection straight after the visit, and your certificate will be sent to you a few weeks after that.

Level 2 is the equivalent level to GCSEs courses with grades A-C or 4 - 9

Level 3 courses are at the equivalent level to GCE A Levels

Level 5 courses are at the equivalent level to a foundation degree or diploma of higher education

Level 7 courses are at postgraduate level.

Credits equate to the amount of time a candidate is expected to work in order to achieve the qualification.

A 1-credit course will take approximately 10 hours; a 10-credit course will take 100 hours etc.

Yes, you can

Yes, discounts are given.

The longer Diploma course is for candidates who wish to become specialist teachers at BDA ATS level or PATOSS TPC level. The Award course was devised to be a shorter alternative for candidates who want to understand the theory of dyslexia but who cannot spend as much time training.

On our website, click on the course that you are interested in and complete an application form. 

For the Level 5 Diploma and Level 7 courses, you will receive a phone call to discuss processing your application.

No, you will be shown how to assess learners using informal assessments so that you can devise an effective intervention programme, but you will not be qualified to diagnose. For that you would need to go onto the level 7 course.

No, for the level 7 Diploma you will need to have completed 30 hours of supervised teaching practice. 20 of those hours come from the level 5 qualification. Candidates who have extensive experience of dyslexia may be allowed to complete 20 hours of teaching practice before starting the level 7, without having to do the rest of the level 5 qualification, at the discretion of the directors.

Candidates can choose to do the CPD option or the whole qualification.

The full OCN qualification includes assignments that are marked by a tutor and then scrutinised by the Internal and External Quality Assurance processes. Candidates who take the CPD option will not have any assignments marked but will have full access to all the theory of the course.

The costs of all our courses are available on the website.

For the CPD option, once payment is received, candidates will be given an online log-in code for a six month period which will give them access to the entire Level 2 or 3 Award.  

There are study guides that contain some practical activities, reflective activities and assignments. Candidates are required to complete the practical and reflective activities. They   must also complete all the online multiple choice questions on the learning platform and are welcome to complete the other assignments but without the support of an assessor.  If they wish for them to be marked and receive the qualification, candidates would need to register for the full OCN qualification. Provided candidates have completed the online multiple choice questions successfully, they will receive a CPD certificate from Dyslexia Matters on completion.

Enrolment dates are January 31^st, April 30^th, June 30^th, and September 30^th

We do not offer instalments, but we do accept credit card payment

For candidates doing the OCN full award on the Level 3  courses, you are required to film one 10 minute activity with a learner.

The level 5 Award in group interventions is a shorter award for candidates who want to further their understanding of dyslexia/spld but who do not want to do the full diploma. It is an accredited course, through OCN, but the teaching practice is much shorter, hence candidates cannot gain ATS/APS status. It is designed for teachers/SENCos who don’t wish to call themselves or indeed work as specialist teachers, but who want to make sure they are doing the best they can for their students.

The skills you will learn with the award will be applicable to teaching both groups and individuals, although the course focuses on teaching groups because our feedback from SENDCos was that they were rarely, if ever, in a fortunate enough position to teach individuals, so needed to find out how to meet the needs of diverse learners with difficulties in a group. If anything it is easier, rather than harder to teach individuals, so applying the knowledge to individuals will be simple.

In the course materials you will cover background knowledge about dyslexia, be given a diverse range of informal assessment materials which should prove invaluable for you   and then do a short teaching practice to practise the skills learned.

The Study guides were written by Janice Wearmouth, who is Professor of Education at Bedford University in collaboration with Dyslexia Matters, so have the depth of knowledge you will need. The assignments and informal assessment materials are written by the Dyslexia Matters team following years of honing their materials for the diploma course.

You will work with a small group of three students.  There is a requirement for you to film one session, but the sessions are very short (15 minutes). It will take between 6-9 months to complete the award and is around 120 hours study time. On completion you would get an OCN certificate.

It is a solid, yet highly practical course, designed for people who are not in a position to do the full Diploma.