FAQs

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FAQ Level 5 Diploma

Joining the course

Complete an application form for the course you would like to apply for. The application form can be found at the bottom of each course page.

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

Official course start dates are April and September. For the Premium Specialist Teacher Programme there is the option to start Unit 1 three months early if this suits your studying requirements

Payment

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

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.

Basic Requirements

We do have candidates doing the course who are not working in an educational setting.  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 SENDCo /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 prior to and during the assessments, as some of their knowledge of the learner will be invaluable.  You are also required to document teacher meetings as part of your portfolio.

There are 4 units in total. 3 units are bases on practical teaching and one unit contains written assignments:

  • legislation regarding Dyslexia/SpLD
  • Understanding of dyslexia, specific learning difficulties and barriers to learning.

Basic I.T skills will be perfectly fine. We do expect you to use I.T in your teaching with your learners; we provide you with the guidance you need. You do need regular access to the internet throughout your course to download course content. If you are attending the Premium version of the course, you will require access to webinars platforms, e.g. Zoom.

You may apply as long as you have a Level 3 or equivalent qualification. Our candidates have a broad range of previous experiences, including parents and healthcare professionals.

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 an adult.  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 can 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.

During the course

Whilst all of the lectures and the power points are exactly the same; you do the course individually at home rather than with colleagues and the additional support provided through webinars, demonstrations and regular interaction with both course leaders and 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.  Where there is a requirement to post any copies of documents, you are responsible for the postage costs.  You are required to keep a digital copy of all of your work.

You will have 14-17 months to complete your Level 5 qualification, depending on what time of year your course starts. The study hours can vary from candidate to candidate, depending on previous knowledge and experience.  It is a good idea to allocate between 5-9 hours a week.

You will be required to film a minimum of 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 lesson plans will be sent 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.

Your assessor will be available via email to support you on your course; 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 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 out of date 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 timeline advice. It is important that you stick to this timeline in order to complete on time.  This is your responsibility.

Yes, both locally and nationally.  For example, those candidates who live near Cambridge have access to East Anglia PATOSS, which 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.

At the end of the course and beyond

You will be assigned two specialist teachers for each unit of work. Your first assessor/s 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 a Gateway appointed External Quality Assurer (EQA).  Your deadline date is therefore not the same date when work is submitted for external quality assurance.  The EQA scrutinizes portfolios on specified dates in the year; you will be informed when the date that applies to you occurs.

Dyslexia Matters has 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.

We do not send hard copies of e.g. assessments back but memory sticks are returned. You are expected to keep digital copies of your portfolio throughout your coursework.

You have to do the Level 5 first which gives you specialist teacher status before doing the Level 7 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.

FAQ Level 7 Diploma

Joining the course

Complete an application for the course you wish to apply for. The application form can be found at the bottom of each course page.

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

Payment

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

Basic Requirements

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.

Yes. Our Level 7 course is a remote blended learning course.

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 a minimum of between 7-10 hours a week.

Basic I.T skills will be perfectly fine. We do expect you to use I.T in your teaching with your learners; we provide you with the guidance you need. You do need regular access to the internet throughout your course to download course content. You will require access to webinar platforms, e.g. Zoom.

During the course

You will need to buy/borrow your own research books and will be given a booklist with suggestions. You will be given online resources from us. You will have access to various standardised tests during the remote blended learning sessions, but we do not provide these for candidates to keep throughout the course.  During each 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.uk for 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 digital copy of all of your work.

At the end of the course and beyond

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.

Range of courses and levels available

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.

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

The full 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.

Level of course

 

Name of course

 

CPD only available?

 

Number of credits

 

Online or blended learning?

 

2Dyslexia/Specific learning difficulties Practitioner Award

 

 

Yes

 

4

 

Online

 

3Dyslexia/Specific learning difficulties Practitioner Award

 

Yes

 

5Online

 

5The Dyslexia Award – Specialist in Group Interventions for Learners with Dyslexia/Specific Learning Difficulties

 

yes12Online

 

5Teaching and Assessing Learners with Dyslexia, Specific Learning Differences and Barriers to Literacy

 

yes60Online or Premium version

 

7Teaching and Assessing Learners with Dyslexia, Specific Learning Differences and Barriers to Literacy

 

yes80 

Remote blended learning only

 

The longer, 60-credit Diploma course is for candidates who wish to become specialist teachers at BDA ATS level or PATOSS TPC level. The 12-credit 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.

Complete an application for the course you wish to apply for. The application form can be found at the bottom of each course page.

For the Level 5 Award, Level 5  Diploma and Level 7 Diploma 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.

FAQ OCN Level 2, 3 & 5 Courses

Candidates can choose to do the CPD option or complete the accredited course.

The full accredited course 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 relevant course page.

CPD courses can be purchased online through our shop and do not require an application form. Log-in codes are issued for a six month period which will give 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 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 independently. If they wish for them to be marked and receive a certificate from the awarding body, candidates would need to register for the full OCN award. 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 31st, April 30th, June 30th, and September 30th

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

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

For the Level 5 Award 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).

Basic I.T skills will be perfectly fine. We do expect you to use I.T in your teaching with your learners; we provide you with the guidance you need. You do need regular access to the internet throughout your course to download course content.