Guidance

Initial teacher training: special schools and alternative provision

Updated 15 June 2026

Applies to England

Overview

We have produced this guidance to help accredited initial teacher training (ITT) providers involve special schools in their ITT partnerships.

Who this guidance is for

This guidance is for accredited ITT providers and their partners.

Terminology

In this guidance, ‘special schools’ also applies to alternative provision, pupil referral units and mainstream schools with special educational needs (SEN) resource units.

Introduction

The Department for Education (DfE) is creating a world-class teacher development system.

This starts with initial teacher training, through to the early career teacher entitlement, specialisation, and onto school leadership.

This is creating a ‘golden thread’ of professional development that teachers can draw on at every stage of their careers. The aim of this is to:

• support teachers with high-quality training and development
• improve outcomes for all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in special and mainstream schools

High-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with additional needs. Ensuring every teacher is supported in delivering high-quality teaching is essential to achieving the best outcomes for all pupils.

Strong ITT partnerships are critical to high-quality ITT. We recognise the important contribution that special schools make to ITT and the valuable expertise they bring to ITT partnerships.

We want to ensure that accredited ITT providers and their lead partners have the confidence and capability to involve special schools in their partnerships appropriately, and that special schools that want to be involved in ITT can be.

The focus on quality-first teaching that underpins our ITT reforms should prepare early career teachers (ECTs) to work in a range of settings, including special schools. Like all teachers, teachers working in a special school must demonstrate all the Teachers’ standards. We know that teachers in special schools provide an ambitious and stretching education for their pupils, so can provide great value in embedding teaching expertise into ITT and the ongoing professional development of ECTs.

We encourage accredited ITT providers to consider how they involve special schools in their strategic partnerships, whether in the form of ITT placements or through a shorter experience.

As set out in the ITT criteria, trainee teachers need a variety of experience in schools to enable them to meet all the Teachers’ standards. They need to teach children and young people in their specified age range, from different backgrounds, as well as gaining experience of different approaches to teaching and to school organisation and management.

We have developed this guidance in consultation with a group of ITT advisors who are experienced in delivering ITT in special schools.

This guidance supports providers on the involvement of special schools in ITT. Providers should read it alongside the mandatory ITT criteria.

This guidance does not set mandatory requirements.

Initial teacher training and early career framework and SEND

Teaching quality is the most important in-school factor in pupil outcomes. The initial teacher training early career framework (ITTECF) sets out the knowledge, skills and experiences that trainees need to enter the profession. This includes content on SEND and adaptive teaching. The adaptive teaching content includes, for example, developing an understanding of different pupil needs and learning how to provide opportunities for success for all pupils.

The teaching of pupils with SEND was a key consideration during development of the framework.

Providers must design all ITT courses to:

• incorporate the knowledge, skills and experiences given in the ITTECF into a coherent sequence to support trainees to develop their expertise
• ensure that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet all the interlinked Teachers’ standards at the appropriate level

Addressing the Teachers’ standards should be an integrated experience across the trainee’s ITT and can be demonstrated in both special and mainstream schools.

The ITTECF, as well as the SEND code of practice and the Every child achieving and thriving white paper, highlights the importance of high-quality teaching as the key to unlocking the potential of all pupils, including those with SEND.

Evidence from the Universal SEND services evaluation showed that high-quality teaching:

• leads to change in teachers’ practice
• improves confidence in teaching pupils with SEND
• contributes to better outcomes for pupils with SEND

School placements

Allocating school placements

ITT school placements must give the trainee the range of experience and skills necessary to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS) at the relevant phase for which they are training.

The ITT criteria is clear that no training programme should cover fewer than 4 consecutive school years. For example:

• in the primary phase, ITT covering only years 1 to 3 would be outside the criterion
• in the secondary phase, ITT covering only years 7 to 9 would be outside the criterion

While we expect the 2 placements to offer a breadth of experience to trainees, there is no specific requirement in the criteria relating to school placements and the need to cover 2 school key stages.

Similarly, while the ITT criteria are clear that the ITT course curricula as a whole must be appropriate for the subject, phase and age range that the trainees will be teaching, this should not preclude experience in special schools, where the curriculum being delivered may be aligned to the capabilities and needs of pupils rather than to their age.

As they develop their curricula, accredited ITT providers should carefully consider how school placements in both special and mainstream schools contribute to the overall programme experience. Placements in special schools can be beneficial for all trainees, not just for those intending to work in the specialist sector, and should take into account additional factors such as:

• any previous classroom experience that a trainee may have
• the level of need in the special school
• the trainee’s career ambitions once they have qualified

Trainee teachers need a variety of experience in schools to enable them to meet all the Teachers’ standards. Accredited ITT providers are responsible for ensuring that each trainee teacher has taught in at least 2 schools.

Placements in special schools can be offered as a main placement or a shorter placement experience. In either format, these should be intentionally designed to ensure alignment with the wider ITT curriculum, including alignment between centre-led and school-based experiences.

The placement should provide the trainee with an appropriate breadth of experience. Where the main placement is in a special school, the other teaching placements should be in a mainstream school. This will support the trainee’s experience and complement their overall ITT. A placement in a special school can reinforce the trainee’s understanding of how to plan and teach more effectively for all children.

ITT partnerships should always consider the wellbeing of trainees and ensure trainees are well prepared for all their school placements. This includes understanding the training outcomes, curriculum and practical experience trainees should gain from their placement, as well as knowledge of school policies and routines. They should consider how the placement will support further development.

Placement planning should also be responsive to local context and mindful of the capacity of special-school settings. Providers should work collaboratively with schools to ensure placement demands are manageable, and consider special-school capacity.

Balance of placement in special and mainstream schools

Providers must design all ITT courses leading to QTS to ensure that trainees have sufficient classroom experience in line with the ITT criteria. For every trainee, consideration should be given to ensure they gain a breadth of classroom experience.

If a trainee’s programme includes placements in a special school, contrasting mainstream placements should also be included in the programme design, unless there is a clear rationale for this not to be the case.

Longer special-school placements can be facilitated for trainees who wish to teach in a special school once they have qualified.

Trainees can spend the majority of their training programme in a special school where, for example, the special school is:

• the employing school for a trainee on an employment-based route
• where the trainee intends to seek employment once awarded QTS

In these circumstances, we would expect that, in most cases, the minimum duration that the trainee should spend in mainstream schools would be between half a term to a term to provide the trainee with the breadth of experience they need to achieve QTS.

For most trainees, significant classroom experience in a mainstream school will be important for ensuring they gain the breadth of necessary experience teaching across the subject and phase.

Accredited ITT providers and their lead partners should use their judgement to maximise the impact of the training experience for the trainee by considering other factors, including:

• any prior mainstream classroom experience that the trainee has
• the level of need in the special school, including the developmental capabilities of the pupils, rather than their chronological age

For all ITT, accredited ITT providers and their partners, including special schools, should work together to contextualise the trainee’s teaching experience within their ITT programme. This ensures that trainees can apply and transfer learning between settings. For example, trainees may develop a stronger understanding of adaptive and inclusive teaching practices from specialist settings, which will strengthen their understanding of high-quality teaching for all.

Where there is a placement in a special school, partnerships should think about the stage of the trainee’s development and how to contextualise what the trainee has learnt, especially in terms of:

• SEND
• adaptive teaching
• differences in behaviour management and how this relates to their overall development across their ITT programme

Initial teacher training phase for teachers in special schools

We recognise that there are circumstances where a trainee undertakes ITT to take up a particular teaching role in a specific school and that this is sometimes a role in a special school.

Accredited ITT providers and their lead partners should use their expertise and judgement to decide whether a primary or secondary ITT course would be most appropriate for the context in which the trainee will be working as an ECT.

For example, we accept that there may be particular circumstances where primary ITT is more appropriate for a trainee who is preparing for a particular role in a secondary special school.

Consideration should also be given to the trainee’s long-term career ambitions in the teaching profession.

Mentoring

High-quality mentoring is instrumental to the effectiveness of a placement. It is imperative that trainees receive high-quality mentoring in all their placements, as set out in the recommendations of the ITT market review.

Each ITT accredited provider should design detailed, high-quality mentor and lead mentor training curricula in line with the ITT criteria for all courses leading to QTS. It is for each accredited ITT provider to determine what to include.

Mentors with special-school experience add value to the overall training experience. Accredited ITT providers should work with special-school partners to ensure that mentors have the capacity to support trainees effectively and understand the broader context of the trainee’s ITT course. Close alignment of mentor training to the ITT curriculum is critical to high-quality ITT.

We encourage the collaboration of mentors across special and mainstream schools to embed school expertise and insight into partnerships. Mentors in special schools can help trainees contextualise the ITT curriculum for complex environments and strengthen inclusive practices. Mentors who are experts in SEND are ideally placed to support trainees in their understanding of high-quality teaching.