Assistive Technologies in Schools

Pupil engagement and learning

Watch this short video illustrating the impact on pupil engagement and learning.

Be ThAT Teacher! A new opportunity to join the programme

Developing the use of Assistive Technologies in mainstream classrooms can have a transformative impact on learner progress.

We are offering all education settings (5-19) another opportunity to join the highly successful “Be ThAT Teacher” professional development programme, with catch-up sessions in late May and early October in 2024. Through the generous sponsorship of HSBC, we are able to offer all training and resources completely free of charge.

Between January 2022 and July 2023, Microlink Education designed and delivered two transformational school improvement projects, with our delivery partner nasen (nationally recognised experts in the development of Special Education Needs provision).

Funded by the Department for Education, and involving over two hundred primary and secondary schools, the project aimed to develop awareness and understanding of the power of assistive technologies to transform mainstream and targeted teaching and learning.

The programmes were an unqualified success, with impact seen in terms of pupil engagement, motivation and access to learning.

AT Test and Learn Impact Report

In the fall of 2022, Microlink, together with its delivery partners nasen and Natspec, won a DfE contract to deliver an Assistive Technologies training programme to 150 primary and secondary schools. This was delivered through the first part of 2023.

An independent evaluation of the programme will be released by the DfE soon. This report goes deeper, featuring the unedited input from every teaching professional who completed the Needs Analysis process, and went on to claim an Explorer, Innovator or Transformer badge in acknowledgement of their progress.

The report is informative and inspirational. It confirmed that the Needs Analysis/Audit process did exactly what it was supposed to do: help school communities identify strengths, spotlight areas for development, and through shared learning, identify clearly the next steps in their AT journey.

(If you need an accessible version of the document, please email azadeh.sotoudeh@microlinkpc.com)

Download the full report

“Thanks to this course, the life of one of my pupils has been transformed.``

“Thank you so much. I felt daunted coming in, but you have demystified the process and I am now very excited!”

“AT is not as scary a prospect as I thought...going to revisit Immersive reader and associated tools with pupils! Thank you!”

“I'm really looking forward to trying out immersive reader, I think it is quite a simple tool that will have a huge impact. I think there's a lot of AT that is quite accessible and easy for staff to use but we just aren't aware of it so I'm looking forward to learning more”

“Hello I have dyslexia and have coloured glasses. I have never heard of Immersive reader and I already know I will be using this myself and know I will be able to share this with staff and this will benefit children in children. Had I known about this when I was in school I know it would have been such a benefit to me.”

“The relaxed, elongated style of delivery understands the pressures on schools and individuals, allows for quick wins but then gives time to implement wider changes``

Download this guide to the “Be ThAT Teacher” training and professional development programme.

Not only do we introduce ideas, solutions and applications that support the use of AT in your classrooms, we also aim to build your personal capacity to manage change effectively.

We sincerely hope you want to Be ThAT Teacher!
If you have any questions or queries, please contact: education@microlinkpc.com

Microlink Be thAT teacher 2024