SENCo & teacher resources
There is a lot on this site. This page curates the Knowledge Centre articles and free reflection tools that school staff reach for most, grouped by the situations they come up in, classroom teaching, transitions, exams, families, and the moments when you're simply not sure.
Free professional resource
The graduated approach for dyslexia on two pages, from everyday classroom practice through to specialist assessment.
Effective dyslexia support begins with high-quality teaching and develops through a graduated response. This provision grid helps schools consider what is already in place, identify appropriate next steps and review whether support is making a meaningful difference.
Defining Dyslexia resource · PDF · 2 pages · A3 landscape
A graduated working tool for schools
A practical two-page resource to help schools assess needs, plan support, implement appropriate provision and review its impact. It covers universal, targeted and personalised support, alongside specialist assessment and trusted sources of guidance.
It sets out a graduated approach for dyslexia across universal, targeted and personalised support, with prompts for Assess, Plan, Do and Review, so that dyslexia interventions for schools can be chosen for a clear purpose and evaluated honestly.
This is a practical guidance resource. It does not replace individual assessment, professional advice or your local authority's SEND pathways.
Before you dive in
Each section below picks the two or three pieces that answer the scenario best. The full Knowledge Centre and free resources library are always linked if you want more.
Every tool linked here is free, needs no sign-up, and most can be printed or saved as a PDF. Share them with colleagues and families freely.
Indicators and checklists organise what you are seeing. They do not screen, diagnose or replace professional judgement, yours or ours.
Scenario 01
The daily mechanics. Why reading aloud is so hard, how to make homework survivable, and the working-memory load sitting underneath written work.
If your child goes quiet when the teacher asks the class to read aloud, you are not imagining it. For many children with dyslexia, reading aloud is one of the most difficult and exposed…
Read the articleFor many families living with dyslexia, homework is one of the most challenging parts of the day. What should take twenty minutes can stretch into an hour or more, ending in tears,…
Read the articleIf your child has had a dyslexia assessment, you may have seen the term working memory in the report. It often comes up as an area of difficulty, and it can be one of the harder concepts…
Read the articleScenario 02
Refusal, avoidance and 'bad behaviour' are often the visible tip of something else. These pieces help staff read what might be underneath.
You've been called in again. The school says your child is being disruptive, refuses to engage, and isn't trying hard enough. But something doesn't add up. At home, you see a curious,…
Read the articleOf all the challenges that come with dyslexia, the impact on a child's self-esteem is perhaps the one that worries parents most deeply. Watching your child conclude that they are not…
Read the articleFor many people, dyslexia doesn't arrive alone. Around 40% of individuals with dyslexia also meet the criteria for ADHD, and yet the two are often treated as entirely separate…
Read the articleScenario 03
First-person accounts of school with dyslexia, useful CPD reading and a good starting point for staff discussion.
Dyslexia at primary school is often easy to miss. The child in question is usually bright, curious and full of ideas. Reading and writing simply do not click in the way they do for…
Read the articleSecondary school brings a step change in demands. There are more subjects, more teachers, more reading, and more writing under pressure. For a young person with dyslexia, that step…
Read the articleMiss Calloway had been teaching for three years, which was long enough to feel competent and short enough to still feel uncertain about feeling competent.
Read the articleScenario 04
The points where support most often drops. What to pass on, what to ask the receiving setting, and what changes at each stage.
Most people don't wake up one day and decide, out of nowhere, to look into a dyslexia assessment. Something usually prompts it. The trouble is, the moments people wait for aren't always…
Read the articleGoing to university is a significant step for any student. For students with dyslexia, it can also bring a fresh set of questions. Additionally, it can bring relief, because university…
Read the articleYour child is meeting expectations at school.
Read the articleScenario 05
What a diagnosis does and does not mean for exam arrangements, what evidence carries weight, and where the decision actually sits.
If your child has been assessed with dyslexia, you may have heard the phrase exam access arrangements. It can sound bureaucratic, and many parents are unsure what it actually means in…
Read the articleScenario 06
The conversations that go better with preparation, before an assessment, after a report arrives, and when a screener says 'fine' but nobody is convinced.
Getting a dyslexia diagnosis for your child is often a relief. It gives a name to something you have been noticing for a long time, and it opens the door to proper support. However, many…
Read the articleIt is one of the most confusing and isolating experiences a parent can have. You know something is not quite right. You have raised your concerns with school. A screener has been carried…
Read the articleIf you have raised concerns about your child's reading, writing, or spelling and felt like you were talking to a wall, you are not alone. Many parents describe the same experience. A…
Read the articleScenario 07
Not every difficulty is dyslexia, and an honest assessment sometimes says so. These pieces cover the uncertainty well.
One of the questions parents ask most often before booking an assessment is a quietly anxious one. What if it comes back and there's nothing there? What if we've worried all this time…
Read the articleIt is a question that comes up often, particularly from parents whose child is managing in school but clearly finding things harder than they should. Can dyslexia be mild? And if it can,…
Read the articleIt can be confusing when a child reads a passage confidently one day, yet struggles with similar words or text the next. Parents may wonder whether their child is rushing, not…
Read the articleMore
If a scenario isn't covered above, the two libraries below hold everything. All of it free to read and share.
Elsewhere
Mark has also created a wider collection of practical SEND materials for SENCOs, teachers, governors and school leaders. Resources cover areas including reasonable adjustments, Assess, Plan, Do, Review, access arrangements and staff development.
External TES resource shop. Free and paid resources are available.
