Preamble - United Kingdom (England)

There has been renewed interest in initial teacher training/ education which reflects the priority the Government gives to equipping teachers to meet the needs of children with special educational needs.  This priority has been pursued alongside the priority to raise academic standards.  The government wants to see a narrowing of the gap in achievement between pupils with SEN and their peers and is rolling out a programme called Achievement for All so that all schools which want to will be able to access Achievement for All support.  The programme has had demonstrable success in improving rates of progress for pupils with SEN and disabled pupils in English and maths.  See 

 http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/schoolperformance/a00199926/achievement-for-all 

The Eurybase description of initial teacher education in UK, including England which provides supporting information on teacher education can be found at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/eurybase/eurybase_full_reports/UN_EN.pdf

(Section 8.1 of the report contains information on ‘Initial training of teachers’).