The BDA Accreditation Board.

The Accreditation Board underpins the highest level work of the BDA within educational terms. Accreditation through this Board is recognised as the accolade in teacher training internationally and is held in high regard by UK government bodies.

Currently, the BDA Accreditation Board fulfils a number of different roles and functions:

• It awards individual qualifications to those who successfully complete approved courses.
• It approves courses based on detailed assessment of course content and on inspection visits.
• It actively works with academic institutions in order to develop courses.
• It sets standards and criteria.

Qualifications.

There are various qualifications available:

AMBDA and ATS.

AMBDA stands for Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association and ATS stands for Approved Teacher Status.

These are specialist qualifications for working with children and are increasingly being recognised by LEAs and other employers.

The Joint Council for Qualifications approves AMBDA. This means that it is an accepted qualification giving teachers the right to assess and make recommendations for provisions for external examinations.

There are the equivalent qualifications AMBDA FE/HE and ATS FE/HE for those working with those in the further and higher education fields.

AMBDA Numeracy.

AMBDA Numeracy is designed for those working with dyslexic learners in the mathematics classroom.

ALSA.

ALSA stands for Accredited Learning Support Assistant.

This is an expanding area of accreditation and gives learning support assistants recognition for their skills in supporting dyslexic children in the classroom under the supervision of the class teacher.

All BDA accredited courses must be validated by Higher Education Institutions to ensure that the highest possible standards are maintained.

If you would like an application form for either AMBDA or ATS, please download them from the Application Forms and Information section.