NCFE · RQF Level 3
NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Specialist Support for Teaching and Learning in Schools (QCF)
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Total credits44
- Guided learning232 hours
- Units in this qualification51
Awarded by NCFE · on the Ofqual register
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Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units NCFE registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Assist in the administration of medicationReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Know the current legislation, guidelines and policies relevant to the administration of medication
- Understand own role in assisting in the administration of medication
- Understand the requirements and procedures for assisting in the administration of medication
- Understand the requirements and procedures for ensuring patient safety
- Prepare for the administration of medication
- Assist in the administration of medication
- Contribute to the management of medications and administration records
Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adultsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of developing positive relationships with children, young people and adults
- Understand how to communicate with children, young people and adults
- Understand legislation, policies and procedures for confidentiality and sharing information, including data protection
Develop interviewing skills for work with children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the process of preparing for and planning the interviews
- Conduct the interview with individual children or young people
- Implement interview follow up procedures
Develop professional relationships with children, young people and adultsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Develop professional relationships with children and young people
- Communicate with children and young people
- Develop professional relationships with adults
- Support children and young people in developing relationships
- Comply with policies and procedures for confidentiality, sharing information and data protection
Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settingsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand what is required for competence in own work role
- Reflect on practice
- Evaluate own performance
- Agree a personal development plan
- Use learning opportunities and reflective practice to contribute to personal development
Facilitate the learning and development of children and young people through mentoringReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to facilitate the learning and development needs of children and young people through mentoring
- Support children and young people to address their individual learning and development needs
- Promote the wellbeing, resilience and achievement of individual children and young people through mentoring
- Review the effectiveness of the mentoring process
Improving the attendance of children and young people in statutory educationReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the factors that impact on the attendance of children and young people in statutory education
- Understand the role of individuals and agencies in improving attendance of children and young people in statutory education
- Use attendance data to inform strategies and plans to improve attendance of children and young people in statutory education
- Support work with children, young people and families to improve attendance according to role and responsibilities
Invigilate tests and examinationsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand policy and procedures for the conduct of tests and examinations
- Prepare for tests and examinations
- Prepare candidates for tests and examinations
- Implement invigilation requirements
- End tests and examinations
Lead an extra-curricular activityReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the aims and requirements of the extra-curricular activity
- Prepare for leading an extra-curricular activity
- Prepare children and young people for an extra-curricular activity
- Lead an extra-curricular activity
- Review and improve extra-curricular activities
Maintain learner recordsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the organisational policy and procedures for maintaining learner records
- Maintain learner records
- Maintain the safety and security of learner records
- Share information with those authorised to receive it
Monitor and maintain curriculum resourcesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the organisational policy and procedures for maintaining curriculum resources
- Establish requirements for curriculum resources
- Maintain supplies of curriculum resources
- Monitor stocks of curriculum resources
- Maintain curriculum resources
- Prepare and issue curriculum resources
Organise travel for children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the policy and procedures for organising children and young people’s travel outside of the setting
- Make travel arrangements
Plan and deliver learning activities under the direction of a teacherReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Plan learning activities under the direction of the teacher
- Deliver learning activities
- Monitor and assess learning outcomes
Plan, allocate and monitor work of a teamReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Plan work for a team.
- Allocate work across a team.
- Manage team members to achieve team objectives.
- Monitor and evaluate the performance of team members.
- Improve the performance of a team.
Promote children and young people’s positive behaviourReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand policies and procedures for promoting children and young people’s positive behaviour
- Promote positive behaviour
- Manage inappropriate behaviour
- Respond to challenging behaviour
- Contribute to reviews of behaviour and behaviour policies
Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in work with children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Promote equality and diversity in work with children and young people
- Understand the impact of prejudice and discrimination on children and young people
- Support inclusion and inclusive practices in work with children and young people
Promote the well being and resilience of children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance of promoting positive well being and resilience of children and young people
- Understand how to support the development of children and young people’s social and emotional identify and self esteem in line with their age and level of understanding
- Provide children and young people with a positive outlook on their lives
- Respond to the health needs of children and young people
Provide bilingual support for teaching and learningReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Contribute to assessment of bilingual learners
- Provide bilingual support for learners
- Support communication with families of bilingual learners
- Contribute to reviews of communication with families of bilingual learners
Provide information and advice to children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the role of practitioners in providing information and advice to children and young people
- Establish and address the information and advice needs of children and young people
- Provide children and young people with appropriate information and advice to enable them to make informed choices
Provide leadership and direction for own area of responsibilityReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Lead in own area of responsibility.
- Provide direction and set objectives in own area of responsibility.
- Communicate the direction for own area of responsibility and collect feedback to inform improvement.
- Assess own leadership performance.
Provide literacy and numeracy supportReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Identify pupils’ needs for litreacy and numeracy support
- Provide litreacy support to help pupils to access the wider curriculum
- Provide numeracy support to help pupils to access the wider curriculum
Schools as organisationsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Know the structure of education from early years to post-compulsory education
- Understand how schools are organised in terms of roles and responsibilities
- Understand school ethos, mission, aims and values
- Know about the legislation affecting schools
- Understand the purpose of school policies and procedures
- Understand the wider context in which schools operate
Set objectives and provide support for team membersReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Communicate a team’s purpose and objectives to the team members.
- Develop a plan with team members showing how team objectives will be met.
- Support team members identifying opportunities and providing support.
- Monitor and evaluate progress and recognise individual and team achievement.
Supervise children and young people on journeys, visits and activities outside of the settingReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the policy and procedures for supervising children and young people on journeys, visits and activities outside of the setting
- Prepare for journeys, visits and activities outside of the setting
- Supervise children and young people on journeys outside of the setting
- Supervise children and young people during visits and activities outside of the setting
Support Children and Young People's Health and Safety.Real unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to plan and provide environments and services that support children and young people’s health and safety.
- Recognise and manage risks to health, safety and security in a work setting or off site visits.
- Understand how to support children and young people to assess and manage risk for themselves.
- Understand appropriate responses to accidents, incidents emergencies and illness in work settings and off site visits.
Support assessment for learningReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose and characteristics of assessment for learning
- Use assessment strategies to promote learning
- Support learners in reviewing their learning strategies and achievements
- Contribute to reviewing assessment for learning
Support bilingual learnersReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Interact with bilingual learners
- Support bilingual learners to develop skills in the target language
- Support bilingual learners to access the curriculum
Support children and young people during transitions in their livesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the range and impact of transitions that children and young people may experience
- Recognise and respond to transitions in children and young people’s lives
- Work with others to plan integrated support for children and young people going through transitions
- Support children and young people to manage transitions in their lives
Support children and young people to achieve their education potentialReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles, values and current legislation that supports work to help children and young people achieve their educational potential
- Support children and young people to identify and articulate their learning needs, set goals and plan actions
- Support children and young people to work towards their educational goals
- Review educational achievements with children and young people
Support children and young people to make positive changes in their livesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to support children and young people to make positive changes in their lives
- Support children and young people to make positive changes in their lives
- Review support to children and young people to make positive changes in their lives
Support children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social development needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the influences impacting on the behaviour, emotional and social development of children and young people
- Understand the special educational needs of children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social development needs
- Support the behaviour management of children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social development needs
- Support children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social development needs to develop relationships with others
- Support children and young people with behaviour, emotional and social developm
Support children’s speech, language and communication.Real unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance of speech, language and communication for children’s overall development.
- Understand the importance and the benefits of adults supporting the speech, language and communication development of the children in own setting.
- Provide support for the speech, language and communication development of the children in own setting.
- Contribute to maintaining a positive environment that supports speech, language and communication.
Support delivery of the 14 – 19 curriculumReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand educational policy and practice for the education and training of 14 to 19 year olds
- Support teaching and learning for 14 to 19 year olds
- Work collabouratively to support delivery of the 14 to 19 curriculum
Support disabled children and young people and those with special educational needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the rights of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs
- Understand the disabilities and/or special educational needs of children and young people in own care
- Support the inclusion of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs
- Support disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs to participate in the full range of activities and experiences
- Support others to respond to the needs of disabled children and young people and those with special educational
Support gifted and talented learnersReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the needs of gifted and talented learners
- Contribute to planning learning programmes for gifted and talented learners
- Support learning activities for gifted and talented learners
Support individuals to meet personal care needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Work with individuals to identify their needs and preferences in relation to personal care
- Provide support for personal care safely
- Support individuals to use the toilet
- Support individuals to maintain personal hygiene
- Support individuals to manage their personal appearance
- Monitor and report on support for personal care
Support learners with cognition and learning needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the special educational needs of learners with cognition and learning needs
- Support learners with cognition and learning needs during learning activities
- Support learners with cognition and learning needs to develop learning strategies
Support learners with communication and interaction needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the special educational needs of learners with communication and interaction needs
- Support learners with communication and interaction needs to maximise learning
- Support learners with communication and interaction needs to develop relationships with others
Support learners with sensory and/or physical needsReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the impact of physical, motor and/or sensory disability on children and young people
- Understand the special educational needs of learners with sensory and/or physical needs
- Support learners with sensory and/or physical needs to maximise learning
- Implement structured learning programmes for children and young people with sensory and/or physical needs
Support learning activitiesReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Contribute to planning learning activities
- Prepare for learning activities
- Support learning activities
- Observe and report on learner participation and progress
- Contribute to the evaluation of learning activities
- Evaluate own practice in relation to supporting litreacy, numeracy and ICT
Support literacy developmentReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand current national and organisational policies and practices for litreacy development
- Support learners in developing reading and writing skills
- Support learners in developing speaking/talking and listening skills
Support numeracy developmentReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand current national and organisational frameworks for mathematics
- Support learners in developing numeracy skills
- Support learners in using and applying mathematics
Support teaching and learning in a curriculum areaReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Use subject knowledge to support teaching and learning in a curriculum area
- Develop own subject knowledge
- Contribute to developing teaching and learning in a curriculum area
Support young people in relation to sexual health and risk of pregnancyReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the issues affecting young people in relation to sexual health and risk of pregnancy
- Understand how to support young people in relation to sexual health and risk of pregnancy
Support young people to develop, implement and review a plan of actionReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance for young people of developing a personal action plan for their future development needs
- Support young people to develop an action plan
- Support young people to work towards implementation of their action plan
- Support young people to review and revise their action plan
- Review own role in supporting the development and implementation of the young person’s action plan
Support young people who are socially excluded or excluded from schoolReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the issues affecting young people who are socially excluded or excluded from school
- Understand how to support young people who are socially excluded or excluded from school
Team workingReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Plan collabourative work with others
- Develop and maintain co-operative ways of working to achieve agreed objectives
- Review work with others and agree ways of improving collabourative work in the future
Understand Child and Young Person Development.Real unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the expected pattern of development for children and young people from birth - 19 years.
- Understand the factors that influence children and young people’s development and how these affect practice.
- Understand how to monitor children and young people’s development and interventions that should take place if this is not following the expected pattern.
- Understand the importance of early intervention to support the speech, language and communication needs of children and young people.
- Understand the potential effects of transitions on children and young people’s development.
Understand How to Safeguard the Wellbeing of Children and Young People.Real unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the main legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding children and young people.
- Understand the importance of working in partnership with other organisations to safeguard children and young people.
- Understand the importance of ensuring children and young people’s safety and protection in the work setting.
- Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been abused or harmed.
- Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been bullied.
- Understand how to work with children and young people
Work in partnership with parents to engage them with their children’s learning and development in schoolReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand barriers to learning and strategies/techniques to address them and encourage children with their learning
- Support parents to identify and overcome barriers to their children’s learning
- Help parents in developing effective techniques to support and encourage children with their learning
- Support parents and their children through transitions to ensure continual engagement with schools and learning
- Facilitate positive relations and effective dialogue between parents and school staff
Work with other practitioners to support children and young peopleReal unit · NCFE
What you'll be able to do
- Understand multi-agency and integrated working
- Maintain working relationships with other practitioners
- Work in partnership with other practitioners
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Assist in the administration of medicationCommunication and professional relationships with children, young people and adultsDevelop interviewing skills for work with children and young peopleDevelop professional relationships with children, young people and adultsEngage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settingsFacilitate the learning and development of children and young people through mentoringImproving the attendance of children and young people in statutory educationInvigilate tests and examinations
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Specialist Support for Teaching and Learning in Schools (QCF)
- Assist in the administration of medication
- Develop and maintain working relationships with other practitioners
- Escort and supervise pupils on educational visits
- Facilitate Children’s and Young People’s Development through Mentoring
- Invigilate tests and examinations
- Lead an Extra-Curricular Activity
- Liaise with Parents, Carers and Families
- Manage the exclusion and re-integration of children and young people
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
Assist in the administration of medicationDevelop and maintain working relationships with other practitionersEscort and supervise pupils on educational visitsFacilitate Children’s and Young People’s Development through MentoringInvigilate tests and examinationsLead an Extra-Curricular ActivityLiaise with Parents, Carers and FamiliesManage the exclusion and re-integration of children and young peopleMonitor and maintain curriculum resourcesPlan and deliver learningPlan, deliver and evaluate teaching and learning activities under the direction of a teacherPromote a culture that values diversity and differencePromote inclusion, equality, participation and the rights of children and young peopleProvide learners with support to use ILTProvide literacy and numeracy support to enableProviding Specialist Learning SupportSupport Gifted and Talented PupilsSupport Literacy Development+14 more
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
One-to-one, on your real workNo lectures, no past-papers. Every unit is practised on the actual tasks your job throws at you, a tutor beside you, not a video in front of you.
Taught to the top, not the testMost courses stop at remembering. Your companion keeps climbing: analysing, judging, creating. That’s the part a machine can’t do for you.
Credits you keep, a map that continuesEvery unit is regulated and yours for good. The day you finish, Zavmo already knows the next role your new credits open.
Applied to your own work
How the thinking builds
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Specialist Support for Teaching and Learning in Schools (QCF)
51 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by NCFE.
- Assist in the administration of medication
- Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults
- Develop interviewing skills for work with children and young people
- Develop professional relationships with children, young people and adults
- Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
- Facilitate the learning and development of children and young people through mentoring
and 45 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
Why this matters: AI can already remember and understand for you. What it can’t do is
take your real problem and judge the right call. So the only learning worth paying
for is the learning that takes you to the top. That’s exactly what a tutor doing it with
you, on your real work, is for.
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.