Who the Course Is Designed For

Braille Course

Who the course is designed for

·  Teaching Assistants or Learning Support Assistants from Schools or Services working with children or young people with visual impairments

About the course

·  The course is suitable for those who wish to follow a Braille course with a final assessed component which demonstrates their level of competency in both reading and writing contracted Braille. This course is assessed and marked by Positive Eye Ltd. It is not externally accredited

·  The course is taken as a distance learning module by participants

·  Participants complete 30 writing exercises set out in the Braille Primer

·  At each stage a Braille Transcription exercise is also provided to the participants for completion

·  On completion of all exercises, participants take an End of Course Test in reading and writing Braille.

·  The test is devised and written by Positive Eye Ltd. The test is marked by a Qualified Teacher of Visual Impairments

Enrolment

·  Practitioners can enrol and start the course at any time during term time throughout the school year

·  Email to receive an enrolment form

·  On signed completion of the enrolment form and on receipt of payment, the participant’s progress report will be opened and the course can be commenced by the participant

Requirements of the course

·  Participants require The UEB RNIB Braille Primer, a Perkins Braille Machine and Braille paper

·  By enrolling on the course participants make a commitment to complete and hand in one stage of the Primer per month. (Constituting one written exercise and one transcription exercise)

·  The hand in date is the last day of the month, or on the first day of the new term, should the end of the month fall during the holiday period

·  If the candidate starts near to the end of the month, e.g. within two weeks of the date, then the next month end will form the first hand in date. This can be arranged on an individual basis with participants

·  Participants who work more quickly and complete stages within a shorter time frame may hand in work earlier, as soon as they are ready too

Charting progress

·  On completion of the enrolment, a progress record will be opened for the participant, accessible via Dropbox

·  Participants will require access to a computer and are expected to set up a Dropbox folder (file sharing system), to enable them to access their progress record. (This may require the participant using their personal email address, as most LA network systems don’t allow access to Dropbox)

·  Once the Dropbox file is opened the participant will be sent the first transcription exercise for completion

·  The record is kept up to date by Positive Eye and the participant, it is a joint record. It requires updating by the relevant person each time an event or activity takes place. E.g. work posted, receipt of work for marking, stages completed, commencement dates of next stage etc. The record is accessible by the participant and Positive Eye only

·  Line managers can request to view the progress record at any time during the course

·  Participants will be informed by email if and when this has been requested

Marking of work during the course

·  Following completion of a stage, participants are required to send their work for marking to Positive Eye. Work is marked and feedback is sent by email within one week and maximum of two weeks, of its receipt. (Original copy of work will then be sent back to the participant by post.)

·  The participant has to pass each stage before they can move on. A pass has to be achieved in both the reading and writing exercises before the participant can move on to the next stage.

·  See marking criteria below

End of Course Test

·  There are three opportunities per year, at the end of each school term, to take the End of Course Test. This will involve participants completing a transcribing task and a writing task under test conditions on a set date and at a set time

·  Test dates for the academic year are issued at enrolment, including deadline dates for test applications (Half term’s notice is required)

·  Agreement by the participant’s line manager to administer the End of Course Test, at their setting, is required at the outset

·  Following completion of the End of Course Test, the Line Manager is required to post the test paper to Positive Eye for marking, within two working days of the test date

·  Completed test papers must be sent recorded delivery

·  Participants are initially informed by email within two weeks of the test whether they have passed or failed

·  Marking criteria for End of Course Test. See marking criteria below

·  For successful participants, a letter and accompanying certificate is sent by post within four weeks of taking the test

·  Participants who are not successful receive feedback about their test and have the opportunity to take the test again at the end of the next term (Further re-sits are charged for separately)

·  There is also a facility for practitioners who would like to take the End of Course Test only. They must have already completed the Braille Primer exercises, or have experience of using Braille to support children

·  These participants can access test at the end of each term in the same way as the arrangements for those taking the full course. Half term’s notice is required within the deadlines for registration set by Positive Eye

·  If for any reason the End of Course Test cannot be taken at the time and date stipulated (e.g. due to unforeseen circumstances) the test will be cancelled and a re-sit booked for the next date available. (There will be a charge for test papers only in this instance)

Marking Criteria for each stage and final End of Course Test

Written component:

A.)Braille production and use of rules

No more than 5 different errors

If the same error appears more than once it is only marked as one error.

·  One error = Incorrect production/misspelling (wrong dots written) of Braille letters, punctuation, contractions, wordsigns, groupsigns, upper and lower signs, composite signs and shortforms

·  One error = Incorrect rule applied to use of punctuation, contractions, wordsigns, groupsigns, upper and lower signs, composite signs and shortforms

B.) Words missed out or partly written

·  One error = each one word that is missed and not written out in Braille

·  One error = each one word that is partly written/incomplete

Transcription component

No more than 5 different errors

·  One error = each different word incorrectly transcribed/misspelt

If same word is incorrectly transcribed more than once, it remains as one error. E.g. if the word ‘understand’ is not transcribed or spelt correctly, more than once it will remain as one error

·  One error = each word or part of word missed out and not transcribed

If the same word/part word is missed out more than once it will remain as one error

Cost of course:

£320.00 full course inclusive of one End of Course Test

£70.00 End of course test only (written and reading test0

£35.00 written only

£35.00 transcription only

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