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SEND In Martial Arts . Levels 1 & 2

Every Instructor Already Teaches Students Who Learn Differently

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities covers autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences, physical disability, speech and language needs and a great deal more. It is in every club in the country, including yours, whether or not anyone has told you.

Level 1 is free for everyone, permanently. Affiliate, Bronze, Silver, Gold, assistants and volunteers. Level 2 is included with Silver and Gold.

Start Level 1 Free The full syllabus
The SEND in Martial Arts Level 1 certificate The SEND in Martial Arts Level 2 certificate
Two Levels, Two Different Jobs

The Full Running Order For Both

Every lesson, in the order you study it. Nothing summarised away.

Free for everyone, forever

Level 1: Practitioner

For every instructor, assistant instructor and volunteer who steps onto the mats.

Level 1 is about your own practice. What SEND actually means, where you stand legally, why SEND students carry additional safeguarding vulnerability, and then the practical work: adapting how you communicate, modifying drills and session structure, working properly with parents and carers, and knowing where your competence ends.

  1. Course Introduction
  2. What SEND means and why it matters in martial arts
  3. The legal and policy framework: your obligations as an instructor
  4. SEND and safeguarding: understanding additional vulnerability
  5. Adapting communication and instruction for SEND participants
  6. Modifying technique, drills and session structure
  7. Working with parents, carers and support networks
  8. Creating and using Individual Learning Plans
  9. Managing the SEN register and club-level records
  10. Knowing your limits: when and how to refer on
  11. SEND Level 1 Final Examination
11 lessonsFinal examSame-day certificate
Included with Silver & Gold

Level 2: Coordinator

For the Lead Instructor or club lead holding the overview across the whole club.

Level 2 is about the club rather than the class. Writing and implementing a SEND policy, running the SEN register and the ILP framework, briefing and quality-assuring other instructors, coordinating with external professionals, managing provision at events and gradings, escalation and multi-agency referral, and then evaluating whether any of it is actually working.

  1. Introduction
  2. What a club SEND Coordinator is, what they are not, and why it matters
  3. The SEND Coordinator within club governance: safeguarding, leadership and accountability
  4. Building and implementing a club SEND policy
  5. Overseeing the SEN register and ILP framework at club level
  6. Developing other instructors: briefing, supporting and quality-assuring inclusive practice
  7. Working with parents, carers and external professionals at a coordination level
  8. Managing SEND provision at events, gradings and competitions
  9. Recognising and responding to complex SEND needs
  10. Safeguarding at SEND Coordinator level: escalation, multi-agency liaison and formal referral
  11. SEND, mental health and trauma: understanding the overlap
  12. Evaluating your club’s SEND provision
  13. Continuous improvement: using feedback, data and reflection
  14. Building an inclusive club culture that lasts
  15. SEND Level 2 Final Examination
15 lessonsFinal examSame-day certificate
Individual Learning Plans

The Training Teaches ILPs. The Platform Runs Them.

Most inclusion training ends at the certificate and leaves you to work out the paperwork yourself, usually in a spreadsheet that lives on one person’s laptop. A document naming a child’s diagnoses, triggers and support needs deserves better handling than that.

Individual Learning Plans are built into the free Club Management Platform. Each SEND student has a plan on their own record: what they need, what works, what to avoid, what to do if things go wrong. It sits in the CRM alongside everything else you hold on that student, which means the right instructors can see it, cover instructors are not working blind, and it is never trapped in a filing cabinet at home.

Secure by defaultInside a system certified to ISO 27001:2022 under UKAS accreditation, not a shared spreadsheet
Everyone informedInstructors, assistants and cover staff see what they need to, when they need it
Parents includedPlans are built with families rather than about them, and shared back
The SEN register tooClub-level oversight, which is exactly what Level 2 teaches you to run
Read our National SEN Policy
How Our Standards Evolve

Qualifications That Move When The Sector Moves

A governing body that never changes its own qualifications is not being consistent, it is being inattentive. Our CPD catalogue is reviewed on a rolling cadence rather than left to age, and reviewed again out of cycle whenever something material shifts: new legislation, updated statutory guidance, a sector-wide review, or clubs telling us that what we teach no longer matches what they are dealing with.

This course was previously the SENCO Award. SENCO is a regulated role in the school system with a legislated meaning, and a martial arts instructor holding a club-level award should never be mistaken for someone holding the statutory school qualification. It became SEND Level 1, Practitioner, and SEND Level 2, Coordinator. If you hold the old award it still stands.

Rolling review, not a rewrite when it is embarrassing Courses carry a review cycle and are revisited on it. Most CPD refreshes on a two-year validity, at which point you simply re-enrol and work through the current version. Coaching qualifications do not expire.
Out-of-cycle when the ground moves Significant legislative change, new statutory guidance or a major sector review triggers a review immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled one.
Told in advance, through the Governance Group Changes reach members before they land, not afterwards. Where a course splits into levels, the convention is Level 1 at practitioner level and Level 2 at coordinator or lead level.
Nothing you have earned is taken away We will never release updated CPD in a way that wipes a prior verification, knocks out a linked standard such as Club Colours, or forces you to restart an award because the schedule changed.

Our workforce of instructors, assistant instructors and volunteers is who this is for. When their job changes, the training that supports it should already have changed, rather than catching up afterwards.

Inclusive Martial Arts

A Campaign, Not A Badge

Inclusive Martial Arts is our standing commitment to make the mats reachable for people who have historically been quietly left off them. Not through a poster or a pledge, but through the boring, structural things that actually change who walks through the door: free training that every instructor can reach, a national SEN policy clubs can adopt, ILP tooling built into the software, and adaptive practice written into the coaching pathway rather than bolted on at the end.

Making Level 1 free on every tier, including free affiliate membership, is the clearest statement of that we can make. Inclusion training that some instructors cannot afford is not inclusion training.

Why This Certificate Carries Weight

Anybody Can Publish A Course. Rather Fewer Can Stand Behind One.

Inclusion training is a crowded market and a lot of it is generic disability awareness with a martial arts photograph on the front. Here is what sits behind ours.

CIMSPA

Endorsed Training Provider

BMABA is a CIMSPA Endorsed Training Provider, and we map our qualifications to a recognised professional standard wherever one exists. Mapped is not the same as endorsed: a course is only formally CIMSPA Endorsed CPD once it has been submitted, reviewed and certified, and we say so on the course itself when it has.

UKRLP

UK Register Of Learning Providers

We are listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers under UKPRN 10098149, the government-maintained record of organisations delivering learning in the United Kingdom. Check our listing.

ISO 9001:2015

Certified Quality Management

Certified under UKAS accreditation via the British Assessment Bureau. Course content is version-controlled, reviewed on a cycle and traceable, which is exactly why the SENCO Award became two levels rather than quietly drifting out of date.

ISO 27001:2022

Certified Information Security

Also UKAS accredited, with zero non-conformities at our most recent audit. That matters more here than on most courses: Individual Learning Plans and SEN registers hold some of the most sensitive data a club will ever handle.

Cyber Essentials

Government-Backed Baseline

We hold Cyber Essentials certification, the UK government-backed scheme covering the technical controls that stop the overwhelming majority of common attacks.

Sector

Recognised And In The Room

We publish a National SEN Policy the sector can adopt, hold a seat on the Martial Arts Safeguarding Group, sit on a CIMSPA advisory board, and are named in Sport England’s own safeguarding guidance for martial arts.

Who Gets What

Level 1 Really Is On Every Tier

Straight from the membership inclusion handbook, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Affiliate (free)Level 1 includedAlongside Induction and CHIMA
BronzeLevel 1 includedPlus the full coaching pathway
Silver & GoldLevels 1 and 2Full access to all current and future CPD
Assistant InstructorsLevel 1 includedWith Child Safeguarding and First Aid
VolunteersLevel 1 includedWith Induction, Safeguarding and CHIMA
Management accountsNo CPD accessAccess sits with the people on the mats
Check It In The Handbook
BMABA course content running on a phone and a tablet
Train Anywhere, Anytime

Study It In The Car Park Between Classes If That Is What Works

Our qualifications and awards are delivered entirely online through our own learning platform, on the website or in the BMABA app. Phone, tablet, laptop, whatever you have in your hand.

Your place is saved as you go, so you can do a lesson on your lunch break, another while the kids are at training, and finish the exam on a Sunday evening. Nothing expires part way through and nothing has to be done in one sitting.

Level 1 costs nothing on any tier, so the only barrier left is time. That is why it is built to be done in pieces around the day job.

  • Any deviceWebsite or mobile app, nothing to download to start
  • Progress savedStop mid-lesson, pick up exactly where you left off
  • No deadlineWork at the pace the dojo and the day job allow
  • Certificate the same dayIssued the moment you pass the final exam
Start On Any Device, Free

Multi-Award Winning & Nationally Recognised

ICO Registered CIMSPA Training Provider Partner ISO 9001:2015 certified under UKAS accreditation ISO 27001:2022 certified under UKAS accreditation Armed Forces Covenant signatory CPD Approved UK Register of Learning Providers Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts Cyber Essentials certified Good Governance Recognition Social Enterprise UK Sport England Sport and Physical Activity Sport and Recreation Alliance Martial Arts Safeguarding Group ASPP Disability Confident Committed Ecologi climate positive workforce End Child Poverty coalition charity: water supporter Child Rescue Alliance UKRLP registered MARSC Approved Association Home Office Knife Free campaign Anti-Bullying Alliance As featured on BBC Radio 4 As featured on BBC News As featured in The Guardian As featured in The Sunday Times As featured in Men's Health World Sports Awards

Start With Level 1. It Costs You Nothing But An Evening.

You already teach SEND students. The only question is whether you have been trained to do it well. Level 1 is free on every membership tier, including free affiliate membership, and it stays that way.

Start SEND Level 1 Free Membership Options For Level 2
Keep going

There Is A Great Deal More Waiting For You

This is one course out of more than thirty in the library. Every one is written for martial arts specifically, delivered online, mapped to CIMSPA professional standards where a standard exists, and included with membership rather than sold separately.

Free for everyone CHIMA Concussion & head injury management 17 lessons Core study Child Safeguarding In Martial Arts The backbone of Club Colours 11 lessons Designated Safeguarding Lead Six-hour qualification for your club lead 14 lessons Popular First Aid For Martial Arts Scenario-led, for the injuries we actually see 23 lessons Popular Foundation Coach, Level 1 Entry point of the coaching pathway 28 lessons Qualified Coach, Level 2 Practitioner level for confident coaches 34 lessons Senior Coach, Level 3 Senior practitioner and club lead level 31 lessons Trauma-Informed Coaching, Level 1 Coaching students carrying more than you can see 11 lessons Trauma-Informed Coaching, Level 2 ACEs, and turning principle into practice 14 lessons Coaching Neurodiversity Autism, ADHD and the neurodivergent mat 12 lessons Coaching Children & Young People Development, motivation and age-appropriate practice 23 lessons Curriculum Design & Pedagogy For instructors who want to coach deliberately 18 lessons Cadet Coaching Award For 13 to 17s, with the Bronze to Gold pathway 13 lessons Club Management Award, Level 1 Running the club, not just teaching it 14 lessons Club Management Award, Level 2 Development level, once you are off the ground 14 lessons Event-Ready Plan and run safe, sanctioned competitions 13 lessons Referees & Officials Award Officiating standards, scoring and safety 38 lessons Compulsory BMABA Induction Training Where every member starts 6 lessons
Browse the full CPD catalogue
Testimonials

What Do Our Members Say?

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    Been a member for a number of years and they go above and beyond to support their members. Everything from safeguarding and legalities to certified courses, websites, club manager software, just to name a few of the benefits.
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    Having left my previous association in November, and being very daunted by the prospect of being responsible for all my own compliance and everything else I can honestly say BMABA have made the whole thing possible and even pleasant. The training resources are great, it's been fantastic for me to be able to quickly up skill my team, the insurance is really easy to sort out, the team are super friendly and helpful, the perks on Gold membership are also fantastic.
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    Found these guys in Martial Arts Illustrated doing a piece on professionalism in martial arts and thought, as an instructor, they might be worth looking at further. Really impressed from the moment I hit their website through to now, 3 months on as a member. Great staff, Giovanni is rediculously knowledgable and our club is now growing under the banner of what has got to be the best martial arts org in the UK.
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    I joined the BMABA right in its infancy (I believe I was their second member!). Giovanni is the most helpful, respectful and genuine person who has turned the possibility of a non-political, highly respected and supportive Martial Arts Association into a reality. I could bang on for hours about the BMABA but don't take my word for it – go and visit the BMABA website and see for yourself.
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    This Team Deserves A Medal
    As we all know 2020 has been the year from hell for martial arts. One thing that has come out of that is BMABA have done everything in their power to keep clubs like mine up to date with what's happening and tried to push the government to notice us. Couldn't wish for a better association to be a part of. Once again big THANK YOU to you guys for all the help. 💙🐺👊
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    As i'm heading into the brave world of starting up my own small self defence club in our village, i can say with complete honesty and satisfaction that BMABA have been the most supportive and upfront association i have come across. i have seen and had first hand experience with the Mcdojo's offering you the greatest adventures of a life time. but these guys are the real deal… i hold my head high, and say with great pride "i am a BMABA member"
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