Authors

Simon Knight
Simon Knight

Simon Knight is joint headteacher at Frank Wise School in Oxfordshire, a community special school for children and young people aged 2 to 19.

Simon has worked in special education for more than 20 years. He has sat on the Department for Education panels that developed both the professional standards for teaching assistants and the standard for teachers’ professional development, and is currently a member of the with a focus on SEND.

All articles by Simon Knight
How can schools get early intervention right?
The government wants pupils’ needs to be identified and addressed ‘early’, but we lack a shared understanding of what early intervention looks like, says special-school head Simon Knight
General
19 January 2026
Struggling pupil at desk
SEND Green Paper: A chance to fix problems plaguing special schools
The government plans outlined in the SEND Green Paper are too focused on finance – but they do give us an opportunity to tackle long-standing issues, says this special-school leader
Specialist Sector
29 March 2022
SEND, fixing
SEND review: The special school places problem
New special schools aren’t being built quick enough to cope with the rising demand for places – and this is a problem that urgently needs to be addressed in the government’s SEND review, says Simon Knight
Specialist Sector
22 February 2022
SEND Review: Capacity crunch in special schools must be solved
Why our exams aren’t working for SEND students
The current assessment system isn’t catering for special schools – let’s look at a new approach, says Simon Knight
22 October 2020
Outreach is key to inclusive teaching
A tie-up between special and mainstream schools is an underused approach to inclusivity, says Simon Knight
4 May 2018
Is it time to review your SEND provision?
With budgets limiting access to CPD, the Whole School SEND Consortium are launching a free framework designed to help schools review and improve their SEND provision
22 November 2017