Schools are being offered access to an extensive range of free autism resources as well as expert advice. Launched by the National Autistic Society (NAS) last month, the initiative offers resources catering for learners from nursery through to secondary.

It is all part of the charity's My World campaign, which will also offer those signing up a welcome pack and fortnightly emails with further advice and useful tools to help support learners.

More than 1 in 100 people in the UK have autism, a life-long condition that affects how a person communicates with and relates to others, as well as how they make sense of the world.

However, autism training is not mandatory for teachers and an NAS survey last year found that 43 per cent of young people with the condition felt that their teachers didn't know enough about it.

Mark Lever, NAS chief executive, said that everyone in the school community has a role to play in supporting children with autism.

He added: "But as each child on the autism spectrum is different, one approach simply won't work. Our campaign tries to address this by offering school staff free access to the NAS range of autism-specific school resources, the most extensive in the UK, as well as fortnightly emails full of guidance related to the time in the school year. We hope this will build school staff's understanding of autism and give them tips and strategies on how they can make a positive difference."

To register for My World, visit www.autism.org.uk/myworld