Professionals who work with students on the autistic spectrum can now access a network to share best practice.
The online community will include members from the education sector and is hoping to help them engage with each other, sharing problems and solutions.
Established by the National Autistic Society (NAS), Network Autism already has more than 600 professional members and is free to join for anyone working with students who have the condition.
Members can contribute to open and closed discussions, as well as set up special interest groups and take advantage of a resource library.
According to the NAS, 88,000 students currently suffer with autism in mainstream schools in England. A survey last year by the charity found that four out of 10 student sufferers felt that their teachers did not understand autism while 30 per cent of parents felt that their children's educational placement was not adequate.
Carol Povey, director of the NAS Centre for Autism, told Headteacher Update: “One of the ways we believe we can help secondary school teachers to support children with autism to experience the best outcomes possible from their secondary school years is by ensuring that they have easy access to others working in this field who may have experience and expertise which can be shared.
“Similarly, we believe that there are many teachers in secondary schools who have developed excellent practice and would love to share that with others."
For more information and to register with the Network, visit the Autism Network website.