Newly Qualified Teachers – Please Consider Special Schools when you are Job Hunting.
If you have recently qualified and looking for a teaching post I would urge you to consider working in a specialist provision, whether that be a PRU, special school, specialist unit or residential school. The children deserve your energy and passion. Why I hear you ask? Well here are 10 reasons to start off with. Please also have a read of our post Top Tips for NQT’s working in the field of special education.
10 Reasons to apply for an SEN position
It will immerse you in an environment where generalisations and stereotypes will be cast aside and you will get to know each child as an individual.
Inclusion is real. You will become adept at identifying barriers to learning and developing effective strategies for overcoming them for all your students.
You will work very closely with specialists like Speech and language therapists to develop and embed personalised targets and communication systems.
Classroom management will become second nature. Seating plans, LSA deployment, positioning of furniture, organisation of resources and layout of classroom will never faze you again.
Collaboration and working/leading a team will become the norm for you. This is a skill that will serve you wherever your career takes you.
Building and leading a team of LSA’s will show you the true meaning of team work in an education setting without having to move into management (CV gold).
The children really are at the center of everything, test scores and box ticking is buried in the need for student centered school ethos.
Lets be honest here – smaller class sizes mean you will know every thing there is to know about every child you teach. Innovation and creativity are essential skills that you will develop and use every day.
You will understand the true meaning of differentiation. Not just in lessons but in discipline, approach, tone and even the words you use with each student.
These are based on my experiences of the strengths of specialist provisions, I’m not suggesting that these don’t exist in mainstream education. I would love to hear your comments and ideas.
Those are ten great reasons, Joe. As you say they are skills that are necessary in mainstream also, but they are not always as visible. I was interested in the use of the word “magpie”. I haven’t heard it used in that way before and wonder at its meaning.
Borrow people’s shiny bright ideas!
I like it even more. Thanks! I’ll have to magpie that. 🙂
Good post, working in specialist settings is a valuable experience
Reblogged this on SENBlogger.
I am a Specialist in the -Barrier to Learning Field I have been working with Learners in the most difficult community in my country South Africa and I have a blog and Facebook page “called- Helping South Africa Kids with Barriers to Learning ” if you need help or can assist me in any way please do so our kids are in need of so much and it isn’t available – assistance with sites with free downloads for kids with barriers especially Andriod would be highly appreciated
Kind Regards Rene Radov