Ks2 teacher for nurture unit in secondary

[phlebasconsidered]

There's a job come up close to my house for a ks2 teacher for secondary. I am coming up to a decade in primary year 6 after a decade in secondary so I think i'd be a good candidate.

However, I don't know if I could take the behaviour and I don't know how supported the nurture groups are in reality. I suspect not much! I don't just want a holding pen. Does anyone have any experience of this? When I was in secondary various students just went to "the unit" and neither they nor the staff there were seen very much, but this was a good time ago and maybe things have moved on.

I think i'd be good at it- able to pitch ks1 and 2 at a ks3 and 4 level. But I am done with being "sold" ideas and inclusion with no money, support or back up (rife in primary!) so some candour from secondary colleagues would be good.

I think this is going to be as individual as each different school.

Is there an option to go and look round, and ask some candid questions even before applying?
I ALWAYS looked round schools before applying, and found it VERY helpful.

Firstly, the behaviour isn’t much different to primary (they are just bigger!) Is the nurture group already set up or would you be setting it up? A true nurture group should only take pupils who meet specific assessment criteria such as the Boxall Profile so it shouldn’t be an ALN provision or a dumping ground for behaviour issues. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ‘nurture groups’ around which are dumping grounds and don’t follow the true nurture group guidelines, I would avoid these! A true nurture group will have a range of needs and abilities and students will be following specially designed programmes to improve their social and emotional issues. Any curriculum subjects covered should be be age appropriate but you’ll probably find that students in secondary attend these lessons with their mainstream peers anyway. The other thing to consider is that it can be quite an isolating provision to work in so staff turnover can be high as a result. I think your best bet if it is an existing provision is to visit and see what it’s like. Happy to help more if you want to PM me.