Hi I am a teacher in a mainstream school. I work in the special needs dept and run a class for autism (not in UK)
The school was grammar, fee paying and it’s very traditional (lovely school I have to say). The way other classes run in other schools here is that there are special class teachers and then mainstream teachers come into the class and deliver adapted lessons. However in the school I am in, I bring the pupils with SEN out to mainstream classes. They make noises, don’t understand the work. The teachers don’t have the confidence or skills to deliver to them and the rest of the class at the one time. Next year another SEN class is opening and three new pupils (secondary) are non verbal. Two are a flight risk.
so that leaves my anxiety though the actual roof. I spoke to the Head of SEN and she said they will all have to go to mainstream to ‘get their education’ and I spoke to the teacher if one main subject and she said she doesn’t have time to differentiate. The headteacher is lovely and I have explained my case about how the children don’t understand what’s going on in the lessons. The headteacher is nice and nods and is so busy (there’s a lot going on as in all schools). I can’t really get a feel for what they actually think and have said before they don’t really know when I’ve asked about things. I think they do know but don’t want to put me off the job as there is a severe teacher shortage here.
The job is very near home (ten mins) and I will likely get permanent this summer but my gut it telling me to leave. No one seems to care about SEN
I’m heartbroken really.. I wanted this to work out