career in SEN

[MonsterasRock]

Hi, reposting from the staffroom for more traffic

I want to reboot my teaching career. I haven't worked FT in schools since 2006. Since COVID I've been running my own business (not education related). My own children are now in secondary so I want to use my qualifications to start a late life career. I'm thinking maybe the SEN area would work for me.

What appeals is working in small groups. I feel like I want to do something rewarding for others and put my qualifications to good use. I get the impression there are jobs locally in this sector. As I've no recent teaching experience and no SEN training or experience at all, I thought about trying supply agencies in the first instance. I've had a reply from a local agency and they don't seem too bothered about the lack of references.

Any careers advice, opinions, anything really? Would applying for TA roles be a good way in? I'll find any input from more experienced people all very helpful.

Hoping to make 2025 the year I get out of the home and get a salary!

You could go in as a teacher (for pay and pension). I moved from mainstream to AP and ASD special 9 years ago. You don't need special training, but you need to be prepared to learn from people who are experts while on the job. I would also say that it isn't easier in the classroom because it's small groups. It's hard, and lots of people find the reality is not for them. The outside the classroom stuff is easier, because there's less marking mostly!

Yes, I do wonder if supporting small groups of children with anxiety or selective mutism is rather unrealistic.

If you want a teacher salary, you'll be looking at teaching a (likely challenging) whole class, leading support staff and be ultimately responsible for each of them making progress.

If you can afford to take an LSA salary, you're likely looking at supporting very high-need pupils 1:1 or being used for whole class cover.

If you ultimately want to get into being a SENCo, that's a very stressful, lonely and high-stakes role (even more so if the new Ofsted report card rumours are to be believed) and will take you away from actually working with any pupils.

As far as I know from a retired senco (from a different MS local school) the AP school takes mainstream referrals either part time or full time. I haven't seen anything from the website that indicates it specialises in any particular sen. The senco told me the are a good percentage of emotional based school refusers/extremely anxious students.

I appreciate everyone's contributions. They are all getting me to reflect on my options and in greater depth about what to expect in this sector, and indeed the variety within the sector. All eye opening. Thank you

Sorry if I gave the impression working in sen would be easier. I mean it might be more suitable to me as I found the full classroom of 30 near adults hugely stressful. Over the years since, I've come to understand myself more and realise I'm temperamentally not suited to that type of work. I'm very introverted and it takes too much out of me. To another pp, I have never seriously considered primary as I'm not very into little kids. But perhaps that's what I thought 20 years ago now I think about it. Perhaps I need to reassess. I'll think on it. I certainly enjoyed my own youngsters at that age.

I taught severely learning disabled primary aged pupils (mainly involving autism) for the last decade or so of my career. Until then I'd taught verbal teenagers with a range of learning disabilities and behavioural issues. All inspecial school settings.

The non verbal/partially verbal children and their behavioural and anxiety quirks turned out to be a teaching strength for me. I'm also quite introverted, but it meant that I was able to get 'inside' the minds of those children, and see the world from where they were. See the tiny things that distressed them, and work out what calmed them. Have them trust me. I loved the job.

Yes, I got hurt, and at the point where my body was no longer bouncing back from the injuries as promptly as it used to, I retired a couple of years earlier than planned. But I found it an amazing job, and I loved working closely with the families, and making a difference to their lives as well as their child's, through what I did.

I second this. I also work in FE and colleges are crying out for LSA's to work with children/young people with SEND. The numbers have grown massively over the last few years.

I do think people have a very unrealistic idea of working within SEND. I say this as a teacher and parent of a young person with complex needs. My son is training to be a teacher and as part of his PGCE he was placed for 4 weeks in a school offering alternative provision (in the main emotional, trauma, anxiety). His sibling has high needs so he able to cope with extreme behaviours but found the experience relentless and exhausting (Ofsted Good). Please go volunteer in a few schools. Dare I say small groups of 'grateful' anxious young people being taught in a small group does not exist.

Dare I say small groups of 'grateful' anxious young people being taught in a small group does not exist.

I have to say I agree with this. It's going to be 1:1 with very high need pupils on a low wage or teaching a whole class and being responsible for the usual progress and stresses of a class teacher-be it mainstream or specialist.

Dare I say small groups of 'grateful' anxious young people being taught in a small group does not exist

I dont know how the other children feel in my daughters group, but I know my DD is immensely grateful for the time and support she receives from her TA ( My dd is autistic at mainstream school and her class has a small group of SEN children who sit with the TA on their own table )

@NameChanger91736 I possibly did not word my response particularly well. I am sure your daughter is very grateful for the help she receives. However anyone supporting young people in mainstream is expected to do a lot of work for little pay. Working as a SENDCO is usually a job which is added to an existing person's workload. If you want to teach in some form of alternative provision then you are looking at an extremely demanding job whether you are the class teacher or a TA working with a small groups.

You’d get a TA job easily but obviously the pay is shit. You’d get some experience though of working with SEN children / young people.

@MonsterasRock I moved from mainstream secondary to special ed without any additional training or qualifications. I did do a lot of reading and some volunteering first (to make sure it was definitely for me - and also to prove to SEN schools that I was serious).

I work with autistic teens mostly and I love it. So much more rewarding for me than mainstream. Harder in some ways, easier in others. It's a lot more physical and I completely underestimated the challenge of managing other adults in the classroom. I usually have up to 10 students and up to 5 adults. Much harder to manage adults than teenagers in my opinion!

I would just write to any local special schools/APs that interest you with your CV and a letter. I got a job very quickly this way.

Good luck! No way would I go back

her class has a small group of SEN children who sit with the TA on their own table

The point being that the TA is on a very low wage and is probably whipped out to cover whole classes for teacher absence.

Just 'teaching' small groups (by which I mean getting a teacher pay) is not really a job any more in any school I am aware of.

Actually working in SM has massive potential. There is a huge dearth of trained knowledgeable people. Take a look at "Confident Children" to see what another person has done with training and enthusiasm.

@MonsterasRock

I don't know where you are based in the country but these schools are great and might suit your interests:

www.redballoonlearner.org/

Have you considered tutoring as a way of gaining direct experience with your preferred target pupils. The HE community is full of pupils like you described and you would quickly gain exposure. As far as working within a provision you could start tomorrow in many areas of the country as they are crying out for qualified teachers. I’d just go for it and apply. You might start out teaching 1:1 rather than groups. I think the pay isn’t great so make sure it’s enough for your needs.

This is great,. Thank you. Not in my area but the local trust is very similar

Oh well done. I'm glad it worked out for you. I only wish I'd thought of alternatives to ms years ago. I ended my teaching career quite early and drastically changed life direction. I still feel sad I couldn't make it work. It will have set me back over my lifetime - I know I'll never gain what I could have done if I'd stuck at things at 27. There is a sense of massive underachievement of potential but in other respects I've had experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Onwards! I hope 2025 brings results.

I'm checking out all the links and recommendations on here. To those recommending FE, they sound an amazing idea but I live too far from the nearest college. However, I really hope the idea will chime for someone reading this thread.

Thank you for reminding me about tutoring. I looked into it previously and found most of the work is at inconvenient times ie after school. But yes HE is big where I live. I do also recall there were tutoring opportunities online with pupils who for one reason or another were missing significant amounts of school. I'll have a dig around and see if I can find the agency.

But there are a LOT of kids like that who are out of school and a real shortage of tutors who can help - not least because they often aren't suited to special education either and so EOTAS or home schooing become the only option. This is useful background: https://notfineinschool.co.uk/. Possibly worth looking into hospital education as well?

(Sorry - above was about anxious/autistic/selective mute kids)