Teaching pupils with special educational needs

All teachers will work with pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) at some point during their career. You can specialise to work with children with SEN full-time once you have worked as a qualified teacher for a couple of years, or if you enter a teaching career through the private sector. There are currently over 15,000 SEN teachers working in mainstream schools in the UK, with others working in special schools and related areas.

As many as one in five children will have some kind of SEN at some point during their education. Children with SEN generally have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than their peers. Issues that children with SEN may face include physical disability, visual or hearing impairments, emotional difficulties and specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

SEN in mainstream schools

The majority of pupils with SEN can be catered for in mainstream schools, occasionally with outside help from specialists. All mainstream schools appoint staff to positions of responsibility for special needs over and above their duties as class teachers: this kind of role provides a broad experience of SEN. However, if the school cannot meet a pupil’s needs, there will be a consultation with parents and professionals and an assessment to look into moving the pupil to a special school.

SEN in special schools

Only children with the most severe needs are taught in a special school environment. Children may, for example, have a diagnosis of autism, Down’s syndrome or foetal alcohol syndrome, or experience difficulties as a result of premature birth or chromosomal abnormalities. Generally speaking, teachers in special schools for pupils with learning difficulties have had mainstream school training at primary or secondary level. This experience is very useful as it provides a professional benchmark as to what ‘average’ attainment is.

Special schools for pupils with learning difficulties may cater for one type of disability, serve children of either primary or secondary school age, or cover the whole age range and many different types of disability. They may be located next to a mainstream school or on a separate site. There is flexibility in how the National Curriculum subjects are delivered – for example, a cooking lesson might also serve as a numeracy lesson with pupils learning about weighing and measuring as well developing their independence in preparing a snack.

Getting into special needs teaching

There is no specific requirement for teaching in a special school. However, there are a number of postgraduate courses available that specialise in special needs teaching and some initial teacher training courses offer SEN modules. The most important attributes for a special school teacher are flexibility, the confidence to put the pupil’s needs at the centre of his or her teaching, patience, empathy and a good sense of humour. Progress can often be very slow, but pupils often develop faster in other respects, for example in sport, self esteem or the performing arts.

Special needs teaching is hugely rewarding: it is education in its fullest sense, involving understanding the child, supporting families and educating for life.

We would like to thank Ola White, the deputy head at The Castle School in Newbury for her help with this article. Ola taught at a large, all-age special school for children with learning difficulties for 22 years before starting her current role six years ago.