Specialist SEN Teacher in Failsworth

Shape the Next Chapter. Strengthen Practice. Transform Lives. Join Us at New Bridge School.

The Trustees are looking to recruit to the post of Specialist SEN Teacher.

Teachers’ Main Pay Scale + Bundle & SEN Allowance

Full Time New Bridge School Commencing September 2026.

About New Bridge Multi-Academy Trust:

New Bridge Multi-Academy Trust is a vibrant, aspirational and inclusive trust of eight special schools and two specialist post-16 provisions across Oldham, Tameside and Rochdale. As part of the wider New Bridge Group, we also provide post-19 education. We support learners aged 4–19+ across a wide spectrum of need and are proud to be recognised nationally for excellence in special education. Our culture is rooted in high expectations, innovation, and creating meaningful futures for every learner and member of staff.

About This Role:

New Bridge School is entering an important new phase in the development of a highly specialist provision for autistic pupils with complex and individual developmental profiles. We are seeking a skilled, reflective practitioner to help shape and strengthen this provision at a pivotal point in its journey. This is an opportunity to join a team committed to deepening autism-informed practice — building on strong foundations and refining approaches through shared expertise, clarity and a sophisticated understanding of how autistic children experience the world.

This is a highly specialist role within education. You will be working with pupils whose learning, communication, sensory processing and regulation needs are deeply interconnected and highly individual. Trust, predictability and skilled adult understanding are essential.

The Reality and the Reward:

This work is complex. Progress may be subtle. Communication may be emerging or non-linear. Regulation needs may shift quickly and unexpectedly. And yet… The relationships you build. The trust you earn. The moments of genuine connection and breakthrough. These are the experiences that stay with you. This is what makes the role exceptional. At the heart of everything we do is unconditional positive regard — the belief that every child deserves consistency, dignity, safety, and an adult who stays with them, even on the hardest days.

Strengthening Our Practice:

• Grounded in specialist understanding of autism and early developmental learning.
• Informed by structured teaching approaches including Attention Autism, TEACCH principles and co-regulation strategies.
• Brought on consistency, predictability and highly attuned adult responses.
• Shaped by sensory-informed practice that supports regulation and access to learning.
• Driven by shared professional expertise to ensure teaching is intentional, consistent and highly effective.

This is about refining practice through reflection, collaboration and specialist knowledge — ensuring every interaction is purposeful, responsive and developmentally meaningful.

Why This Is a Unique Opportunity:

This role offers the opportunity to work at a genuinely specialist level within a provision that is actively evolving through deeper understanding and refined practice. This is not routine teaching. It is skilled, reflective and highly responsive practice — where decisions are made in the moment, guided by expertise and understanding.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Shape and refine a specialist provision at a key stage in its development.
• Embed high-quality autism-informed approaches, including structured teaching and Attention Autism.
• Support colleagues to deepen understanding of development, sensory need and behaviour.
• Contribute to a shared culture where consistency and clarity transform daily experience for pupils.
• Develop your own practice within a highly specialist and reflective environment.

This is a role for someone who values depth over speed, and who is motivated by getting it right for pupils whose needs demand precision, patience and expertise.

About Our Pupils:

The pupils in this provision are autistic and present with highly complex and individual developmental profiles. They are working at an early stage of development and require a highly personalised, structured and nurturing approach to learning. To support this, classes are small — no more than 8 pupils — supported by 4 to 5 adults, ensuring a high level of individualised attention, consistency and responsiveness throughout the school day.

High-quality learning is carefully designed to:

• Build shared attention and engagement.
• Support early interaction and turn-taking.
• Develop foundational understanding through repetition and structure.
• Reduce cognitive and sensory load.
• Promote regulation as the foundation for all learning.

Many pupils experience:

• Significant sensory processing differences affecting engagement and regulation.
• High levels of anxiety linked to unpredictability or sensory input.
• Emerging or developing communication systems.
• Difficulties with emotional regulation and internal understanding.
• Dysregulated behaviours which challenge and require reliance on skilled adult co-regulation.

Adults are highly skilled interpreters of behaviour, working through a developmental and sensory lens to adapt teaching in the moment and ensure learning remains accessible, meaningful and appropriately paced.

What We’re Looking For:

We are seeking someone who:

• Has a strong understanding of autism and early developmental learning profiles.
• Can apply structured teaching and autism-informed approaches such as Attention Autism, TEACCH principles and co-regulation strategies.
• Translates specialist understanding into calm, consistent and highly effective classroom practice.
• Is confident working in environments where progress is gradual, individualised and carefully interpreted.
• Brings reflective, precise and consistent practice to complex learning needs.
• Can model and develop high-quality practice in others.
• Understands that regulation, trust and engagement are the foundations of learning.
• Remains calm and grounded when supporting pupils through dysregulation.
• Brings resilience, emotional intelligence and a genuine commitment to connection.

This post is not suitable for ECTs or mainstream-only SEN experience.

We Can Offer You:

• A supportive, values-led culture rooted in inclusion and high expectations.
• Generous pension scheme.
• High-quality CPD through our dedicated Everyone Learning Team.
• Hospital Saturday Fund (HSF).
• Trust TOIL scheme for all staff.
• Flexible working opportunities, including PPA at home where appropriate.
• The opportunity to be part of a team committed to creating meaningful futures for both pupils and staff.
• Progression opportunities into leadership roles.

A Specialist Role. A Meaningful Impact. A Chance to Shape Something That Matters.

This is a specialist teaching role within a complex but deeply purposeful provision. It requires expertise, patience and reflection — and it offers the opportunity to make a lasting difference for autistic pupils who need skilled, thoughtful and highly consistent teaching.

Visit Us, Feel the Vision:

We warmly encourage candidates to visit, walk the spaces, and feel the ethos for themselves. For visits or further information, please contact: Deborah Birch-Hall Deputy Head dhall@newbridgegroup.org.

New Bridge MAT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and applicants must have a commitment to safeguarding young people. This post is subject to a satisfactory enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service and references will be sought prior to interview. This post will be subject to a number of pre-employment checks including an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and proof of right to work in the UK in accordance with the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. It will be exempt from the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. DBS Code of Practice which can be viewed here. For shortlisted candidates, an online search will be carried out as part of our due diligence in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025.

We strive to create a fair and inclusive workplace that is as diverse as the communities we serve. We positively welcome applications from all candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Salary: Teacher or Unqualified Teachers’ Pay Scale + Bundle Allowance SEN allowance - £2,787.00 per annum.

Hours of work: 1.0 FTE Based New Bridge School.

Status: Permanent.

Commencing: September 2026.

Closing Date: Friday 5th June 2026 (9:00am).

Contact: Completed applications to be sent to: recruitment@newbridgegroup.org.

Interviews: Week Commencing 15th June 2026.