Special Needs Work

musicloverx

I was just wondering if there is anyone on here who is entering into/has any information about this profession?

I know you can get into this type of career from doing a teaching degree and following on with a postgrad but I'm wondering what other courses there is out there that are geared towards this if any?
Would social care be the main one?..Its a career i'm interested in, however I'm not fully sure I want to do primary teaching and would like to know if there is other options..thanks:)
I am speaking to my careers teacher about this when I get back to school but I would like some extra information

gruffler91

was actually looking into this myself, I found a course in St. Angelas Sligo. It doesn't list a points requirement though, however it says it's a level 8 course. I'm going to ask my guidance counsellor about it. Here is a link to the prospectus, just scroll down- the course is called: Bachelor of Arts (Health & Disability Studies

HTH

http://www.stangelas.nuigalway.ie/Downloads/st%20angelas%20prospectus.pdf

unknown13

Can you define what you mean by work. What do you actually want to do? IE Teach them or work in residential care etc.

musicloverx

thanks gruffler 91, that course looks really interesting and it does say its level 8..I was looking into st.angelas a few weeks back and didn't come across it, only saw postgraduate ones..I was going to contact them about it but thinking of talking to my careers teacher first, thanks for help:)

unknown13 wrote: »

Can you define what you mean by work. What do you actually want to do? IE Teach them or work in residential care etc.

sorry, at the moment thinking on the lines of a special needs assistant/teacher in a special school, something geared towards that area if thats any help

unknown13

musicloverx wrote: »

sorry, at the moment thinking on the lines of a special needs assistant/teacher in a special school, something geared towards that area if thats any help

For my experiences. Special needs teachers have a background in certain subjects like Maths, English or Languages and then they go into special needs teaching.

For secondary teaching; English would be a handy one because you will be dealing a fair bit with people with Dyslexia and a strong base in English would not go astray at all.

For primary teaching; I take it you have to go through to the teaching training colleges but I am not sure at all. I only got special needs teaching in secondary school.

I am not a teacher or training to be a teacher but I do have a learning difficulty, so I know about special needs teaching from a student's perspective.

musicloverx

unknown13 wrote: »

For my experiences. Special needs teachers have a background in certain subjects like Maths, English or Languages and then they go into special needs teaching.

For secondary teaching; English would be a handy one because you will be dealing a fair bit with people with Dyslexia and a strong base in English would not go astray at all.

For primary teaching; I take it you have to go through to the teaching training colleges but I am not sure at all. I only got special needs teaching in secondary school.

I am not a teacher or training to be a teacher but I do have a learning difficulty, so I know about special needs teaching from a student's perspective.

thanks so much for your help with it, explains a lot.,seems a teaching background might be the best way to go:)

Lady_North1

With regards to special needs assiatants, at the moment I would not recommend any courses for the job. There are so many cutbacks in that sector that there are many unemployed sna out there and the dept of ed and gove are capping the numbers this year so it's likely there will be no more jobs in that sector in the long term.....

Special needs teacher...... Resource teacher or Learning support are (In primary school) mainstream teachers who are teaching in that capacity. In our school (I'm sna in primary) the teachers who work in the resource / learning support rooms are just mainstream teachers who are filling those posts this year. They may change next year or stay in that area for a number of years. Our school has never advertised a learning support post etc. The staff just fill the posts and any vacancies that arise are advertised as mainstream teachers. Hope that makes sense.

It is such a tough profession at the moment. Lots of teachers/newly qualified teachers who can't get jobs because the numbers are changing in the system all the time. Have a look at www.educationposts.ie and there you will find lots of advice on the teaching profession.

Best of luck, what ever you decide to do.