Class Teacher
Harbour School Dorset, BH20 6NU19 days remaining to apply
Start date details
September 2026
Closing date
21 June 2026 at 11:59pm
Date listed
2 June 2026
Job details
Job role
- Teacher
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Key stage
- Key stage 2, Key stage 3, Key stage 4
Working pattern
- Full time: Full time teaching contract (early finish on Fridays)
Contract type
- Permanent
Pay scale
- MPS
Additional allowances
SEN allowance (£2,787 per annum)
What skills and experience we're looking for
Class Teacher – Harbour School Dorset
Main Pay Scale plus SEN allowance
Full time, Permanent
(Please note: We are recruiting for two roles – one of which includes additional responsibility for leading our PSHE curriculum. If you have a passion for supporting personal development, wellbeing and life skills, this could be an opportunity to shape and develop this area across the school.)
Do you believe that even the most challenging days can hold the most meaningful moments?
At Harbour School Dorset, no two days are ever the same. You may begin the morning with a carefully planned lesson, only to realise that your pupils need something entirely different when they arrive. You’ll adapt, reset, take a breath… and begin again.
And within that unpredictability, you’ll experience moments that stay with you.
- A pupil managing their emotions when yesterday they couldn’t.
- A young person taking a step back into learning after weeks of disengagement.
- A small breakthrough in trust, communication or confidence that changes everything.
These are not always big, visible milestones.They are steady, hard‑earned steps forward – and they matter.
That is what teaching here feels like.
If you are a teacher who values connection over perfection, who understands that progress is individual, and who finds purpose in supporting young people to rebuild confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging, you may feel right at home with us.
What you’ll be doing:
- Plan and deliver engaging, personalised lessons that meet a wide range of needs
- Adapt your teaching to meet a wide range of individual needs, including pupils with SEMH and autism, guided by EHCPs and therapeutic approaches.
- Set high yet compassionate expectations, helping pupils to re‑engage with learning and experience success.
- Assess, monitor and record progress carefully, using this to inform your teaching and ensure meaningful outcomes.
- Provide targeted interventions and prepare pupils for external assessments and qualifications.
- Act as a tutor or mentor, building strong, trusting relationships with pupils and working closely with families and carers.
- Create a safe, calm and predictable learning environment where pupils feel secure, understood and ready to learn.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues and external professionals to ensure joined‑up support for every young person.
Who we’re looking for:
- A qualified teacher (QTS) with successful teaching experience
- Experience of working with pupils with SEMH and/or autism is valuable (or a strong willingness to learn)
- A calm, resilient and emotionally intelligent practitioner who can remain steady in challenging moments
- Someone who leads with kindness and puts relationships at the centre of their practice
- Adaptable and creative, able to respond flexibly when plans need to change
- A strong team player who communicates openly and works collaboratively with others
What the school offers its staff
About us:
Harbour School Dorset is a state funded Special School for pupils with ASC and SEMH. We endeavour to help our learners to feel they matter and belong, enabling them to improve their social, emotional and academic skills to be the best that they can be.
The school in Bovington, is based on a beautiful site with a bespoke, carefully designed, new building, which we moved into in February 2022. Our approach is relational, trauma-informed and rooted in understanding behaviour as communication. We believe every child can thrive with the right support, progress looks different for every student, relationships come before results, consistency changes lives.
What we can offer
- A skilled, compassionate, genuinely supportive team who reflect together, and understand the emotional weight of the work.
- Friday afternoons off
- Strong induction and ongoing training
- A school that celebrates progress, not just academic data
- A role where the impact is real, human and lasting
- Free access to the Employee Assistance Programme and our Cycle to Work Scheme.
- The opportunity to develop your career in a School, and within the Southern Education Trust – a growing Trust where our mission is “making lives better” and our values arekindness, collaboration and creativity.
Further information about the job
Here’s the honest part:
This role will stretch you.
It will require patience, resilience, creativity and compassion.
Some days will be challenging. Some will be unexpectedly rewarding. Many will be both.
But if you are looking for a teaching role where your impact is real, where progress is deeply meaningful, and where relationships are at the heart of everything – Harbour School Dorset could be exactly where you make your difference.
Visits are highly encouraged – please call the school on 01929 508286 or email Helen Bradley (H.Bradley@harbourschooldorset.com) to arrange this.
Closing date: 21stJune 2026
Interview date: w/c 29th June 2026
Please note: Applications may be viewed on receipt and interviews arranged sooner than the above date.
Become part of our journey by completing our Teacher & Leadership Application Form and returning it to recruitment@southern.education if you would like to apply. Please see our Teacher Job Description and HSD – Child-Protection-and-Safeguarding-Policy-2025-2026 for further information.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Isabel at the recruitment address, who will be happy to assist you.
The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, this role involves directly working with children and significant contact with children, and therefore we expect all staff and volunteers to share the same commitment. Please ensure a full work history is completed in your application form including any gaps of employment. Applicants will be required to complete satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check for this post prior to commencement. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974.The Trust is an equal opportunities employer.
If successfully shortlisted the HR Department will also be conducting an individual online search including social media platforms of your ‘name, education and employment’, to demonstrate due diligence following ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ guidance. The search will not form part of the actual shortlisting process and any concerns arising from the search will be discussed directly with you.
Commitment to safeguarding
Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment.
Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.
Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
childcare disqualification
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
medical
online and social media
prohibition from teaching
right to work
satisfactory references
suitability to work with children
You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.
Applying for the job
Apply for the job by following the link below.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
View advert on school website (opens in new tab)Additional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About Harbour School Dorset
- School type
- Free Schools, None, ages 10 to 19
- School size
- 140 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 10 to 19
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Harbour School Dorset website
- Email address
- recruitment@southern.education
Arranging a visit to Harbour School Dorset
To arrange a visit and increase the chance of a successful application email recruitment@southern.education.
School location
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