Hiring: Play Therapist (part time)

30th April 2025Website Admin

Band 6/7 Play Therapist

Required for: September 2025

Banding: Band 6/7

Hours: 2.5 days per week, 8am – 5pm (paid school holidays)

Gesher School is a twice Ofsted Outstanding independent all-through school providing a specialist, meaningful and functional learning environment for young people with mild to moderate special educational needs. This includes Autism, ADHD, Dyspraxia, Down’s Syndrome and MLD.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, creative, and passionate Play Therapist to join our therapy team at Gesher School.

At Gesher school, creative psychotherapy is integrated throughout the school week for all students, following a trans-disciplinary and holistic therapeutic approach.

The Therapy team is currently comprised of:

  • 3 Speech & Language Therapists
  • 3 Occupational Therapists
  • 1 Dramatherapist
  • 1 Art Psychotherapist
  • Therapy Assistant
  • Family Support Worker

You will work in close partnership with your fellow Therapists, the SENDCO Team, Teaching and Support staff, and families/carers to help our children reach their full potential and support them in accessing all areas of the curriculum. The Therapy team at Gesher work onsite on a full-time basis (or part-time equivalent), and utilise a three-tiered approach: Universal (for all), Targeted (for small groups), and Specialist (for individuals). The role features relevant training, support and supervision alongside paid school holidays, dedicated administrative time and enhanced CPD opportunities. You will be a fully integrated and integral member of the whole school team.

The successful Therapist will:

  • Plan, deliver and evaluate 1:1, paired and group evidence-based therapy interventions; to support the development of social, emotional, and mental health needs in order to enable children’s learning, engagement and relationships.
  • Deliver SEMH/social communication recommendations on students Educational Healthcare Plans (EHCP) and contribute to the Annual Review/ EHCP process.
  • Demonstrate a willingness to work flexibly within the therapeutic boundaries of the profession in line with the Gesher School model of integrated therapy.
  • Develop effective working relationships with school staff and liaise regularly regarding implementation of programmes, provision of in class support and suggest advice and strategies.
  • Plan and deliver staff training and parent workshops to support the ongoing development of social-emotional and creative-expressive skills.
  • Demonstrate the ability to work independently, and as part of a team, under the supervision of a senior Creative Psychotherapist.

We offer fantastic opportunities to develop your skills as a practitioner within an innovative, supportive and collaborative team environment. Some of our benefits include:

  • Regular clinical supervision and the support of an onsite therapy team
  • Half day admin day which can be taken at home
  • Paid half-day Friday closure in the winter months
  • 12 weeks of paid holidays plus (pro rata) plus paid extra Jewish holidays throughout the year
  • Additional days off awarded following long service
  • Monthly well-being events and inset days
  • Regular social opportunities

You will join a supportive staff team where teamwork, flexibility and a positive personality are essential attributes.

To be successful you must have the following: 

  • Postgraduate qualification in Play Therapy.
  • Registered member of HCPC(Health Care Professions Council) or registration in process.
  • Experience working as a paediatric therapist, and/or experience working in a school setting (desirable but not essential).
  • An understanding of creative psychotherapy processes/interventions in a school setting (desirable but not essential).
  • Excellent communication, organisation and time management skills.
  • A willingness to become involved in all aspects of school life and culture, e.g. clubs, school festivals and social events, parent meetings, etc.
  • The ability to work well as part of a collaborative team.
  • A right to work in the UK.

See us in action here:

https://vimeo.com/407682934/a9a6af1bc8

For more information relating to the above role, or to apply, please contact our admin team at 0207 884 5102 or email [email protected]

Useful Articles and Reading

11th July 2024realsmart admin

Useful Articles and Reading

Resources for Home

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Resources for Home

Ideas for Home

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Ideas for Home

Social Stories

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Social Stories

Sensory trays

4th July 2024Website Admin

Sensory trays are a fantastic way to help children regulate regardless of age. A single tray can be made up or a selection of different trays (wet, dry,hard, soft etc).  Plastic animals can be added for story telling, or funnels, sieves, plastic cups and spoons are also useful for exploring. These can be made in any plastic container such as a washing up bowl or shallow  tray. The ‘really useful box’ brand are great as they come in different sizes with lids. You can purchase a 10-litre tray here.

Some of our favourites are:

  • Sand (one damp and one dry)
  • Kinetic sand
  • Water beads
  • Lentils or rice
  • Shaving foam
  • Cornflour and water
  • Slime (homemade or shop bought)

 

Journeys Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

In the Spring term, Gefen and Rimon classes will be worked on an extended project all about journeys. We looked at journeys in the past made by famous explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, as well as journeys to Ancient Egypt and what they discovered when they arrived at their destinations. This helped the students think about their own journeys and how they need to plan for these. We also thought about the journey they took at Gesher school and what it meant to them. As part of our project we created a ‘sponsored journey’ from the old site to the new school using various modes of transport. At the end of the project, the students created their own personalised backpacks with the resources they will need for their own Pesach journeys. The project covered Geography skills such as looking at maps and planning for a journey, as well as looking at the climate and physical features of different countries. We also looked at the history of Ancient Egypt and Shackleton’s journey to the Antarctica. As part of our project we looked at the children’s emotional and social needs, and what they will need to support them and the important characteristics that are required on their own journeys.

Teacher’s Reflections

“I think the project went well and the children seemed to enjoy all the individual parts of the project ie Egypt, Antarctica and their own journeys. The children particularly enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt and all the practical art and drama activities we did especially the mummification! They also learnt lots of information about Egypt and what it is like as a country today. Although I actually feel that the Egypt part would have been better as a separate section after the project as it was not officially a journey that they went on in Egypt. The project was also good as it covered many different curriculum area ie geography different countries, history looking at Ancient Egypt, music creating an Egyptian orchestra and art. I also feel that it was useful for the children to reflect on what they need when they go on different journeys (sensory resources). I think the exhibition was a success as well when the children were able to act as tour guides showing off all their work!”

– Stephanie Sungtong

Students’ Reflections

“My favourite part of the the project was the trip to the transport museum” – Liam

“I learnt how to wrap a mummy with linen” – Avi

“My highlight making my holiday packing list and how to plan my journey” – Ari

View all project cards

Our journey to Outstanding: How our second Ofsted inspection has proved real change is possible.

12th October 2022Ali Durban

by Ali Durban, Gesher Co-Founder

Gesher School started life almost 10 years ago.  An idea driven by a difficult lived experience of the education system for our own children and a vision and desire to create something better for many other children.  The first couple of years were intense.  Sarah, my co-founder, and I met in a school playground, at the time we had children in the same class at the school.  We both had full time jobs, young families and, although we were educated, neither of us had a background in education. 

It was an ambitious project.

And so, we educated ourselves, researching data, visiting schools across the UK and understanding the daily struggles of the unmet needs of what we discovered to be thousands of children and young people with mild to moderate learning differences.  

We knew there was a desperate need for change, something transformative.  We began a dialogue with our local Jewish community in North London, and advocated that, with the right start in life, this marginalised group of children and young people, who were typically under-served and failed by the current education system, could have different outcomes in life.  

We surrounded ourselves with experts and poured the very best of our shared knowledge into our collective vision.  However, translating an idea into a reality needs more than passion, purpose, and knowledge, it needs funding.  

So, at the same time we learnt to fundraise and to share our vision with people who cared about this group of children and their outcomes in life as deeply as we did.  They too believed that real change was possible. We call them Gesher Champions and together we raised £2m to kickstart Gesher.

In 2017, Gesher opened as a primary special school in Cricklewood with seven children who were differently able and who had learning differences. Seven families who had taken that leap of faith with us. These children were going to have a different educational experience. The feeling on the first day of seeing those children was immense.  A year later OfSTED visited and judged Gesher to be Outstanding in all Areas and, as the inspector shared his views, we all cried tears of joy. 

The school continued to develop and grow until eventually our site was full, with waiting lists and our primary children who were graduating had no specialist secondary schools to progress onto.  Then the pandemic hit, and amidst the challenges of supporting our children and families we were desperately looking for premises to expand and once again the funds to support our growth.

The universe tilted in our direction and in 2020, Gesher relocated to Pinner and opened as an all-through school, at full capacity it will be a school for 120 students aged 5 to 16.  To date we have raised over £5m with our Gesher Champions to support this second phase of growth.  Our vision remains the same, to build upon the success of the primary school and deliver an exceptional learning environment for children and young people who are differently able.  

We have been working hard over the last two years to create a new evidence-based model of teaching and learning for students with SEN that is academically rigorous with the long-term ambition of sharing our practice with other schools and learning communities.  Joining the dots and creating system change from the ground upwards.  

This September, Ofsted visited a second time and, under the new inspection framework judged Gesher to be Outstanding in all Areas again.  Given that we were expecting a ‘Good’ under the new framework, once again we were floored and in tears. In particular, the inspectors noted:

Pupils receive an exceptional quality of provision. Leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum which is taught by the school’s expert staff. 

Together, the curriculum and therapies encourage pupils’ independent living skills and emotional well-being very successfully. 

Therapists, teachers and teaching assistants work together seamlessly as one team. They truly understand how to meet pupils’ varied special educational needs. While staff are nurturing, they also have high expectations of all pupils. As a result, pupils work hard and learn well.  

We are all immensely proud of this. 

Gesher is a learning community filled with agency, purpose and passion which puts children and young people at the heart of school life and this achievement is more than an endorsement. 

This is a signal of hope for thousands of differently-abled children and young people and perhaps most importantly – an offering of what is possible in education.

 

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