Occupational Therapist (Band 5 / Band 6) – Permanent – September 2026 – Mole Valley, Surrey
£32,000 – £40,000 per annum (dependent on NHS band and experience)
Permanent Contract
Easily accessible from Guildford, Leatherhead, Epsom, Reigate, Redhill, Godalming, and Horsham
Most Occupational Therapists working in schools will tell you the same thing. The clinical work is good. The conditions around it are not. You write a sensory diet for a pupil, and the Teaching Assistant supporting them changes three times that term. You recommend environmental adjustments, and the school does not have the budget. You flag that a child is dysregulating because of a specific sensory trigger, and six months later, nothing has changed. You are doing your job. The system around you is not built to let you do it properly. This role is different.
The School
This is a specialist school in Mole Valley, Surrey, supporting pupils aged 7 to 16 with Autism, ADHD, and co-occurring Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. Many of the young people here have experienced significant difficulty in previous settings. Anxiety is high. Trust in adults takes time to build. These are pupils who need professionals around them who understand that communication, sensory processing, emotional regulation, and learning are not separate domains. They are connected, and the school's entire approach reflects that understanding.
Classes are small. Adult-to-pupil ratios are high. Leadership prioritises pupil wellbeing and staff development equally. This is not a school where therapy is treated as a compliance requirement. It is a school where therapy is understood as central to what good education looks like for these young people.
The Therapy Team
You will be joining an established therapy team that includes an OT Lead and a Speech-Language Therapist. This matters for two reasons. If you are a Band 5 OT looking to develop your clinical confidence in a specialist SEND context, you will have experienced leadership around you and a team that invests in your growth. If you are a Band 6 OT ready to work with genuine autonomy, you will have the space to lead your caseload, shape the school's OT offer, and build something that lasts.
In either case, your work will not exist in isolation. The therapy team works directly alongside Teachers and Teaching Assistants. Your recommendations inform how staff speak to pupils, how classrooms are set up, how the school day is structured for individual children. The gap between what you know and what the setting does with that knowledge is narrow here.
The Role
What this position asks of you in practice:
- Carrying out thorough OT assessments for pupils with Autism, ADHD, and SEMH needs and using those assessments to design interventions that are genuinely tailored to each young person
- Delivering individual and group OT sessions with a focus on sensory processing, fine and gross motor development, self-regulation, and functional independence
- Working closely with the OT Lead, the Speech and Language Therapist, Teachers, and Teaching Assistants to ensure that OT strategies are embedded across the school day, not confined to your sessions
- Advising and training staff on how to support pupils with sensory and motor needs within the classroom and broader school environment
- Contributing to EHCP reviews, writing clear and purposeful reports, and working directly with families to keep them informed and involved
- Building consistent, trusting relationships with pupils who have often learned to be wary of adults who do not stay
Who This Role Suits
You do not need to have worked in a school before. What matters is that you understand the needs profile of the pupils here and that you are drawn to work that asks you to think beyond the clinic room. Candidates with an NHS background, community paediatric experience, or experience in specialist residential or day provision are all worth speaking to us about. If you have worked with non-speaking young people, with sensory processing differences, or with pupils whose behaviour is frequently misunderstood by the adults around them, this role will feel familiar in the best possible way.
Interested?
To find out more or to have an informal conversation about this role, contact Heeji Moon at Parker Smith Inclusion on 0203 011 4848 or visit www.psinclusion.co.uk.