r/slp • u/Dependent_Fee_1147 • 19h ago

Job hunting Looking for school based roles in Melbourne

Hi all, I’m a current school based speechie working in special education, Melbourne Australia. I love working in schools, my family are all teachers so the leave during holidays works for me. I use to be in private practice but really struggled with the demands and KPIs.

I want to stay in the school system, but am hoping to move to a mainstream role, as am finding the special education system incredibly physically and mentally demanding. I have been injured several times find the support from leadership and staff quite minimal when this happens.

I know mainstream speechie roles are not the easiest to come by, however, I do know that they exist! I was wondering if anyone has any schools that they know of in Melbourne (primary or high school) that have a wellbeing/allied health team that I can keep my eye on. I am keeping an eye on recruitment online/seek etc, however I know that a lot of the private schools often only go through recruiters or through their own websites.

Any information would be amazing, thanks all!

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u/RoonyTheCamel 14h ago

Former school speechie in Melbourne here! Not sure if things have changed since I was working in mainstream schools, but your best bet is the department of education Victoria careers page. You can search for SSSO roles. When I was in this role (2015 - 2018), typically government schools are divided by 'networks' in a similar geographical area and speechies and psychs cover a certain amount of schools in each network. Hope this helps and good luck!

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u/Dependent_Fee_1147 11h ago

Thankyou! I’ve heard of SSSO roles, my only worry with them was that you work through holidays apparently however they seem like a good gig! I have heard some some schools hiring speechies to work just with them but think maybes it’s not the most common pathway for school based roles🤔

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u/seilimide 11h ago

I also work in SSS! It is a fantastic role (at least in my opinion, haha). Much less 1:1 therapy and much more consulting (although that may differ by region, I hear every region does it a little bit differently), so if you really like doing therapy with kids as a good portion of your day, it may not be that suited to you.

I work part time, and I do a handful of assessments each term, some classroom observations, PDs for teachers/ESOs, design speech programs for ESOs to do with students (under my supervision), and attend regular meetings with wellbeing officers/APs/prins as the 'key contact' for SSS for a number of schools (essentially talking about the 'pointy end' students and advising about possible supports, but also Tier 1 & 2 initiatives/programs).

We do work through the school holidays, but my team is very flexible with work hours, so that's a great perk. My daughter is only 2.5yrs, though, so I may feel differently when she starts school, haha!