Teaching Assistant

What will you be doing?

Job Purpose:

Support the classroom teacher to facilitate the active participation of children in the academic and social activities of the school.

Contribute to raising standards of achievement for all pupils.

Principal Accountabilities:

1. Support for children

 Under the direction of the class teacher, supervise the class in following activities and tasks planned by the class teacher in the class room and PE.

 In conjunction with the classroom teacher, adapt lessons and activities to meet the needs of individual children.

 Take responsibility for delivering learning programmes, daily support and interventions with a specific child who may have gaps in their learning and may have social emotional special educational needs.

 Establish and maintain supportive relationships with individual pupils, small groups and parents/carers to ensure they understand and can achieve the tasks.

 Encourage and promote inclusion in the classroom, ensuring all pupils feel safe and involved with tasks and activities.

 Conduct diagnostic assessments for basic skills and record data to support children’s learning

2. Support for the curriculum

 Support the school curriculum, including social, literacy and numeracy activities.

 Suggest areas where ICT might be used to enrich pupil learning

 Provide targeted support to enhance learning and improve attainment

3. Support for the teacher

 Assist in maintaining class records and contribute to reports on pupil progress and development as directed.

 Monitor, track progress and contribute to plans for children with special educational needs.

 Contribute to the planning and evaluation of work programmes for individual pupils and groups.

 Organise the learning environment and develop classroom resources as required.

 Undertake support activities for the teacher as required, e.g. photocopying, preparation of materials, mounting displays.

 Contribute to the management of pupil behaviour, including anticipating and taking action to prevent potential problems arising and to provide alternative learning activities

4. Support for the school

 Develop and maintain effective working relationships with other staff and parents or carers.

 Contribute to the maintenance of a safe and healthy environment.

 Participate in and support the professional development of other teaching assistants as required.

 Assist in facilitating school events, e.g. school plays, events.

5. Professional Competencies

 The ability to manage challenging behaviour objectively with understanding of the needs that drive such behaviours

 Understanding of the school and national curriculums and age-related expectations for the relevant key stage

 Understanding of the aims, content and outcomes for subject and topic lessons

 Knowledge and understanding of the key principles, terms and progression for literacy and numeracy in the relevant year and key stage, in class and when running interventions

 Knowledge of the definition of special educational needs and familiar with the guidance about meeting SEND in the SEND Code of Practice

 Be familiar with or have knowledge of Learning and Communication in the SEND Code of Practice

 Knowledge of a range of differentiation strategies to create a purposeful learning environment and to meet the needs of individual learners

 Ability to liaise supportively and effectively with parents and other school staff

 Understanding and application of the need for professional confidentiality

 Understanding of and respect for all social, religious, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds

About you

Qualifications

 Willingness to undertake specific training and qualifications as required

 Certificated qualifications in an educational or child psychology field

 Training / qualifications in SEND

 English and Maths GCSE Experience

 Working with, supporting or caring for young children

 Developing independence and self-care skills

 Supporting young children with additional needs in an educational setting

Knowledge and understanding

 Knowledge and understanding of the needs of young children

 Knowledge and understanding of how children develop and learn

 Knowledge and understanding of how children acquire learned behaviours

 Understanding how children acquire and develop social interaction skills

 Knowledge of the SEND Code of Practice Skills

 Adaptable

 Ability to form positive relationships with children, parents and staff

 Ability to use initiative in day to day situations

 Ability to model positive behaviours in group work

 Ability to accept and promote new ideas from outside agencies

 Ability to develop resources to meet the individual needs of children

 Competent ICT skills

Personal characteristics

 Willingness to share expertise, skills and knowledge

 Commitment to team working

 Calm, supportive approach

 Resilience

 Enthusiastic

 Positive approach to problem solving

 Commitment to inclusive education

 Willingness to work with children from across different year groups

 Sense of humour

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:

• Flexible working
• Flexible Bank Holidays
• A comprehensive wellbeing package
• Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
• A comprehensive pension scheme
• IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
• An employee recognition scheme

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers