Teaching Assistant - SEN School - Castleford

Teaching Personnel are working with a special school in Castleford who are seeking a Learning Support Assistant/ Teaching Assistant/Support Worker on a full time basis. This is a temporary, fixed term contract until July 2019 in the first instance, with an opportunity to apply for a permanent role. Pupil needs include Autism, Moderate Learning Difficulties and Speech, Language and Communication Needs. The school offers an alternative, sensory based curriculum for young people aged 2-11 years old.

As a Learning Support Assistant/Teaching Assistant/Support Worker, the focus of your role is to offer practical and emotional support to pupils, promoting independence, improving communication and enabling progress across key areas of development. You will be welcomed into a large, experienced staff team of Teachers, Learning Support Assistants, medical staff and therapists (the school benefits from an in house Speech and Language Therapist and Aromatherapist) who will support you in delivering holistic interventions for key pupils.

Qualifications/Skills

The ideal candidate will ideally have experience supporting individuals with additional needs in an education, health or care setting in a paid or voluntary capacity. However, we will also welcome applications from individuals with a background in:

• Youth Work
• Social Care
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Sports Coaching
• Counselling and/or Psychology

We would also consider applicants with personal experience with Special Educational Needs.

Responsibilities

As a Special Needs Learning Support Assistant/Teaching Assistant/Support Worker, your role will include:

• Supporting schoolwork under the supervision of the teacher
• Promoting children's confidence, self esteem and independence
• Helping children understand instructions, through repetition, re-phrasing or demonstrating
• Putting into practice individual education, social, behavioural and personal care programmes
• Encouraging children to communicate with one another and with staff
• Assisting children during therapy sessions
• Recognising signs of distress in children and offering reassurance
• Attending to pupils' physical and personal care needs
• Completing, updating and maintaining records

You will need to demonstrate:

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• The ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with children, colleagues and parents/carers
• Emotional resilience and the ability to cope in high pressure situations
• Commitment to making a positive difference to the lives of SEN pupils

Working with Teaching Personnel

As a registered candidate with Teaching Personnel, you'll benefit from the expertise of a personal Special Educational Needs Consultant, who will support you from your initial application through to your very first day in your new role! We provide you with regular feedback, and you will benefit from access to training courses such as Moving and Handling, Effective Behaviour Management, Differentiation and Team Teach (with our next course taking place in February). Please contact us today for more information.