Teaching assistants support teachers and help children with their educational and social development, both in and out of the classroom. In secondary schools, teaching assistants are often known as learning support assistants.
What’s involved
The roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants are varied and differ between schools. Your job can include:
• getting the classroom ready for lessons
• listening to children read, reading to them or telling them stories
• helping children who need extra support to complete tasks
• helping teachers to plan learning activities and complete records
• supporting teachers in managing class behaviour
• supervising group activities
• looking after children who are upset or have had accidents
• clearing away materials and equipment after lessons
• helping with outings and sports events
• taking part in training
• carrying out administrative tasks
To support pupils with particular individual needs, some teaching assistants work one-to-one, while others work in small groups. Many schools employ teaching assistants with particular specialisms, including literacy, numeracy, special educational needs (SEN), music and creative arts. If you are bilingual, you might do more work with children whose first language is not English.
Skills and experience you’ll need
• An ability to build good working relationships with both pupils and adults
• Good organisational skills
• Flexibility and creativity
• Enjoy working with children
• Good literacy and numeracy skills
• Ability to manage groups of pupils and deal with challenging behaviour
• Patience and a sense of humour
• In some jobs it could be useful if you have IT skills or are fluent in local community languages
Entry requirements
Individual schools set their own entry requirements and decide which qualifications and experience they need. You can get an idea of what you're likely to need by looking at jobs advertised locally. Many will require you to have qualifications in literacy and numeracy at GCSE or equivalent. Previous qualifications in nursery work, childcare, play work or youth work can be useful for finding work.
The following qualifications are available for those not yet employed in the role:
• Level 2 Award in Support Work in Schools
• Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools