Job Title: Teaching Assistant (TA)
Responsible to: SENDCo / Headmaster
Contract: Full time
Start: Immediate
The Elms is a wonderful co-educational prep school situated on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border. We are nestled in the foothills of the Malvern Hills in 45 acres of rural tranquillity, in the village of Colwall, which is 10 minutes from Ledbury or Malvern. We have our own working farm, with cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, and horses, all of which are part of the teaching and learning curriculum.
The Elms was founded in 1614, making us the oldest prep school in England still situated on its original site. We are an IAPS boarding and day school and pride ourselves on achieving excellent results to many Public Schools, both locally and across the UK. Despite being non-selective the school achieves consistently high standards academically.
A willingness to get involved in the wider community of school, including attending events, and attending school functions, as necessary, would be advantageous and welcomed.
Key Responsibilities:
We recognise the teachers at The Elms are responsible for meeting additional learning needs and the progress of all pupils in their classes. Our TAs have a different, but distinct, complementary role and contribution in helping our pupils become confident, competent, independent and successful learners.
It is the responsibility of the SENDCo to ensure TAs support the work of teachers and the school.
Timetables are regularly reviewed to ensure relevance and efficacy of deployment in meeting the needs of pupils across the school.
This role is a varied one, working across the school at the direction of the SENDCo, to support pupils with a variety of additional needs.
Role
TAs at The Elms are employed to support children in accessing their learning in class. The types of support that their role encompasses are detailed below. Responsibilities are closely linked to needs identified for individual / groups of pupils. The nature of the TA’s role will then depend on the type of support required – this is outlined below:
Support
• Provide support to children in class to focus, understand the parameters of a task or apply their prior knowledge.
• Support the teacher providing effective guidance to the children, which may be verbal or through listening.
• Provide additional input, as necessary.
• Work with children on tasks, which in turn allows the teacher to focus on a child needing further guidance.
Interventions
• Provide good quality interventions when a specific learning gap is identified in an individual or a small group of children.
• Work with the class teacher(s) to identify specific needs, with the help of data collated form standardised tests, as well as observations.
• Provide small group interventions to meet the needs of those not currently met using methods such as Quality First Strategies.
• Review these interventions and provide any necessary reports/updates to the SENDCo and relevant teachers.
• Collaborate with the SENDCo and teachers to create work patterns and assessments to guide and assess the interventions.
• Hold meetings with the SENDCo to discuss progress each half-term for the participants in each intervention, however, weekly communication is encouraged.
School responsibilities
• TAs, like all adults working at The Elms, have a responsibility to ensure the safeguarding of all children at The Elms. This includes reporting any pastoral concerns in line with the school’s policy and procedures, using the school’s systems.
• There are school duties, outlined by the Headmaster which are included in the role of TA at The Elms, including and not restricted to: lunch duties, break duties, lesson cover, assisting with sports, accompanying educational trips, and exam invigilation.
• Duties not identified by the Headmaster or not related to the timetabled support include, but are not restricted to: attending parents’ evenings, termly INSETs, administrative tasks, mounting displays, marking any other intervention works are not part of the TA role.
Person Specification
• Experience of working with children (essential).
• Experience of providing SEN interventions (essential).
• Excellent team player – work closely with children, parents and colleagues.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Is positive and solution-focused.
• Able to handle sensitive information and understands the importance of confidentiality.
• Accurate record keeping.
• Good sense of humour.
• Teaching or TA qualification.
The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment
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