Qualifications, skills & experience required

A degree is not required to work as a Teaching Assistant, however, if you do have one it will provide you with an advantage.

Depending on the type of Teaching Assistant role you may need to have certain qualifications such as NNEB for nursery work and CACHE Level 3. It would also be helpful to have knowledge of the Primary education sector as well as the following:

• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills
• Strong track record of raising levels of achievement and motivation
• Ability to build strong relationships with children and parents
• Support pupils to make progress through providing personalised experiences
• Ability to remain patient and calm
• Have excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Be passionate, energetic and patient
• Have creativity skills to design materials and activities
• A valid DBS
• The right to work in the UK
• A minimum of two references

Key responsibilities

Your duties will depend on your experience, training and TA status but will generally involve:

• Helping and supporting children who need extra guidance to complete tasks. This can be either a one-to-one basis or in small groups 
• Supporting the class teacher prepare for lessons and with administrative tasks such as preparing classroom resources and clearing away afterwards 
• Supervising group activities 
• Managing challenging pupil behaviour 
• Making sure that the pupils that you support are able to engage in learning and stay on task during the lesson or activity 
• Supporting the social and emotional development of pupils (i.e. those who are upset or had accidents), reporting any issues as necessary 
• Guiding and monitoring pupil progress 
• Providing support outside of the normal classes, such as helping during exams, covering absences or going on school trips 
• Co-ordinating specific areas of teaching support once you have the right level of experience