Careers: Teaching assistant

What do teaching assistants do?
The role of teaching assistant varies from school to school. Schools are not required to employ teaching assistants, except in cases where a child with learning difficulties or special needs is required to have one-on-one assistance in a classroom.

Teaching assistants may support one pupil or a group of children, or support the teacher with a whole class. They may also specialise in an area such as numeracy, English as an additional language, or special educational needs. Teaching assistants can work in nurseries – where they are known as foundation stage teaching assistants – primary and secondary schools, special schools or independent schools.

Under the supervision of the classroom teacher their role could include planning, delivering and evaluating teaching and learning activities; preparing the classroom for lessons; helping pupils who need extra support and looking after children who are upset or have had accidents. Teaching assistants will not lead lessons but may supervise a class if the teacher is temporarily unavailable. ?

What can the role lead to?
The role of higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) was introduced in 2003. Teaching assistants looking to achieve HLTA status need the support of the head teacher and funding, which can be accessed from the local authority, the school, or the teaching assistant themselves. Higher level teaching assistants can take classes under the direction of the teacher and supervise other support staff.

The government has made funding available for every secondary school to recruit HLTAs specialising in maths or science. Some teaching assistants go on to train as teachers. ?

What qualifications and skills are needed?
There are no mandatory qualifications for the role of teaching assistant but local authorities and individual schools can decide on the criteria a candidate must meet. Teaching assistants need to have an ability to build good working relationships with both pupils and adults. They should have good literacy and numeracy skills and the ability to deal with challenging behaviour.

Higher level teaching assistants require a nationally recognised qualification at Level 2 or above in English or literacy and mathematics or numeracy, and must be assessed to show that they ?meet HLTA standards.?

What training is available?
Once employed, teaching assistants can undertake the Level 2 certificate in supporting teaching and learning in schools, the Level 3 award in supporting teaching and learning in schools and the Level 3 diploma in specialist support for teaching and learning in schools. The government last month launched a £500,000 special needs scholarship programme for school support staff including teaching assistants. Applications to the programme close on 17 May.

What are the hours and pay like?
Teaching assistants usually work during school hours, in term-time, although staff meetings, training, and school outings ?could mean occasionally working outside school hours.

There is no national pay scale, with wages set by individual local authorities. Salaries for full-time teaching assistants can vary from £12,000 to more than £17,000 a year, while salaries for full-time higher level teaching assistants can be between £16,000 and £21,000 a year. However, teaching assistants are often employed under term-time contracts, which means they are not paid during the holidays, and many work part-time, often under hourly rates.

Sarah Peters, national officer for education and children’s services at union Unison, says teaching assistants have been particularly hit by public sector pay freezes. “The government gave provision for school staff earning below £21,000 to receive a £250 supplement following the pay freeze but in general, teaching assistants have not received this,” she says. ?

How is the role being affected by policy changes?
According to Peters, the move towards academy schools has affected teaching assistants: “There have been some redundancies in academy schools where they are coping with the ramifications of changes in how the schools are managed.”

School support staff workforce development was previously the remit of the Training and Development Agency for Schools but from April 2012 this passed to the Teaching Agency, a new executive agency of the Department for Education.

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