SEN Teaching Assistant

Description

Are you passionate about truly making a difference in the lives of young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs?

Become an Eslander and start a truly rewarding career!

Salary: £21,279 to £23,908 per annum (dependent on experience)

Hours: Full time (Monday to Friday)

Become an Eslander and start a truly rewarding career!

Esland are driven to changing children's lives for the better by providing best-in-class specialist services. Esland schools support a number of vulnerable young people aged 8-18 years with SEMH.

Our Teaching Assistants (TAs) play a vital role working alongside our class teachers to support our amazing students to fulfil their potential and to develop their skills of independence.

Staff may work with individual students or small groups to assist them to access our broad balanced, fun, relevant and functional curriculum. Our students have a range of learning needs, and have all experienced trauma in their lives; these experiences mean that sometimes students present with some challenging behaviours.

The position is based at our SEN School in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

A successful SEN Teaching Assistant will:

Have an awareness of how to meet the needs of primary and secondary aged children who have experienced difficulty in accessing mainstream education.
Have an awareness of additional SEND needs which impact on children's ability to self-regulate - communication and interaction; cognition and learning; sensory and physical needs.
Be inclusive, empathetic, solution focused and passionate about making a difference for our learners
Have an awareness of trauma informed practices and positive mental health promotion
Have a clear understanding of, and ability to, manage behaviour that challenges
Be a team player and a strong advocate for change, progression and continuous school improvement

Required skills, knowledge and abilities for a SEN Teaching Assistant:

Appropriate knowledge of first aid
Ability to relate well to children and adults
Work constructively as part of a team, understanding classroom roles and responsibilities and your own position within these
To have some knowledge of National Curriculum requirements.
Effective knowledge and use of ICT to support learning
Understanding of relevant polices/codes of practice and awareness of relevant legislation
Basic understanding of child development and learning
Ability to self-evaluate learning needs and actively seek learning opportunities
Working with or caring for children

Whilst this job description gives a reasonable overview of the post, it is not exhaustive, and the post holder will be expected to behave in a flexible manner and take on any other duties that may be reasonably delegated from time to time.

Successful employment is subject to satisfactory Full Enhanced Disclosure, right to work and reference checks in line with government regulations and Safer Recruitment Practices.

All young people are equally entitled to have their needs met in a fair and balanced way. Esland employees are responsible for promoting equal opportunities for all and for challenging any behaviour or practice which discriminates against any young person or colleague on the grounds of race, religion, disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, or any other perceived difference.

What we can offer a SEN Teaching Assistant:

Commitment to continued professional development
A supportive, inclusive working environment
A competitive salary
Enrolment into Esland pension scheme
Comprehensive, paid induction training and ongoing training within the role
Fantastic opportunities for career development, we promoted over 50 colleagues last year
Cycle to work scheme
A £500 bonus via our 'Refer a Friend' scheme
Monthly recognition awards
Access to big-brand deals and discounts via our employee benefits scheme E-Together
The opportunity to make a real difference to a child's life!

About Esland
With over 35 years of residential childcare experience, the Esland group now has more than 65 residential children's and assessment homes, and five schools, that are spread across the Kent, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, West Midlands and Northamptonshire regions of England.
This also includes our Esland online school accessible to children throughout the UK which helps to deliver education to children missing education by utilising our specialised Turning the Curve education programme.
With over 700 team members and over 200 young people supported we strive to help our children achieve their very best outcomes, through our bespoke residential care, education, therapeutic and activity-led wraparound services.