Higher Level Teaching Assistant – Level 4

Hours of Work: Negotiable – Monday to Thursday 8.40-15.40 (25 hours) OR Monday to Friday 8.40-15.40 (32.5 hours)

Contract Type: Permanent, term time only

Salary: Grade 4 £32,076 - £39,186 (FTE) plus £1628 SEN allowance (FTE) - pay award pending. • 25 hours – £19,209 – £23,467.13 (pro rata)• 32.5 hours – £24,971.96 – £30,507.27 (pro rata)

Start Date: Monday 6th January 2025

Enhanced DBS Check Required: Yes (adult and child)

Mayfield School is looking for a skilled and experienced higher level teaching assistant to join our growing team. Our school is a special school for 310 pupils aged between 2 and 19 with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities including autism. Mayfield is a Unicef Rights Respecting School on a journey to achieve gold status.

The school is split across two sites - Wheeler Street in Lozells (co-located with Holte School and Lozells Junior and Infant School and Nursery) and Heathfield Road in Handsworth. Successful applicants can be asked to work at either site depending on the needs of the school.

At Mayfield School, teaching assistants are valued and appreciated as the largest workforce group in our organisation. There are two higher level teaching assistants on each site who play a key role in leading interventions to support pupils to make good progress. This post will be based initially at Mayfield’s Heathfield Road site, leading pupil interventions relating to personal development, positive behaviour and inclusion. This is a joyful and rewarding job and one where you can really make a difference to the lives of young people and their families.

We are looking for experienced and qualified teaching assistants who are ready to take on additional responsibility for leading sessions with children and young people. The successful candidates will show initiative, be skilled communicators, be solution focused, will role model positive behaviours, will be efficient at record keeping and evidencing impact, will have significant experience of working directly with children or young people in a special school setting and will be willing to work with others as part of a strong team. Experience of leading social and communication interventions and experience of using Makaton, communicate in print and widget symbols is an advantage.

A recent welbee staff survey showed Mayfield as being in the top 20% of schools showing that risks of work-related stress and staff wellbeing are effectively managed and controlled. Our teaching assistants tell us that they value the in-house training offered by the school and welcome the professional development opportunities available to them.

This post will involve working with pupils who have persistent differences with social interaction, social communication and understanding emotions and may have fleeting engagement. Our pupils need clear boundaries and consistent support with engagement, learning, emotional regulation, sensory needs and positive behaviours.

Special school experience and a dedication to securing positive outcomes for all pupils is necessary for this post. Please read the person specification carefully before deciding whether to apply.

We are proud to be part of Education Impact Academy Trust where "better never ends".

In addition to the salary, we offer a benefits package for all employees through BSHF and regular opportunities for professional development and growth through the school and as part of the Trust.

If you are determined, ambitious, hardworking and you meet our requirements, then we would love to hear from you.

The trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of students and expect all staff to share this commitment. Successful candidates will be subject to all necessary pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS, Childcare Disqualification (where applicable), qualifications, medical fitness, identity and right to work. All applicants will be required to provide two suitable references. An online search (and a prohibition check for teachers) will also be carried out as part of due diligence on all short-listed candidates.

To read a copy of our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy please click on the link below:

Policies (educationimpact.org.uk)

To read our policy on the Recruitment of Ex-Offenders please click on the link below:

Policies (educationimpact.org.uk)

This post is covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent English is an essential requirement of the role.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020, which means that when applying for certain jobs and activities certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account.

Further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide:

DBS filtering guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

How to apply:

Please apply online: https://educationimpact.org.uk/jobs (or scroll to the bottom of this page)

Closing Date: Monday 25th November 2024 at 8.30am

Interview date: Wednesday 4th December 2024

Please note that only Trust application forms will be accepted. We will not read accompanying Curriculum Vitaes (CV’s) or accept them instead of an application form.

If you have not heard from us two weeks after the clos