Teaching Assistant

The Downs Malvern is a busy, vibrant and successful co-educational preparatory school for boarding and day children aged between 3 and 13 years, offering an outstanding preparatory education. The school is situated in extensive, beautiful and safe grounds on the Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills. The facilities are first class and we are able to offer each child a wide range of exciting and challenging opportunities

The Downs, Malvern provides its pupils with a first-class education in a secure, caring and disciplined environment where every pupil can fulfil their potential, academically, creatively, physically, socially and spiritually. Our School is committed to:

· providing a broad and balanced curriculum which values academic excellence but also attaches great importance to effort, enthusiasm and enjoyment in all areas of learning and activity

· promoting the welfare of every pupil by developing their confidence and self-esteem, giving them responsibility and opportunities to exercise leadership, helping them to develop mature attitudes, and preparing them for their senior schools and adult lives

· building a strong sense of community in which all feel valued and respected, where each has a contribution to make, and where there is a growing awareness of our common responsibility for the wider world in which we live, especially our environment.

While The Downs, Malvern is a school where Christian values, ideals and practice are considered to be important in implementing these aims and objectives, it also values diversity and warmly welcomes pupils of other faiths.

Our approach to learning at The Downs Malvern is to establish a secure and productive relationship between teachers and, pupils so that children acquire knowledge and very importantly, thinking skills and individual learning styles. From the first day in our Nursery, we encourage children to work imaginatively, expressing their own thoughts and ideas.

Class-based teaching starts at age three in the Nursery to the end of Year 2 when subject teaching is gradually introduced, until Years 6, 7 and 8, when specialist teachers teach all parts of the curriculum. In years 7 and 8 the pupils complete the TDM Baccalaureate by following the core academic subjects at ISEB Common Entrance or scholarship level, and also undergo assessments in the Creative and Performing Arts, Sports and Co-Curricular activities to ensure they develop a well-rounded and balanced approach to the final stages of their Prep school education. Children here have many opportunities to expand and develop their education outside the classroom in our idyllic rural surroundings and to take advantage of our wonderful facilities both at the prep school and those we access at Malvern College.

Lessons are delivered by talented teachers in well-resourced classrooms. We prepare our pupils to move on to a wide range of senior schools; a significant proportion of our children go on to Malvern College, although our programme of study does afford parents the flexibility of choice.

The Downs Malvern is part of the Malvern College Corporation. The Malvern brand is globally strong with sister schools in Qingdao, Chengdu, New Cairo, Hong Kong and Tokyo. In total, more than 4,400 pupils experience a transformational Malvern College education around the world. The Malvern College Family of Schools also includes thriving enterprise and guardianship companies, in addition to a well-established fundraising and alumni relations society. The Downs Malvern benefits from this global network of schools where expertise and best practice are routinely shared amongst like-minded colleagues.

Our school community is a vibrant one and staff are committed and enthusiastic; all applicants are encouraged to view our website on www.thedownsmalvern.org.uk