SEN Teaching Assistant - No Experience Necessary

SEN Teaching Assistant – no experience necessary – Aurora Ivy Lane School

Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire  

Salary: £11.72 - £12.78 per hour, depending on qualifications and experience (£19,370.70 to £21,122.66 actual salary)

Hours: 37 hours per week – Term Time Only 

Aurora Ivy Lane School

Aurora Ivy Lane School is a 'Good' (Ofsted, October 2023) rated innovative provider of specialist education, supporting young people aged 11 - 19 with complex needs including autism, moderate and severe learning disabilities; speech, language, communication and interaction needs and behaviours that can challenge.

Our class sizes are small (up to 8 students), highly supported by some great Teaching Assistants (typically 1:1) and experienced class teachers and complimented by a superb therapy team.

We’re currently looking for a number of SEN Teaching Assistants. Whilst previous experience isn’t essential, the ability and desire to build a professional & trusted relationship with our young people is.

The Role / Key duties:

As our new Teaching Assistant, your role will be to support our children with their learning and general wellbeing to ensure every child has the best opportunity to reach their full potential in a caring and safe environment.

Where necessary this may include supporting with care needs from time to time, as well as following plans to ensure each child’s needs are met through positive behaviour management and personalised approaches to meeting sensory and communication needs.

You will be expected to establish a warm, caring and supportive relationship with pupils in order to support them in feeling safe and enabling them to enjoy and learn during their time at the school. As part of a committed team including a range of professionals, you will work to promote and encourage independence and personal development in pupils and maintain high expectations of behaviour at all times.

You will support the class teacher and contribute to providing high quality, challenging and differentiated educational activities and experiences through supporting the teaching of a broad and balanced curriculum aiming at pupils achieving their full potential in all areas of learning. 

Like many SEN environments, your duties are likely to vary and therefore candidates will need to be flexible and be able to lend a hand whenever required. Please see the attachments for our full job description

Skills and Qualifications

Successful candidates are likely to demonstrate:

Essential:

• GCSE Maths and English Level 2/C or equivalent
• Ability to adapt
• The desire to put our pupils first and treat them as individuals
• Be positive and creative in assisting to meet pupils’ individual needs 
• Ability to follow plans and work professionally and effectively alongside a range of professionals.

Desirable:

• Experience working with SEN in an employed or voluntary setting 
• A willingness to undertake training/ CPD including working towards a level 3 TA qualification as required. Please note, the level 3 TA qualification and other relevant courses will be fully funded and supported by the school.
• A willingness to complete and follow initial training/ CPD on safeguarding, supporting learning and the needs of children with SEND. 

Benefits and Additional Information

What’s on offer? 

• Training and Development

Within Aurora, we strongly believe that learning and development should not be limited to just the children and young people we support. We offer wide range of programmes and opportunities to all our employees to improve your skills and further your career. 

• Save money on your bills!

With the rising cost of living, we offer a fantastic benefit through Perkbox to help with cutting costs and help make your money go further. Perkbox is a free app for you to use on the go wherever you are. You can get deals and discounts to save money on things like your weekly food bill, phone plans, internet, eating out, gym memberships, insurance and more. You can also use Perkbox for our cycle to work scheme and car scheme. 

• Competitive Pay and Reward

Every year we compare the market rates of pay and rewards to insure they are comparable to or better tha other similar organisations. We also offer Enhanced Annual Leave, Company Sick Pay, Enhanced Pension scheme and Life Assurance.

• UK Health Cash Plan

This plan can help cover your day-to-day healthcare expenditure such as optician and dental bills. You and your children are covered on this plan, and you can also choose to upgrade and add a partner to enjoy the benefits with you.

• Employee Assistance Programme

Your health and wellbeing is very important to us and we have support available on a wide variety of issues, helping you with online tools, information and via a freephone counselling service available 24/7. 

• Free Lunch!

We offer an optional free lunch to staff each day in our school canteen with a range of hot and cold options (to be consumed in the canteen area only).

• Refer a friend for £1,000

We’ll reward you for recommending friends and family to come and join the company (*terms apply)

How to apply? 

Please complete a full online application form. If you would like assistance in completing this application form or more information on this position or even to arrange a visit to the school prior to applying, please contact Kirsty in the Recruitment Team at kirsty.wilkinson@the-aurora-group.com 

Successful applicants will be subject to pre-employment safeguarding checks including an enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) check.

The post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Aurora Group is therefore permitted to ask job applicants to declare all convictions and cautions (including those which are "spent" unless they are "protected" under the DBS filtering rules) in order to assess their suitability to work with children.

The Aurora Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children and young adults in our care and is a disability confident and equal opportunities employer.

This advert could be taken down at any point in time without prior notice if the position is filled. 

Please note that candidates that are shortlisted might be subject to an online search.