Teaching Assistant

Molehill Primary Academy has a fantastic opportunity to appoint an enthusiastic and motivated Teaching Assistant to join our highly collaborative and supportive team, starting from September 2024. Our Teaching Assistants are pivotal to our success in the classroom and provide a great deal of support for our teachers, therefore our successful candidate will be able to establish strong working relationships with staff and students alike. Key responsibilities will be to provide pupils with a wide range of support, guided by the Class Teacher, to enable children to make progress and attain the targets set within the National Curriculum or Individual Education Plans.

In return we can offer you:

• The opportunity to help shape our future by joining a LAT Academy
• A school community committed to raising achievement and attainment
• A supportive Governing Body and Leadership Team

Our academy is a happy, caring and secure community which offers a stimulating learning environment. By developing potential and self-esteem we help everyone to become a unique, responsible, considerate and successful individual.

By learning together we:

• foster a lifelong love of learning.
• provide a range of intellectual, physical and creative activities.
• nurture spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness.
• develop lively, enquiring minds.
• promote respect, responsibility and self discipline.
• build self-esteem and a sense of community.

This is a permanent opportunity offering an actual salary of £17,160 per annum (£22,714 full time equivalent) per annum based on 32.5 hours per week, Term Time + 1 week of inset.

Please note that interviews for this position will take place in September, when our Academy returns after the summer break.

Click here to see what our pupils have to say about Molehill Primary Academy.

Working at Molehill Primary Academy: At Molehill Primary Academy we have created a culture that enables both pupils and staff to thrive and achieve their very best. The Academy was opened in 1954 to serve the southern part of the Shepway Estate and the roads leading to it. It caters for boys and girls from the age of three to eleven years. It stands on beautiful grounds which we have specifically developed to aid curriculum studies.

Relationships between staff at all levels, and the children, are highly positive and this creates a warm and vibrant atmosphere in lessons and during social times. With the support and guidance of leaders, teachers provide well-organised, calm and purposeful classrooms in which children can enjoy their learning challenges. The positive and caring ethos at Molehill is combined with a clear, relentless focus and an ambition that all pupils can and will achieve well, regardless of their different starting points. Teachers have embedded a culture of high expectations; we will all do whatever it takes to create better life opportunities for our pupils, they deserve the very best. We help support and develop one another in an open and supportive environment. This extends across the Trust, allowing us to work with other academies, either within the cluster or further afield, whilst still maintaining our own personality and driving our own priorities.

To enhance our curriculum delivery, we are an academy for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), an IB World School. This is an inquiry led framework that develops independent learners and posits personal success as essential for academic achievement, and learners who continue to thrive. We employ conferencing, high quality learning conversions and scaffolding with no written feedback, as our evaluation and feedback approach.

Here's what Ofsted said:

 ‘Leaders have designed a broad and highly ambitious curriculum meticulously. They have extremely high expectations of what pupils will achieve.‘ Ofsted 2023

‘Staff have high expectations of all pupils and ensure they all access the same high-quality curriculum. Teachers regularly check what pupils know and respond quickly to pupils’ needs using a wide range of approaches’ Ofsted 2023.

Here's what Challenge Partners said:

“Relationships between pupils and staff are strong and contribute to pupils' excellent attitude and behaviour”

“Pupils enjoy learning”

“Pupils are encouraged to develop and share their ideas. They are highly reflective about their strengths and aware of their next steps.”

Molehill Primary Academy has been successful in authorisation as an IB World School for the Primary Years Programme. These are schools that share a common philosophy: a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Molehill Primary Academy believes is important for our students. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org.

Molehill Primary Academy was recently awarded with Artsmark Gold and the International School Award - Intermediate Level.

Being part of Leigh Academies Trust: As of 1st April 2024, our Trust comprises 32 geographically organised academies (16 secondaries, 14 primaries and 2 special) educating more than 20,000 students and employing 3,000 talented staff. Nearly 40% of our academies are judged outstanding overall by Ofsted, versus 15% nationally. The Trust is establishing four ‘clusters’ of academies: North Kent; Central Kent; South East London; Medway. In addition, the Trust is responsible for one of the region’s biggest initial teaching training organisations, a large teaching school hub and is an accredited apprenticeship provider. Our future plans are found in our Vision 2030 document available on our website.

As part of Leigh Academies Trust, you will have ample opportunity to collaborate with your peers both within the academy and across the whole Trust. This is an important part of our vision as we know through experience that we perform better when we work together. You are supported to undertake regular self-development to continue your professional development and hopefully progress further within the organisation.

Click here to view the benefits available to all LAT employees from day one.

Our commitment to safeguarding: Leigh Academies Trust and all of our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our pupils, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We adopt a fair, robust and consistent recruitment process across all academies and business units which is inline with Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. This includes online checks for shortlisted candidates - you can read more about this in our Recruitment Guidance. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check.