Teaching Assistant

We are currently looking for a Teaching Assistant to join Gidea Park Preparatory School and Nursery and work within our Reception Class supporting a pupil with a visual impairment. This is a full time, term time only role.

This unique opportunity would suit an energetic, passionate and driven individual who has a creative and dynamic outlook to education. We would like to hear from you if you have experience supporting children with visual impairments or if you possess a problem solving mindset that could be applied to education. This role would also suit someone with a drama, creative arts or sports background who has a can do attitude to support.

Starting in July 2024, the successful candidate should be passionate about education, teaching and children’s learning. You will be joining a great school and working alongside our very experienced teaching staff and SENCo.

We would like to hear from anyone who has a passion for education and supporting children. You must be willing to learn Braille as part of ongoing CPD in order to support the child and teachers. No prior experience of Braille or working with vision impairment is required.

Gidea Park Preparatory School and Nursery is an independent, co-educational day school for children aged 2 to 11, where pupils get the best start possible and learn in a happy and secure environment. Founded in 1917, we have been educating, nurturing and challenging children for over 100 years. Children are at the heart of everything we do; our small classes and school environment truly allow us to know our pupils as individuals and to tailor our teaching and curriculum accordingly. We have high expectations for our pupil’s academic progress and personal development and work closely with our parents to ensure that all our pupils get the very most from their time with us.

The School has an enviable academic record and a long tradition of sending pupils to grammar and selective independent schools. But there is a great deal more to Gidea Park than just academic success. We firmly believe that happy children make better progress and to achieve this, children need to be understood, listened to and valued.

This is a great opportunity for a passionate individual to work with a very able child who has a visual impairment. You will be supporting both in class and also closely supervising during break and lunch times, giving auditory communication to the child and ‘be their eyes’ in all environments around the school.

We would like to hear from you if you are able to;

• provide one to one support both in and out of lessons.
• assist and prepare resources to aid the learning, being creative in your approach. 
• work closely with class teacher, SENCo and VI specialist teachers. 
• maintain standards within lessons and support pupils of all ability.
• undertake a shared responsibility for health and safety.
• predict challenges that the child may encounter and show enthusiasm to help the child overcome them. 

In return we will offer you a friendly, welcoming place of work, a great team of staff and pupils who are well behaved and engaging. You will also learn from a team of highly qualified teachers developing skills that can be used in future roles.

As part of the Inspire Learning Group staff at Gidea Park Preparatory School and Nursery also benefit from;

• Competitive Salary, with annual reviews
• Childcare fee discount
• Annual leave inclusive of Bank Holidays with Annual leave increasing with service
• Pension scheme
• Refer a friend scheme up to £750
• Health plan that provides significant coverage such as optical, dental, dental accident, chiropody, therapy treatments and health club concession. Access to Doctor line from anywhere in the world, scanning such as MRI, CT and PET scan
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Westfield rewards (discounts from various high street and online outlets).

Please apply ASAP, we reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the date advertised. Interviews will take place on a rolling basis, as applications are received.

Interested candidates should send an application at the earliest possible time.

Gidea Park Preparatory School and Nursery is totally committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening, as all new staff will be subject to enhanced DBS clearance, identity checks, qualification checks and employment checks to include an exploration of any gaps within employment, two satisfactory references and registration with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).