Teaching Assistant

Aims

Work with and under the direction of the teacher to support children’s learning.

Key Areas of Responsibility

● Support classroom management and assist with general administration – this will cover planning the learning environment, preparation for activities, classroom administration and resources as well as working with ICT in the classroom.  In particular, involvement with all aspects of the Games Curriculum in Years 1 to 6 supporting coaching the children across a wide range of sports and taking an active role in fixtures.   

● Help manage pupil behaviour – this will include playground monitoring and interventions to remind children of school rules and minor upsets; it will not cover serious disciplinary matters which are for the teaching staff.

● Support pupils’ health, safety and emotional and social development – this covers safety and security management and immediate responses to accidents and emergencies as well as providing comfort and assistance to children in integrating into the social fabric of the school.

● Establish relationships with children as learners – this covers interpersonal relationships to establish the trust and respect of individuals and groups within the school.    Help to monitor and assess pupil progress – this will include feeding back to teaching staff within clear frameworks for both educational and emotional development.

● Help pupils to access the curriculum – this covers assisting with the planning and evaluation of learning activities, helping children to stay on task and/or providing specific support to those with special needs, for example assisting a dyslexic child with writing; it also covers providing support for particular areas of the curriculum, for example in literacy or numeracy.

● Supporting the development and effectiveness of team work – will cover effective team working within the school environment and the maintenance of effective relationships.

● Work with other professionals – this will cover the interactions and relationships with other professionals and agencies associated with the school and may be particularly important in relation to work with special needs children.

● Liaise effectively with parents – this will include dealing with communications to and from parents and participating in feedback sessions.

TAs may take a group of children out of the classroom to work, away from their teachers.   TAs may occasionally be timetabled to take responsibility for a class.   In an emergency however a TA paid on the UQ Teacher scale may be asked to provide short-term cover.  An extra allowance is paid subsequently in recognition of this.  However, the teacher remains responsible for the planning and organisation even in her/his absence.

It is important for the teacher and TA to have planning and discussion time each week.  In the Pre-Prep this usually occurs informally after “home time”.