Learning Support Assistant

£20,658 FTE

37 hours per week, 39 weeks per year

Full Time, Fixed term

Inspire their remarkable with us

Disruption free classrooms? Polite and respectful students? A supportive and highly visible SLT? Join Kingsley Academy, fast becoming one of the most impressive schools in the country.

Kingsley Academy has undoubtedly had a chequered past, since opening as an academy in April 2013. Poor Ofsted inspections, low exam results and a high turnover of staff meant that our school never realised its potential. However in February 2019, our current Headteacher joined the academy, and our school has been through an impressive renaissance. In just 12 months, our school has completely transformed and is unrecognisable. We are now an Ofsted ‘Good’ school for the first time in our school’s history. Inspectors visited in October 2019 and stated that ‘the school has rapidly transformed in a short period of time, behaviour is consistently strong and a culture of respect, collaboration and mutual support permeates the school’.

About our school:

At Kingsley Academy, we believe in morally driven education, and our staff and students model our academy ‘DNA’. The Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team are highly visible, proactive and ‘walk the talk’. They teach key exam groups, and ‘own’ whole school behaviour and culture. We operate a centralised approach towards behaviour. This means that we do not expect our teachers to have to run detentions or make negative phone calls home. That is all done centrally by the Senior and Pastoral teams. Our staff and students deserve disruption free classrooms, every lesson, every day and we support our teachers to make this a reality. Want to see what this looks like in reality? Then take a look at our school tour, which shows a typical day at the academy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWflMm0kUJQ&t=1s

At Kingsley staff work hard, but we work in a collaborative, open and supportive way. We invest in staff development and work with colleagues to overcome any barriers or challenges that they may face.

An absolute strength of our school are our students. Visitors to our school (including supply teachers on the rare occasion that they visit) comment on our students’ polite and respectful attitudes, impressive behaviour and thirst for learning. Low level disruption is extremely rare and our students are committed to their learning. We believe in disruption free classrooms, every lesson, every day.

Our aim is to establish Kingsley as ‘a school at the heart of our community, developing knowledge, ambition and kindness to prepare students for success at university and the world beyond’. We are passionate about achieving social justice for our students and believe firmly that it should not be about where you come from that determines how successful you are in life.

About the role:

An exciting position has become available for a Learning Support Assistant to join our thriving SEND team.  This is an excellent opportunity for a graduate who is considering moving into teaching eventually.  Ideally we would be interested in candidates with previous experience within a similar education or SEND setting.  You will be working closely with our teaching staff to ensure that you're supporting small intervention groups of students as well as working one on one on occasion.

We are seeking someone who is: 

• Passionate about working with SEND students 
• Has high levels of integrity 
• Hard working and solution focused 
• A team player and has a sense of humour 
• Believes passionately in the transformative power of education to change students lives

In exchange, we can offer you: 

• A happy and harmonious school community, where staff are valued and respected (in our most recent staff survey 96% of staff said that they enjoy working at the school) 
• A centralised behaviour system - no detentions, no negative phone calls home! 
• A sensible approach to meetings - if they don’t need to happen, we don’t have them.. 
• A dedicated staff wellbeing co-ordinator and working party 
• A centralised approach to planning, to ensure that we are all sharing our resources and minimising workload 
• A strong professional learning offer, with pathways to middle leadership 
• A teaching Headteacher and Senior Team who walk the talk and are approachable, visible and proactive 
• An epic Christmas Party and Summer Barbecue!

If this sounds like a good fit, then we encourage you to apply for this fantastic role. Please note that we will be shortlisting on a rolling basis for this role and therefore reserve the right to close the advert early if required.

This post is fixed term until August 2022 and is required to commence November 2021.

Closing date: 31st October 2021

In line with our safeguarding practices we are unable to accept CV’s. Find your remarkable, apply today.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.  All candidates are advised to refer to the job description and person specification before making an application.

We are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate will be required for all posts. This post will be subject to enhanced checks as part of our Prevent Duty.

Academies Enterprise Trust embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.  Job share, part time and flexible working opportunities will be considered.  

We are a Disability Confident Employer and there is a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. 

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. Further details can be found on our careers page.

AET is recruiting for School Direct placements.  Please visit our website https://sites.google.com/aetinet.org/academies-enterprise-trust/work-at-aet/initial-teacher-training for further details.