I've been a teaching assistant (TA) for six-and-a-half years. I have had previous experience as a child minder and used to help out at the pre-school. Before that I worked in a high street bank. I’m also a school governor and parent at the school, so have been quite involved. I’m now working towards qualified teacher status (QTS) as part of the registered teachers’ programme. I hope to complete this by July 2006.
I was given the opportunity to try the pilot higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) scheme while completing the third year of my foundation degree in teaching and learning. I saw it as another chance to get a qualification. It also gave me more encouragement to pursue my ambition of becoming a teacher. We were pretty much on our own as far as guidance was concerned, but the handbook provides most of the information you need. I think most TAs know far more about what they’re doing than they initially realise, so gathering evidence was ultimately quite easy.
