I am one of three potential higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) at our school. Other than that we have four full-time and four part-time teaching assistants (TAs), supporting about 300 pupils. TAs aren't attached to a particular teacher or particular children, apart from allocated hours for those who are statemented. We tend to cover the need as it arises.
Fortunately, the school has been very supportive of continuing professional development for us: they even supported me through my foundation degree at Leicester. I’m in my third year there now. They are prepared to take risks, which is good for us, as it opens up more opportunities. We’re also over-subscribed and it’s a very positive place to work.
I have been a paid TA for about four years now. I never expected to do this work. My previous life was as a bank employee. I tentatively took over the school library as an initial responsibility for about five hours a week. When this was singled out for improvement in an Ofsted report, things really took off for me. Also, the senior inspector saw me take a group of children for an activity and was very supportive and encouraging. In fact it was her who suggested I take this up as a full-time job. Once I was put in charge of the library I started to completely reorganise its resources. We now have a brand new building which houses both a library and a new information and communications technology (ICT) suite with an interactive whiteboard (which I use a lot!) and about 40 computers. I now take whole classes in this new ICT suite every Tuesday and Thursday, which I love doing. I see ICT as an excellent tool for aiding teaching and learning and I really enjoyed the ICT module on the foundation degree. I have now supported every ICT lesson this year to help the teachers and kids.
