Teaching Assistant - St Mary's CE Middle School, Puddletown

About the role

Teaching Assistant

Permanent role

Required to start: as soon as possible

St Mary’s CE Middle School, Puddletown, is seeking to appoint a Teaching Assistant to be part of our thriving school. The candidate will join our experienced and successful Inclusion Team working with a variety of pupils across both KS2 and KS3.

The successful applicant will have good communication skills, GCSE grade C or equivalent in English and Maths, a ‘can do’ attitude, the ability to be flexible and work in a self-motivated way and be committed to support children with their learning, behaviour and social/communication skills.

St Mary’s is proud to be part of the Wessex Multi Academy Trust, where you’ll be supported by experienced class teachers, the SENDCo and outside support agencies.

The post holder will work flexibly across our school in small groups and on an individualised basis. The needs of these pupils include ASC, ADHD, Dyslexia and Speech and Language needs. Experience with pupils who have Complex Communication Needs would be beneficial.

Main purpose:

• Responsible for working across a discrete range of pupil needs (e.g., students with an EHCP/SEN) and for the most part delivered on a one-to-one or small group basis.
• To promote individual pupils’ academic, social and emotional development through the development and implementation of programmes of interventions and support and in the provision of a stable, caring and supportive learning environment; to enable the pupil(s) to achieve their full learning potential and facilitate their personal, academic, social and moral development.
• Support pupils’ self-esteem, inclusion and behavioural development by meeting their pastoral needs.

Main responsibilities and duties

• To deliver 1:1 and small group interventions, with a focus on English and Maths.
• To assist the Class Teacher and Inclusion Department on meeting the individual outcomes for our pupils with SEN and whose who have an EHCP.
• To support the teaching and learning processes.
• To assist in the development, monitoring and evaluation of programmes of work.
• To assist in the preparation, organisation and maintenance of the pupil’s work and their equipment, including assistance with using assistive technology, making visual aids, chunk and adapt tasks, mount and display pupils’ work.
• To monitor academic, behaviour and attendance data in order to personalise support for pupils with SEN.
• To plan and deliver bespoke child-led activities in order to motivate and engage pupils in different learning experiences.
• To liaise with parents and other professional agencies in support of the identified pupil’s needs.
• To provide care and supervision of identified pupils during lessons and during some break/lunchtimes.
• To assist in the development of Provision Maps for pupils with special educational needs and contribute to these plans.

The post is for 32.5 hours per week across Monday to Friday.

There is the opportunity to have extra hours in our afterschool provision either before or afterschool if desired.

Further Information

Visits to the school are warmly welcomed and can be arranged by contacting Tori in the school office via email to [email protected]

The School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people; this is a commitment which we expect all staff and volunteers to share.

The successful candidate will be required to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check in line with the Governments safer recruitment guidelines.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

This role is UK based and your Right to Work will need to be established as part of the appointment process.

The pro rata salary shown is based on the number of hours and weeks worked and paid annual leave entitlement for an employee under 5 years’ service.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. The amendments to the ROA 1974 (Exceptions Order 1975, (2013 and 2020)) provide that when applying for certain jobs and activities, certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. The MOJ’s guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.

Keeping Children Safe in Education

The school will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check, and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children. All aspects of social media and internet searches will be conducted. As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimination, a person who will not on the appointment panel will conduct the searches and will only share information if and when findings are relevant and of concern.


The salary quoted is the annual salary for the position at the time of advert. The salary will be paid in equal monthly instalments and will be adjusted at the start of employment and again if leaving part way through the school year to ensure the correct salary is received for the work completed in an academic year.