SEND Teaching Assistant - Highcliffe St Mark Primary School

SEND Teaching Assistant

Do you have a passion for supporting children to learn and to be happy in school? Highcliffe St Mark Primary School has an exciting opportunity to join our staff team. We have a fixed term vacancy of one year for a Teaching Assistant to support children with additional needs. The position could be at 29.5 hours but we would also consider part time hours (term time only, plus some inset days) for the right candidate.

This role requires you to be proactive, to be able to think on your feet while remaining calm. It’s about providing just the right amount of support so that you are building independence through gentle encouragement and the knowledge that you are there to catch them if they need some help. Most importantly, we want you to care about our children; they get one chance at school and their primary years are so crucial to getting this right for life.  We want you to be motivated by their success, know that they learn when memorable experiences are created and need someone who has clear boundaries but is kind and caring. The role of Teaching Assistant is values highly in our school.

Your commitment is fundamental; you get from your career what you put into it and we want someone who will take a full and active part in school life.

The element of lunchtime supervision is vital to ensure the safety of our children and to help instil our school values at lunchtime so that children look after each other well, develop healthy, active lifestyles and are well cared for.

We can offer you specialist training, and a supportive welcoming staff team.

The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be required to have an Enhanced DBS check in line with the Government safer recruitment guidelines. We will also conduct an online background check.

Please contact Mrs C Barker (Headteacher) at Highcliffe St Mark Primary School, Greenways, Highcliffe, Christchurch, Dorset.

BH23 5AZ.  e-mail  [email protected]

Tel: 01425 273029     

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School values the diversity of our workforce and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community.

Highcliffe St Mark Primary 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.

The pro rata salary shown is based on the number of hours and weeks worked and includes appropriate paid annual leave and bank holiday entitlements.

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.

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

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

Highcliffe St Mark Primary 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.

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School

(A Church of England Foundation School)

“Learning for Life; Respect for all”

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School is situated in a quiet and popular residential area in the coastal location of Highcliffe in the borough of Christchurch.  We have strong links within our community and as a church school we have good connections with our church supporting and celebrating key events throughout the year.

Highcliffe St Mark Primary School is a three form entry school and presently there are 604 children on roll. All of our staff work together as a very supportive team who are continually striving for high standards of education for our children, whilst ensuring that a stimulating and varied curriculum is maintained. We provide a wide range of professional development opportunities for our staff and offer both internal and external additional training.

The school is housed in two separate buildings on a large site.  We are fortunate to have additional learning spaces such as a music and drama room, wildlife area and cookery room. Our extensive school grounds benefit from a small, all weather sports pitch, a good sized playing field, excellent wildlife and forest schools areas, a heated open air swimming pool and cricket nets and wicket. We like to use our grounds as a “classroom without walls” and encourage forest schools and other outdoor learning opportunities. Our playgrounds offer the children a variety of play and sporting experiences.

We provide wrap around care by offering breakfast and after school clubs and provide a wide variety of extra curricular activities. We additionally offer an exciting range of sporting clubs in close link with the sports partnership development.

We are proud of our close links with parents. Our parents are very supportive of both their children and the school’s activities.

We have good relationships and working partnerships with our main feeder pre-schools and Highcliffe School. We also have close links within The Christchurch Learning Partnership.

Our children have many opportunities to contribute to decision making in our school and to make a difference both in their local community and on a global scale. As a Church of England Foundation School we respect all individuals in a secure and caring environment based on our core Christian Values of Courage, Compassion and Respect.  We hold a bronze United Against Bullying Award and we are particularly proud of our children’s passion for the environment led by the Eco Action group and of our Green Flag status and platinum BCP environment award. We have very proactive pupil voice groups and our curriculum also embraces and encourages our children to be courageous advocates. We have achieved bronze Global Neighbours level through Christian Aid. We have also been awarded the Platinum School Games Mark award for commitment, engagement and delivery of competitive school sport 2023-2024. We have also been awarded the Music Mark for our varied and exciting musical opportunities within and beyond the curriculum.