Specialist Teaching Assistant (Woodfield Education Centre based at Carrington School)

We are looking for a Specialist Teaching Assistant to support a pupil with a visual impairment

"A cheerful warm welcome awaits pupils as they arrive at this school. This positive approach carries on throughout all activities during the day. Consequently, strong and trusting relationships between adults and pupils are built, and pupils say they feel safe in school" Ofsted, October 2022.

Woodfield School has entered an exciting phase of its development and has been working for the past year in partnership with Surrey County Council and Carrington School to provide a new special school satellite provision for pupils on roll at Woodfield School on the Carrington Secondary School site, the centre is known as Woodfield Education Centre at Carrington (WEC@C). WEC@C is staffed and managed by Woodfield School for pupils aged 11-16 years with identified Learning and Additional Needs / Moderate Learning Difficulties and co-occurring needs. Our ambition is to strengthen Woodfield and Carrington Schools' inclusion offer to all children and young people, therefore being of benefit to local communities, the two school populations and the Local Authority. This has already proven to be successful so far for the 2023 year 7 intake.

Our aim is to enable better long-term outcomes for all of our students as they prepare for adulthood and future employment.

WEC@C offers a unique learning environment for Woodfield School students who benefit from a bespoke and targeted provision across a mainstream setting whilst retaining the Woodfield culture, approach and specialist intervention which is proving to be successful for young people with SEND.

Our school is a happy place with increasing numbers. We are growing incrementally at Year 7 intake until we reach a PAN of 40. With 5 classes of 8 pupils respectively. We have high expectations for our pupils and are committed to collaborative working in order to achieve the best possible outcomes and to maximise their opportunities. We believe that education for our pupils is about preparation for life and feel very privileged to be able to support them to realise their potential.

We wish to recruit a Specialist Teaching Assistant to support a pupil with Vision Impairment to access their curriculum, learning and play. We are looking for someone who is confident, hardworking, and passionate about their work. We welcome applications from people with experience in supporting children and young people with SEND. If you already have experience in working with children and young people with visual impairment, this would be advantageous. An ability to work under guidance, use your own initiative, work alone and as part of a team is vital. You will be accepting of a variety of day-to-day challenges and communicate well with others. An ability to use technology to support your work with children and young people with VI is highly desirable. You will develop experience of working with children with visual impairment and possibly a wide variety of additional needs. You will be open to training opportunities that arise to help you develop
your skills further. You may be expected to undertake training in Braille, if you do not already hold this. You will be well supported in developing your skills to enable you to carry out your specialist role within the team. This could be the opportunity you have been looking for to take your career to the next level.

Fixed term contract

Woodfield School

Salary: S4 point 1, pro-rata starting salary £17,402 (FTE £24.275 - £25,993)

Hours: Monday, Tuesday & Wednesdays 8:30am - 3:05pm, Thursdays 8:30am - 3:20pm, Fridays 8:30am - 2:20pm with 30-minute lunch break / 39 weeks per year, term time only.

This position will initially be a fixed-term appointment until August 2028.