Teaching Assistant - Term Time - Special Needs Position

Are you looking for a new challenge? Are you passionate about supporting children and young people with their development and learning? Are you keen to develop new skills? Come and join our fantastic Foreland Fields School team.
Our pupils and students have a wide range of needs, including difficulties with communication, learning, physical and sensory development as well as medical and care needs. All pupils and students have either severe or profound learning difficulties and many also have a diagnosis of autism. Classes are needs led and pupils and students follow personalised learning journeys along different curriculum pathways, depending on their individual needs. We have a number of Deaf/Hearing Impaired students across the school who are supported by a Teacher of the Deaf and a team of support staff with BSL qualifications.
We wish to appoint a Teaching Assistant to work across the school. We are looking for a team member who is driven to create a nurturing environment where our children and young people can thrive. We would be particularly interested in applicants who can demonstrate knowledge and understanding of early child development, particularly how children at the earliest stages of development learn through play and intensive interaction.
Teaching Assistants are appointed to the whole school and may be required to work with any age group or pathway, so that we can meet the complex needs of our pupils and students. This includes working within our satellite classes at Garlinge Primary School, Hartsdown Academy and East Kent College.
Teaching Assistants working hours are from 8.30am until 3pm, apart from Thursdays where the finish time is 2.45pm on alternate weeks and 4.45pm on other weeks to accommodate essential training.
We provide all staff with a full week of induction training, which includes Moving and Handling, Communication, Pool Evacuation, Behaviour and Safeguarding Training. We are committed to providing aspirational outcomes for all our students and we provide regular specialist training for all staff, throughout their careers at Foreland Fields School. Essential training for Teaching Assistants takes place on Thursdays after school and all staff are required to attend this as well as 5 INSET days per year.

Foreland Fields School is a Day Special School for pupils with Profound, Severe and Complex Needs (PSCN), many of whom also have Autistic Spectrum Disorder. As such, Foreland Fields pupils and students have a wide range of needs, including difficulties with communication, learning, physical and sensory development as well as medical and care needs. All pupils and students have either severe or profound learning difficulties and many also have a diagnosis of autism. Classes are needs led and pupils and students follow personalised learning journeys along different curriculum pathways, depending on their individual needs. We have a number of Deaf/Hearing Impaired students across the school who are supported by a Teacher of the Deaf and a team of support staff with BSL qualifications.
We provide for 200+ pupils aged 3-19 in five different pathways. In addition, we have satellite classes at Garlinge Primary School, Hartsdown Academy and East Kent College.
We encourage all of our employees to further their career development and we respect initiative and ambition. We are committed to performance management, staff training and coaching. The successful candidate will embrace the special ethos of the School, and the role will provide an opportunity to take Foreland Fields School into this next exciting phase and beyond.
Foreland Fields School is committed to the safeguarding and well-being of children therefore all successful candidates will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check and references. We will also complete an online search on all shortlisted candidates.
Please note, candidates will be shortlisted & invited to interview, as we receive applications.
Teaching Assistants working hours are from 8.30am until 3pm, apart from Thursdays where the finish time is 2.45pm on alternate weeks and 4.45pm on other weeks to accommodate essential training.