Sharon Caress is a teaching assistant at Spalding Sir John’s Gleed School. In the second of the school’s monthly columns in The Voice, Sharon shares a day in the life of a teaching assistant.
I have been a teaching assistant at the school for 11 years.
Like all good “going to schoolers”, I get ready for school the night before!
I check my bag, make sure my planner is in the right place and make a start on my own to do list; any wardrobe issues take place the night before school…that’s it I’m good to go. Every morning starts with a breakfast at home. My working day starts with a cup of extra strong coffee on arrival to school, then it’s on with emails which can sometimes take a while so I like to be in extra early…especially on Mondays, when I need to get a head start on my “to do” list!
I am a year 7 (11-12 year olds) form tutor. My tutees are great and I always look forward to hearing about their weekends.
Tutor time is a brilliant way to start the working day. The students are pleased to see me in the mornings and as I make my way to form room, I am greeted along the corridors and up the stairs with lots of “Hey Miss, how are you?”
I check that my tutees all have the required equipment for their lessons and that they are dressed correctly, both of these measures lead to good behaviour for learning.
I also make sure that my tutees have their merit cards to hand because this shows their teachers and peers that they are expecting to achieve. Pastoral roles such as this are vital to the development of young people.
I look forward to being their form tutor through to year 11 and being able to share in their successes.
Form time is also a time to tackle any attendance issues.
Research shows that missing six days every term every year equates to missing a whole school year…scary thought!
My days and weeks always fly by with five lessons a day.
The subject areas I mostly work in are History and Religious Studies although I can appear in almost any curriculum area.
Working as a teaching assistant means that I get to spend time with some amazingly talented youngsters. However, my job is not without challenges, they are numerous every day, but there is also a good measure of humour thrown into the day – some of the students I work with are just brilliant at making my day…they know who they are!
Young people can face a variety of barriers to learning, and as young people it can be a daunting task to even recognise the barriers let alone remove them.
This is where I can help. Sometimes I work directly with students as a 1:1 support or with small groups in the classroom. Other times by sharing ideas and careful planning with subject teachers or a combination of both.
Sometimes I cover subject specific lessons, this involves the planning and delivering of lessons.
Of course all of this means that no two days are ever the same, this is another huge advantage; no chance of boredom setting in…there really isn’t time for that. There is also always something new for me to learn. This can be a new strategy, topic related or something I learn about myself.
Another privilege of working with young people is that there are plenty of extra curricular activities to be a part of and for some students this is where they really do get the opportunity to shine in their own right.
I consider these activities for some students to be pivotal in enhancing their ability to achieve in their studies; quite simply for some students, they may just need to build good working relationships with the adults they spend their days with or have the opportunity to increase their friendship circles.
I also believe that it is important for the students to see that the adults they work with care enough about them and their futures to go that little bit extra…it’s not just a job!
I know for a fact that the students at our school are the future of our community.
I tend to think that if I can make a difference to just one person’s day, help them to turn things around and achieve, then that’s it, job done for the day…tomorrow I will start over when it gets here.
I am amazed at how quickly time this academic year has gone, and now my attention is beginning to focus on the summer exam season with our current year 11s.
Some of the year 11s have already started to ask me for revision techniques and just general exam advice.
I am always happy to share techniques and advice with the students and I always hope that they pay attention to it! Then it will be farewell to the year 11s with leavers books to sign and the annual prom to attend (I am always happy to see them moving on to new adventures but this can be a little bit sad too) all at the same time as making plans for our next cohort of students who, as always, I look forward to meeting.
To summarise; it’s very simple, I consider myself to be very fortunate, I love my job.
I would encourage anyone who likes working with young people to consider working as a teaching assistant in a school – come and try it just for a day!
