Features

My working life…Teaching assistant

Gabriella Jozwiak discovers that the varied role of a teaching assistant can encompass everything from photocopying to exam prep and long division

CATRIONA CLARK is a teaching assistant (TA) at Chieveley Primary School in West Berkshire. She works four days a week providing teaching and classroom support to children aged from ten to 12 years old in Year Six.

‘My eight-year-old son is a pupil at Chieveley,’ she says. ‘After dropping him off, my day begins at 8.45am. Each day is different as I work responsively to the children’s needs. I check my timetable and get to work immediately.

‘Most primary schools teach maths and literacy in the morning when children have more energy to concentrate. I sit with a child or group of children who need additional support to ensure they understand what the teacher is saying. The teacher may have identified the pupils as being slightly behind their peers through testing, gaps in their homework or noticing they don’t respond to questions in class.

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