Teaching Assistant Course

Do you want to work with children? Keen to help them grow into all they can be? Then this is the right course for you, as it covers a wide range of topics from supporting the teacher and the child to special needs and wider school support.

This course is ideal for anyone who would like to work with children as a Teaching Assistant or Classroom Assistant.

The course is structured in bite sized sections so that learning can easily fit into your busy day. Plus, your tutor is also available to help whenever you require it. So Start Learning today! The aims of the course is to provide comprehensive knowledge and skills appropriate to the conduct of a classroom support role, and to participate in a wide range of classroom support activities

Distance Learning Support

At Start Learning we pride ourselves on our friendly and supportive tutors. Your tutor support will start as soon as you receive your course and will be valid for 12 months. All our tutors are highly qualified with extensive experience in supporting distance learning students. You contact your tutor via email and they are responsible for marking assignments answering your questions and guiding you through the course.

Home Study Entry Requirements

At Start Learning we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and study further, so we try to keep our entry requirements to a minimum.

Recommended Hours of Study

We recommended you spend approximately 110 hours of your time studying for the Teaching Assistant course. The pace of study is completely up to you. To give an example, if you dedicate 2 hours a week to the course it would take you a year to complete but if you could spare 4 hours a week you could complete it in six months.

Distance Learning Course Contents

To download the course pack click here.

Unit 1 - The Learning Environment: The Role of the Teaching Assistant - Working in partnership with the teacher - Supporting inclusion - Equality of opportunity - Anti-discrimination - Celebrating diversity - Promoting Independence – Confidentiality - Continuing Professional Development - Expectations of the role - Teaching Assistants – General Level One - Support for Pupils - Support for the Teacher - Support for the Curriculum - Support for the School - Job description review and appraisal - Framework for a job description - Self-review and Performance review meeting - Guide for self-review and self-evaluation for Teaching assistants.

Unit 2 - Supporting Classroom Practices: Social and Emotional Development - The five broad social and emotional aspects of learning - Self-awareness - Managing feelings – Motivation – Empathy - Social skills - The stages of social and emotional development - Influences which affect child development - Influences on child development - Signs of emotional distress - Effects of emotional distress - Some causes of emotional distress in pupils - How to support and encourage children to express emotions - Encourage responsibility - Self expression - Appropriate methods which help pupils recognise and express emotions - Circle time sessions - Structure of circle time sessions - Handling sensitive and controversial issues - The school policies on Confidentiality - Observing and Recording - Observe the performance of individual pupils or groups of pupils - The purpose of observation - Planning the observation - Methods of observation - Event sampling.

Unit 3 - Supporting Literacy and Numeracy: Suggested Assessment Tasks - Supporting the Development of Reading Skills - The factors which affect literacy development - National and community factors - Home factors - School factors - Classroom factors - Personal factors - Cognition and learning - Communication and interaction - Behaviour, emotional and social development - Sensory and physical needs - Strategies to support literacy development - Teaching techniques - Language enrichment - Explaining - Investigation - Special equipment and resources - Modelling - Repeating - Differentiation - The stages of reading skills development - The general stages of reading development: Early Emergent readers; Emergent readers; Early Fluent readers; Fluent readers - The cues and strategies used by learners as they develop reading skills.

Unit 4 - Supporting the use of Information and Communication Technology: Preparation and Maintenance of ICT Equipment - Using ICT to support learning skills - Planning which ICT resources and equipment to use - What ICT equipment is available? - Whole-class teaching tools - The role of the teaching assistant - The availability and working condition of ICT equipment - Checking the availability: An ICT Co-ordinator - Setting up ICT equipment - Reporting faults with the ICT equipment - Fault reporting - Services which might be available include: Accessories, consumables and software - Safety instructions relating to ICT equipment and its use - Which safety issues need considering? - Supporting the Use of ICT Equipment.

Unit 5 - Supporting Pupils with Disabilities and Special Educational Needs: Inclusion and Special Educational Needs - The factors which influence learning - Barriers to learning for disabled pupils - Ways to roll back barriers - The principles of educational inclusion - What is inclusion? - Principles of an inclusive education service - Inclusive education and the National Curriculum - The importance of attitudes, skills and resources in the achievement of successful educational inclusion - Effective inclusive education - The importance of encouraging independent learning when promoting educational.

Unit 6 - Supporting Play and Learning: Understand the importance and benefits of play for pupils’ development and learning - Helping pupils to develop their play

Qualifications

Upon successful completion of this course, you will gain a Level 2 Teaching Assistant Award.  

Awarding Body Information

NCFE is recognised as an awarding body by the qualification regulators ('regulators') for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales and the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland

Language of Course

English

Examination Centre

This course is marked through a process of continuous assessment guided by your tutor following NCFE guidelines. This means that your qualification will be awarded according to your performance on assessments rather than by taking an exam.