Teaching Assistant
Gloucestershire
Grace Garden School is a specialist school located on an 18-acre smallholding on the outskirts of Bristol, offering a range of outdoor learning activities in practical land and craft work to support the education and development of children and young people. Grace Garden School is part of Ruskin Mill Trust.
Established in 1984, Ruskin Mill Trust is an educational charity that operates in England, Scotland and Wales.
We offer exciting outdoor learning environments, utilising practical land and craft activities to support the development of work and life skills in young people with autistic spectrum conditions and other learning differences. Our research-led method, Practical Skills Therapeutic Education, is inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner, John Ruskin and William Morris. Working with hand, head, heart and place, Ruskin Mill Trust helps individuals to re-imagine their potential.
The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Successful applicants will be required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Level Disclosure as well as a medical check, references, evidence of qualifications, plus verification of the right to work in the UK.
SEN Teaching Assistant
FTE Salary: £27,808
Actual Salary: £24,399
40 Hours per week, 40 weeks per year (This salary includes a market supplement for Teaching Assistants)
Grace Garden School is an exciting and innovative provision which offers full time education to children who have significant/complex social, emotional or educational difficulties. At Grace Garden School, our students learn through an outdoor, land and craft-based curriculum, which includes practical skills; textiles, green woodwork, pottery and cooking with a significant period of time involved in growing biodynamic produce in the school gardens and looking after the farm animals.
The key duties of this role will be:
• To provide one to one support to learners with learning difficulties and/ or learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.
• To help students adjust to their new settings, recognise signs of distress and offer reassurance, and to promote and encourage the acceptance and inclusion of all pupils.
• To supervise and support students to ensure their safety and access to learning and facilitate students’ physical, emotional and educational development.
• To establish and promote supportive and productive relationships with pupils: acting as a role model and being aware of, and responding appropriately to, individual needs.
You must have:
• Experience of working with children in an educational setting.
• Experience working with autism and attachment needs.
• Good levels of literacy and numeracy skills. (e.g. GCSE Maths and English, or equivalent).
• A desire to learn and a passion for working with children with additional needs.
• A patient, caring, compassionate and child-centred approach.
• Excellent observation skills and the ability to problem solve and think Grace creatively to enable our students to reimagine their potential.
• Emotional intelligence and resilience with the ability to react calmly in challenging situations.
• An interest in / or skills in working in the outdoor environment.
• Hold a full UK driving license
You will need to be:
• Honest, reliable, an excellent communicator, resilient, hard-working, versatile, and a great team player.
• You must be keen to improve your own knowledge and skills in a genuinely unique educational environment.
• Experienced in, or willing to develops skills in, supporting the delivery of our unique curriculum
Working at Ruskin Mill Trust is incredibly rewarding; we offer competitive salaries and holiday allowances, an auto-enrolment pension scheme with a salary sacrifice option, a health cash plan and employee assistance programme via Medicash.
In addition, staff receive valuable training opportunities including an in-depth interactive induction to enable our new team members to experience our Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE) curriculum and opportunities for further training and academic research including our own MSc in Practical Skills Therapeutic Education.
Full details of our benefits and an application pack can be viewed/downloaded on www.rmt.org/careers by clicking on Apply Now.
