Not even getting interviews for LSA and admin jobs in schools, whats going wrong?

[Overtinkerbell]

I am not native british but citizen here, I am giving this info as I do have an accent but I studied in english medium so I know English and can speak and write well but I speak with an accent.

I am in mid 40s, I had brief non-UK teaching experience ( for around 1.5yrs), I have a bachelor in science degree.Then I moved countries and did an admin job at a friends company ( in that country) and worked 5yrs, then I brought the same job to the UK (moved to the UK) and worked part-time remote. Just helping out with records, sorting excels, paying providers on time, logistics etc. I do have good excel and communication skills. Then I resigned and now working as a Lunch time controller in a secondary school.

I want to move up, from Lunch time job to LSA or admin, have applied to almost 12 jobs, one admin interview and unsucessful. In the interview, I had an excel task that I did before time and correctly. They commented'perfect' for all the interview questions only to hear I am unsucessful. I am not even getting interviews for LSA jobs, straight rejecting.

One of my friends who has done lunch time for 8yrs with no other experience,hesitates to write emails and very reserved, has scored an LSA job.

What is going wrong?. Are the schools looking for someone who talk like british?. Do they prefer one race? My teaching experience is non-UK so is that the problem?. I do understand that if a team has similar cultural background, they tend to bond well, I just want to know if thats the case.
What do you think?
Thankyou in advance.🙂

I think you may have inferred a tone that wasn't intended, since myself and others didn't read it that way. But even if it was rude (which I don't think it was), if I were the OP I'd prefer to get rude but useful advice, than be told incorrectly that my spag is just fine the way it is. She's trying to get a job; she needs to know this issue is probably impacting her chances.

Of course it was rude. There's a way to write things.

Don't count the mistakes in someone's post.

Suggest help. Like I did. I wrote a helpful comment. I wrote to the OP that if she would like to continually improve her English, it may be good to go on a course.

Thankyou all.
I will try answer some of your questions: My grammar?
Yes, my grammar is not perfect. I usually do the grammar check with my CV, cover letter etc before applying.
However, 2 of the lunch supervisors (Romanian & Hongkonger)who have similar english skills got LSAs in my current school ( I didnt apply for them as I thought it might look bad applying for a new job only 3weeks into my current job). However, one of them did run Romanian teaching classes and the other taught violin as second jobs. This might be my issue that I dont have recent teaching experience.Also, the school saw the HK lady as a good fit to teach the kids after the school had influx the of HK kids over last two years.
So I agree with getting recent experience.

Why dont I apply for science jobs?.. I am struggling to get a foot into the above 'basic level' jobs in schools. I am not positive that I would get higher level jobs.

Experience of teaching all groups?.. My experience is with all ages.

Any courses I did in teaching?. No, but I have to.

My english could be a drawback for admin jobs in a country where english is a first language but like I said, I do take care that my emails are to the point and dont have errors. The country where I started by admin job was also english based so I have that experience.

Lastly, thanks again for all the input :).

West Midlands

Hopefully a position will come up at your current school - if you've made a good impression so far you should have a good chance. Good luck!

I worked school admin for 4 years. I was one out of about 100 applicants and this was 10 years ago so you can imagine how competitive it is now.
LSA jobs are probably not as hard to get as there’s a higher turnover of staff. Have you registered with a teaching agency as schools sometimes employ LSAs on a temp/ad hoc basis.
And I agree with others, yous SPAG needs to be spot on!

Do you mind which school you work in? You could try SEND schools as they have a higher number of support staff so often find themselves short staffed. Not an easy job but rewarding.

This is very good advice.

OP sees her first language as a barrier but it could be her biggest asset in the right setting.
X.

Have you considered getting some current experience? - Volunteering in a school (I know this is more difficult now than it used to be back in the day, as the school needs to pay for a DBS). Or Volunteering with children and young people in a different capacity (Guides, Scouts, etc or Sports clubs).

Also, most LSA posts will be looking for people who have knowledge about SEND, most specifically Autism. Is that something you could think about learning more about - maybe courses and/ or volunteering ? For LSA jobs you will be competing against people with Child Development qualifications and often people who have already been working with youngsters who have SEND.

I do agree with pp who said being bilingual should be an asset in some job roles though (more so in some languages than others).