How do I become a teaching assistant?

[michaelad]

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the job options for someone like me with one toddler and one son in primary school. Someone suggested becoming a teaching assistant. How do I go about it? Am not originally from this country..hence what might sound like a stupid question to some of you

I am a Teaching ssistant, and basically what I did was be a parent helper. It can take quite a while, but offer your services and and be prepared to do various activities, ie reading, art work, naming books ec.

Also there are courses you can attend, some are in the day but there are a few in the evening.

Hope this helps, I love being a TA, wouldnt swap my job for the world, and as you say, very practical hrs for your litle ones!

So, the best thing to do is just to approach my school?
Any idea where I could find these courses?

I think one really good way is to go on to the website of your local county council; they always have a job vacancies section and to me there ALWAYS seem to be TA vacancies available. If you haven't already, I expect going in as a parent helper to your child's school would be very useful experience that might help you get into it as a job.

The TA's I know, though, have inflexible working hours, eg HAVE to be at work 8.30 - 3ish so it can sometimes not be as good as it sounds it might be for fitting in to family life; hope this wouldn't be a problem, don't want to put a downer on things, just thought it may be worth mentioning.

pink bubble, what exactly did you do to become a TA? And how much, roughly, could I be expected to earn?

I put a letter into the school saying that I was able to do voluntary work, made sure that I stuck to it when they gave me set a set morning/afternoon. Always on time (basically treated it like it was a job)
Luckily for me, the teacher that I worked with, was great, we worked well as a team and it wasn't too long before I was doing other things rather than just reading!.
I found doing little jobs around the classroom such as washing paint pots, sharpening pencils, silly little jobs like that meant a lot to teacher involved.
One thing I would say is, dont be too keen to up the offer as a voluntary helper, one morning/afternoon is great. I found 2 or more and it eats into your week and its quite hard to give that amount of dedication when you are not paying for it.
I find that on the whole, the hrs a great, my Dc all start before me, and I only work mornings, 2 of my DDs are at the same school as me. The only downside is things like sports day and Harvest Festival I have to miss(DC always have someone to watch just not their Mummy!) But then, it has really enhanced our life, we have extra treats and more holidays, so I guess its swings and roundabouts!

The pay is about £100 a week for mornings only (but remember that it is pro rata and so you get paid for holidays too

If you wanted to do some sort of training I would try the adult education centre!

Also if you have another language, ie French or German, most schools would bite your hand off at employing you!

will watch with ionterest, I've just put in one TA application, and have some more in the pipeline!

thanks Pinkbubble! Will speak to the school soon.
Have just had a look at our county council website and there appears to be nothing within range for me!
Ah well... I'll just keep looking