not exactly sn child question but...

[negligentmummy]

i figured you guys might know...

what qualifications/ training/ experience do yu need to become a special needs learning support assistant?

Not an awful lot, I'm afraid - I've been one for the last couple of years.

I'm seen as highly experienced, apparently . I started 5 years ago in a residential school for 7-16's with AS. I was there for 3 years then since 2008 have worked with low-functioning autism, SLD, ADHD, Attachment Disorder and in a pupil referral unit. I have NVQ3 in Health and Social Care.

I feel like one of the rare ones who has actually had some decent training over the years. Most TA's I have met start off (like I did) with nothing more than an interest in working with children. It is a thankless, low paid job only made worth it because of the wonderful kids.

Parents fight like mad to get even some support in school for children. From my point of view, as well as yours, it's not enough - at one point I was paying my mortgage etc on £8.5k a year, despite having been appointed at the highest possible rate.

I don't mean to rant, but I have met too many useless, ignorant and bigoted teachers. I just happen to be coming from the opposite side to most of you :)

PS I have had to go back to working shifts in residential care now because I just can't afford to be a TA working regular hours. i hope my mental health (shaky atm) copes I will really really really miss it :(

crikey! I gave up my job (in property) earlier this year to concentrate on DD1 (SEN). I miss working, but cannot commit the hours anymore and it's important for me to be around for school drop off- pick up.

So my only experience is as a parent!! no teaching experience or training at all (although I did volunteer on a reading in schools programme before I had kids of my own).

£8.5k is a bit less than i imagined though!! And no idea where to start... I'd like to "put something back" though... and I hope that someone who's helping my daughter has a similar enthusiasm for helping kids with SN reach their potential.

My only experience was as a parent too:)
Ok I am a graduate but years out of Uni and couldn't afford to do my PGCE (teaching year) if I wanted to!

When my son started special school I offered to help out.. swimming etc (they always need volunteers!) and by the time he started full time my face was known:) I applied for a job in the adjacent mainstream primary with no more than my enthusiasm and own experience of parenting a child with SN..and I got the job! I spent two years there before applying to the special school and have been working with children who have SLD and severe ASD ever since.

In special school the pay IS better than in mainstream (tho it still sucks.. I get 12.5K and that just pays the mortgage!) but the job IS fun, IS interesting, IS challenging (to say the least!) I have received good training , been on PECS courses, challenging behaviour courses, first aid, epilepsy training.. you name it.

If you can, contact your local school, or even better, local SN school and offer a few hours... they will bite your hand off, and we find the volunteers usually get the jobs when they come up:)

so don't actually need any formal training at all? seriously?

negligentmummy, sounds as if you'd be perfect :) 8.5k is what I ended up with after tax, working a 27.5 hour week - which is as close to full time as I could get, including 3 nights a week of after school club. My rate was £16.5 ish but then they pro rata for holidays etc.

Only qualifications needed are GCSE's in English and Maths at grade C or above, I think...

Actually it varies.

Here they won't hire anyone without an NVQ3 for any school role. That's not as posituve as it sounds- to get an NVQ3 you need a TA post, to get a TA post you need an NVQ3.... can you see where the issues are coming from?

Plus, there's a few like me (am doing an MA in ASD) trying to get SEN TA work and being refused becuase we don;t have the right quals, or because TA funding doesn't cover grads. Then they complain they can't get decently trained people in the ASD field.....

DS1 has a fabulous 1-1 who has worked in the role for years, ds3 however ahd a brand newcomer and someone with general experience; they were nice and loving but not sure they quite got him and he ended up being moved to a SNU.

We're not in England btw.

You should be able to get on a nvq course while working as a volunteer. You have to complete a certain number of practical[working] hours each week and an assessor will come out and see you in your placement. Lots of schools take NVQ students. A word of warning though the courses are all changing at the moment so check with your local college.
Also don't pay for a course if you don't have to, lots of funding agencies will pay for you to do the course.

You can work without quals in some areas or with a level 2 instead of a level 3 but these jobs are few and far bewteen. I worked as an unqualified TA for years but have just completed a level 3 to allow me to change jobs.

It isn't the best paid job in the world but it fits around the kids and can be very rewarding especially if you get a really good staff team to work with. Go for it.

I'm looking to do TA course next year. I could do a year PGCE - but to be honest, I would rather do TA as I have my own DCs to look after. I think that you can have all the training in the world, but if you don't have the capacity to use your initiative and empathy and have a genuine desire to make school a positive experience, then it's a waste.
I've seen brilliant TAs and I've seen those that TBH just want a little income to fit in with their DCs hols from school.

When dd1 left nursery in June i asked if there would be any work for me in december (when dd1 is full time at school) and they almost bit my hand off, i have no experience other than having 2 children with ASD but the nursery leader said 'thats how most of the staff started out' (being a parent to a child at the nursery). I'm not sure if it is different for schools than it is nurseries?

As far as I'm concerned, I'd much rather have a colleague with no qualifications but a passion for working with and supporting the kids. I have worked with too many self-absorbed, manipulative, lazy people who are attracted by the easy hours and holidays. I really wish I could find something 35+ hours a week, but unfortunately the government won't fund that :( so it's back to shifts

My SIL is doing her teaching degree - year 2. She is absolutely horrified at the standard of some of her year. One of the things she was amazed at was the lack of respect for lecturers and their opinions. Half of her year didn't show for the SN section of the course. They copied notes, turned up for the last assessment or asked for their names to be added to joint assessments without doing any work.
Can't wait for this lot to be let loose on our DCs

auntevil i have worked with some real shockers. A teacher who ignored my years of working with kids with ASD to tell me that "he's just naughty" and, worse, "he's only doing it to wind me up"

Staff rooms who, when you send a child in to say you're blowing the whistle at the end of playtime, send the message back to say that they think it's ten more minutes .It was february, freezing cold, and I was the only one on duty so couldn't go in to get my coat.

A head teacher who's behaviour policy consisted of leaving me to it from day one with an aggressive Year 3, then telling me off for putting myself between him and another child then touching his arm to guide him into the school during an incident. She then covered him in sympathy, gave him toys to play with in her office, and he pretty much had the entire afternoon off and did no work (again)

A teacher who, when I asked a disruptice y10 pupil to leave a Y11 art class, said "I don't mind as long as she keeps quiet" which she didn't, because nothing I said from then on was worth listening to, but it was my fault the class was disrupted.

All this for less than a quid above minimum wage. And that's just the last couple of years :(

Apologies for rant, didn't realise I was still so angry about it!!

auntevil- which course are you looking at?
I am sort of hoping to do the theory stuff mostly from home, slotted around beating up the LEA, SALT, OT etc for DD1. then when DD2 is in school I'll be ready and raring to go!
or at least that's the theory.
am prob being a bit dim, but do you have to have level 2 before you can do level 3 of an NVQ?

www.brock.ac.uk/course/NPS501/s:nvq.cat:adult/

My local one :)

I'm not sure negligent. When i asked at the college last year, they said that i could do NVQ3 as i had been volunteering for over a year, but then tried to push me toward a different course - for all learning, not just schools as they said there would be more opportunities. I've just re-read the bumpf and it looks like i need to do level 2 first. I will have to check. Both courses only involve a few hours a week at the college, but you do have to have a placement in school so that you can be assessed in the workplace. I can't remember but i think you needed to have 12 hours a week of placement. that's why i didn't do it this year as my DS only is in pre-school for 15 a week - at a different venue - so it would have been pushing it!
purple empathy at your rant coming your way. Not really a rant, just observations! My mum was a teacher and she used to go ape when she told me how cruel some teachers could be - she did SN/ SEN and hospital teaching for many years. What worried my SIL is that she knew a couple of people that didn't get on this course as their academic level was not deemed high enough (probably not enough A*s). she said they were far more suitable to be responsible for children's education than the motley crew that got in.

Thanks, Auntie :) I'm not good at sticking up for myself, but with hindsight I get absolutely furious - how dare people treat me, and more importantly children, with that much disrespect?!

I have a friend who has just started TT, and a better person I cannot think of. She would make a better job of it now, 4 weeks in, than many teachers I know with years of experience. They just can't be arsed, and there's no way to tell them, or fire them :(