Teaching Assistant

Course Overview

As you’ll be working under the supervision of the teacher in a supporting role, you’ll learn how to build good relationships, develop patience and excellent team working skills.  Develop skills in planning, delivering and evaluating learning activities.  Gain an understanding of the importance of maintaining a safe learning environment for pupils and how to manage pupil behaviour, and much more!

Pre-requisites

You must be over 16 to take the course and be educated to at least GCSE standard D-G, or hold an NVQ Level 1, or a GNVQ Foundation certificate. (Teaching assistants generally need to be aged 18 or over.)

Qualification

BTEC Level 2 Intermediate Certificate for Teaching Assistants

Support and benefits

• Gain an industry recognised qualification
• Access to a dedicated tutor and student advisors to guide you through your studies
• Complimentary textbook:  ‘The Teaching Assistant's Handbook 2nd Edition’ by Teena Kamen
• Professionally authored learning materials which create a fictional but realistic context for carrying out activities
  

Key topics

• The Learning Environment

Discover how to maintain positive working relationships with children and adults. Learn how to communicate with both children and adults effectively. Develop the skills necessary to provide effective support for colleagues.

• Helping to Keep Children Safe

Discover how to prepare and maintain a safe learning environment. Learn how to deal with accidents, emergencies and illnesses in schools. Explore ways of safeguarding children from abuse. Examine methods of promoting positive pupil behaviour.

• Supporting Children’s Development

Explore a range of observation methods. Examine the pattern of children’s development, and learn how to support children at each stage of their development.

• Supporting Literacy and Numeracy

Explore literacy and numeracy requirements. Gain the skills to support literacy and numeracy. Learn how to prepare materials that encourge the development of literacy and numeracy.

• Supporting Learning Activities

Gain the skills to support teachers in planning, preparing, delivering and evaluating learning activities.

• Supporting Children with Special Needs

Examine legislation and school procedures relating to pupils with special educational needs. Explore a range of special educational needs, and discover strategies for supporting these needs.

Course Code

A27

Hours of study

12 months / 180 hours

Technical requirements and fees

Edexcel registration fees of £50.80 are additional to your course fees

Outline

You’ll complete six assessments during your course. These assessments can be submitted to ICS online via the Student Community, or they can be posted to ICS. It is recommended that you submit your assessments online as you will receive your results more quickly this way – in fact, for multiple choice assessments, you receive your results instantly!

Assessment Breakdown

The assessment method for each study unit is shown below:

Notes

Each multiple choice question comes with four potential answers. Only one of these answers is correct; the other three are wrong. You must identify the correct answer.

Short answer questions normally require you to write between a sentence and a paragraph.

Activities consist of open-ended questions, requiring lengthier answers than are expected for short answer questions. Some activities require you to reflect on experience of observing a classroom. However, if it is not possible for you to gain such experience, a case study is supplied, which can be referred to in completing such activities.