Learning Support Assistant

Monk's Walk School, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL8 7NL

21 days remaining to apply

• Start date details

  January 2025

• Closing date

  29 November 2024 at 12pm (midday)

• Date listed

  7 November 2024

Job details

• Job role:
  • Teaching assistant
• Visa sponsorship: Visas cannot be sponsored
• Subject: Special Education Needs (SEN)
• Working pattern: Part time
• Contract type: Permanent
• Full-time equivalent salary: Scale H2 - £16,551 inclusive per annum (based on 31.25 hours per week)

Learning Support Assistant job summary

LEARNING SUPPORT ASSISTANT

Start Date: January 2025

Part Time, 31.25 hours per week, Monday - Friday term time only

Scale H2 - £16,551 inclusive per annum (based on 31.25 hours per week)

Monk’s Walk is a high performing, oversubscribed school seeking to appoint a Learning Support Assistant to join our expanding SEN department.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, confident and supportive person who has an empathy with students and is sympathetic to the needs of a school. You will be required to work with teaching staff to support a range of students in their learning up to and including ‘A’ Level. Experience in a similar role would be an advantage, however, there is a comprehensive training programme in place for this post.

The position is for 31.25 hours per week, Monday to Friday 8.30am - 3.30pm, term time only (38 weeks per year). Job share may be considered for the right candidate(s), please indicate your preferred days/hours in your application if applicable.

If you would like an informal conversation about the post or would like to visit the school in advance of applying, please contact Sian Boatwright, SENCo. Sian’s e-mail address is sboatwright@monkswalk.herts.sch.uk

Applications should be submitted via the My New Term website by noon on Friday 29 November 2024.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible

It would be great to hear from you.

Monk’s Walk School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will need to obtain references and conduct online searches in advance of interview for any candidate short-listed. All job offers are subject to satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service clearance. Please note it is an offence to apply for a role where the applicant is barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.

Commitment to safeguarding

Safeguarding at Monk’s Walk takes precedence over any other activity in the school. It’s vitally important to us that students feel safe in school so they can learn and thrive. As part of the recruitment process, we will ask about safeguarding students and obviously questions about candidates’ suitability to act as tutor. References will be sought and an enhanced criminal records check will be undertaken for this position.

Applying for the job

This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.

CVs are not accepted.

Visas cannot be sponsored.

If you're interested in teaching or training to teach in England as an international citizen, we can help you understand your next steps.

About Monk's Walk School

• School type: Academy, ages 11 to 18
• Education phase: Secondary
• School size: 1421 pupils enrolled
• Age range: 11 to 18
• Ofsted report: View Ofsted report (opens in new tab)
• School website: Monk's Walk School website (opens in new tab)
• See more jobs: teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/organisations/monk-s-walk-school-welwyn-garden-city (opens in new tab)

We are a mixed school of about 1,400 11-18 year old students in Welwyn Garden City, a Hertfordshire new town on the outskirts of London. Transport links are superb – direct rail links to London in less than 30 minutes; M1, A1(M), M11 and M25 all minutes away. WGC is a pleasant place to live – it even has John Lewis! The school is situated in a greenbelt area in the prosperous northwest corner of the city. Our grounds are magnificent and the view from the school is lovely. In September 2020 we opened a new teaching block to replace one of the more rundown ones. The DfE have just agreed funding for a new sports hall for the school.

Monk’s Walk is a genuinely all-ability school. The number of students with learning challenges is in line with the national average, with 17% supported at SEN Support or with an Education and Healthcare Plan (EHCP). Our support for students with SEND is a real strength of the school.

We have a small number of blind or partially sighted students who receive specialist support. We also work very closely with Knightsfield School, a special school for deaf children on our campus.

Parental confidence in the school is high; there were 729 applications for 240 places in Year 7 for September 2024, with 197 of those as first preference. Each year we hear appeals for students wishing to join the school.

The school has an extremely effective behaviour policy and in general behaviour is very good indeed. Our students want to learn and our parents are, on the whole, extremely supportive. Attendance is high, although in common with most schools affected by COVID. Our aim is for our students to be co-operative, courteous and kind.

There is a genuine ‘buzz’ around the school and we have a very strong reputation in the city. In September 2023, the school was judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’. We were really pleased with the comments made by inspectors and expect the report to be published any day now.

GCSE exam results in 2024 were very good. 53% of students gained the strong basics (grade 5+ in both English and Maths) and 74% standard basics (grade 4+ in English and maths). Our attainment 8 was 50.2 and progress 8 +0.25. All well above national. Students of all abilities did better than would have been expected, given their starting points. Disadvantaged students made the progress that would have been expected given their starting points – unlike in most other schools in Hertfordshire where it is often well below. Students with SEND did phenomenally well. To look at the school’s provisional results in the league tables google ‘school performance tables 2024’.

In terms of progress, disadvantaged and SEND students do better in the school than they do nationally. BAME students attain very well and have good progress, as do each of the ability groups. We pride ourselves on the fact that Monk’s Walk is an inclusive school.

The school has about 268 in the sixth form and this is the largest sixth form the school has ever had. We are also a member of a consortium with four other schools which provides a wide range of opportunities for students. Monk’s Walk has the largest sixth form of the five schools and currently we have 82 guest students in Year 12 and 61 in Year 13. At Monk’s Walk we concentrate on providing A Level only (with the exception of iMedia), with decent numbers of students studying the facilitating subjects. Vocational programmes can be taken at Oaklands College or in other consortium schools.

A Level results in 2024 were also very good , with average point score per grade at 36.2 equivalent to B-. In 2024 almost all students who applied made it to their first or second choice university, high quality apprenticeship or employment. Students access a range of universities, with over 40% accessing Russell Group in 2024. We currently have 11 former students at Cambridge University.

We do not pursue academic achievement at the expense of the wider development of the individual, however. Form tutors, heads of year and heads of house all have important roles in the social, personal and academic support of individuals. Our house system is strong, providing a range of all-ability competitions and activities for mixed age groups. Recently we have become the first school in the country to have a recycling machine with the credit going as house points. All members of staff are allocated a house.

Unfortunately, some schools are making cuts in creative subjects such as Art, Music, Drama and PE and even some DT specialisms. At Monk’s Walk, these subjects are strong as we see these areas providing important learning opportunities for our students. All of these subjects are running at GCSE and A Level. Science subjects are among the most popular subjects at A Level.

We have a full orchestra (as well as other musical groups), thriving Art, Music, PE and Sport and an outstanding Drama department. Members of other departments involve themselves in extra-curricular activities in Music, Sport and Drama.

Knightsfield School (a special school for deaf children) is co-located with Monk’s Walk School. We have an outstanding partnership arrangement; at key stage 3 Knightsfield students join classes in Art. A few students are also integrated into GCSE groups. Knightsfield students join ours for lunch every day in our canteen in B Block. One of our music teachers teaches at the school.

The school became an academy in September 2012. The decision to convert was purely pragmatic and trustees have no intention to make changes to teachers’ pay and conditions beyond those made as part of national agreements.

Induction, training and continuing professional development have a very high priority in the school. All staff have an induction programme on joining the school.

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