Teaching Assistant (Level 1) – SEND

Age Range:             2 – 7 years
NOR:                       120 plus 26 FS1 (morning and afternoon)
Start date:               September 2025
Contract:                 Permanent
Grade:                     C, Pay Point 5 – 6 (£24,790 – £25,183 FTE)
Working Weeks:    39 weeks per year (term time plus INSETs)
Hours per week:    31 hours 20 minutes
Working pattern:   9:00am – 3:00pm (Monday, Wednesday & Thursday) and 9:00am – 4:00pm (Tuesday and Friday)

At St Chad’s, we are a nurturing and inclusive setting for children aged 2–7 years. We are proud of our relational approach to supporting the individual needs of every child, and we are passionate about providing a safe, supportive, and enriching environment where every learner can thrive socially, emotionally, and academically.

The Governors at St Chad’s C of E Nursery and Infant School wish to appoint an experienced, caring and passionate SEND Teaching Assistant, with a particular passion for supporting children’s social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs, to join our welcoming and friendly school family. This is a full-time role, however, there may be some flexibility in offering a morning/afternoon job share to two exceptional candidates.

This role will involve providing some classroom support, working with small groups of children and also working on a 1:1 basis with children with special educational needs. Applicants will have experience of working in a school environment and supporting children with SEND, particularly those with ASD and SEMH. Given the complex needs of some of our children, this post requires a teaching assistant who is willing and able to support positive handling and medical, intimate care needs, given appropriate training.

St Chad’s is a small infant school with a big heart. Our school’s core values of love, friendship, compassion and respect sit at the heart of our school and underpins every aspect of school life. We are an inclusive school and our vision, though distinctively Christian, welcomes and values all faiths and cultures within our diverse school community.

We will offer the successful applicant a welcoming environment that works in close partnership with parents and the local community and is dedicated to staff development. If you are excited by this role, we look forward to hearing from you.

Please refer to the enclosed Job Description and Person Specification for full details of the role.

The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff to share in this. The successful candidate will therefore require an enhanced DBS clearance.

To apply for this position, please complete both the DDAT Application Form and Monitoring Form.

Applications should be emailed to send@stchads.derby.sch.uk

Please note that we will only accept applications made on DDAT application forms. The correct forms must be completed and CVs or other methods of application will not be accepted.

Closing date for applications:  9 September 2025

We reserve the right to close the advertisement early and application forms received after the closing date may not be accepted.

Interviews scheduled to take place on: Week commencing 15 September 2025

Due to limited staffing, unfortunately, if you do not hear from us by 15 September 2025, then you will not have been shortlisted for interview. We take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this post and wish you all the best!