How to become a teaching assistant

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As a teaching assistant, you’ll be supporting classroom teachers. You may be working generally with the class, supporting students as they carry out activities. You could also be asked to work with a small group of students to support a specific area of their learning, or you may be a one-to-one teaching assistant, where you’ll work closely with one specific student to support their learning needs in the classroom.

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What does a teaching assistant do?

As a teaching assistant, you can have a range of responsibilities. You can expect than in your role you’ll do at least some of the following:

Work with small groups on a focus area
Work with individual students with learning difficulties to support learning across subjects
Support students in the classroom by answering questions
Cover classes
Mark test papers
Prepare classroom resources
Supervise children on the playground

What’s it like to work as a teaching assistant?

Working as a teaching assistant is very fulfilling, as you often work closely with individual students or small groups of students to provide personalised support. This means you’ll be able to see the children grow in confidence and develop their understanding of a range of topics.

You’ll work within a school, so your typical working hours will be approximately 8:30am-4pm. You may sometimes be required to stay later in order to support after school clubs, but you will also benefit from the school holidays.

Depending on the type of teaching assistant you work as, you may occasionally be required to lead classes if the class teacher is using their planning time, or if they are off work for some reason. Normally, if you cover classes as a teaching assistant, the class teacher will provide you with the lesson plan.

What skills do you need to be a teaching assistant?

To be successful in this role, you’ll need the following skills:

Good communication skills
Understanding of safeguarding regulations
Ability to work under pressure
Calm, patient attitude
Attention to detail
Understanding of the topics and lessons covered
Problem-solving

As you’ll be working with children, you’ll also need to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

How much does a teaching assistant earn?

As a lower-level teaching assistant (Level 1 or 2), you can expect to earn a salary of around £18,000. This increases as you take on more responsibility and work as a higher-level teaching assistant, and you can expect to earn roughly £25,000 as a Level 3 teaching assistant.

Your pay may be pro-rata as many teaching assistants are on temporary or term-time only contracts, so you’ll need to factor this in.

How to become a teaching assistant

For a Level 1 or 2 teaching assistant position, only basic qualifications such as GCSE English and maths are required, although some schools may want to see evidence of higher qualifications. For Level 3 or Higher Level Teaching Assistant roles, you’ll need to have more qualifications.

Study an education degree

While you don’t usually need Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) to work as a teaching assistant, a degree in education would definitely be useful and some may also award you QTS. If you study education, then you’ll have a good understanding of the different needs of children, the different methods of learning, and best practices for the classroom. Typically, degrees in education take three years to complete.

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Study a degree in a different subject area

Studying for a degree in any subject demonstrates a lot of the skills needed to be a teaching assistant, so regardless of the subject, a degree can be useful and help your application to stand out. In secondary schools, you may be working as a teaching assistant in a specific department such as science or humanities, so it would be useful to have a degree in a subject relating to the area you want to support in. As a primary school teaching assistant, you’ll typically work across all subject areas.

Diploma, apprenticeship or other related qualifications

In order to qualify as a Level 3 or higher teaching assistant, you may opt to work as an apprentice, or study a Continued Professional Development course while you work. By taking this route, you’ll be working as a Level 1 or 2 teaching assistant, gaining work experience, and completing practical and theoretical coursework to demonstrate your knowledge of supporting education. At the end of the course, you would be able to apply for jobs suited to the teaching assistant level you’ve qualified as.

There are also Continued Professional Development courses available to those who aren’t yet working in education. These courses would consist of solely theoretical coursework.

Work experience

While it isn’t essential, being able to demonstrate previous experience of working with children or working in an educational setting is useful. You may be able to volunteer at a local school, tutor younger students, or even work as a babysitter or nanny.