Roles in Schools
Explore Roles in Kent Schools.
Learn about qualifications, career progression, and available support to help you advance in education
- By Kent-Teach
- 2 minute read
What makes an outstanding Headteacher?
Kent Headteachers are driven people, who live and breathe education, understand the importance of strong leadership and have the qualities and experience to further develop schools that are full of exciting potential.
What's the next step in your career?
Kent-Teach is the go to for leadership roles in Kent Schools. Whether you are looking to become Head of Department or Head of School, Kent-Teach is here to help you climb your way up the career ladder.
Are you thinking about Headship?
If you are looking to further your career by moving into Headship, you may wish to consider the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).
To undertake the NPQH for Headship the Teaching Regulation Agency recommend that you are:
- passionate and highly motivated to become a Headteacher
- supported and encouraged to apply by your current Headteacher or line manager
- no more than 18 months away from being a credible Headship applicant
- able to provide evidence of experience, achievements, and expertise that relate to The National Standards for Headteachers.
For more information and resources visit the Teaching Regulation Agency website
Further Programmes and Support
Kent County Council offers additional support to New Headteachers and those aspiring to headship. For more information on support and mentoring visit www.kelsi.org.uk.
Kent also works in Partnership with Southern Educational Leadership Trust (SELT) to contribute to leadership development and support new and existing Headteachers.
What is a Teaching Assistant?
Teaching Assistants (TA) work closely with teachers in the classroom and duties can vary from school to school; responsibilities can cover helping individual or small groups of pupils to provide administrative and classroom support. Some TAs specialise in special educational needs, literacy, or numeracy.
What does a Teaching Assistant do?
The role can be varied and depends on the school, though the underlying tasks usually remain the same. TAs will undertake tasks which allow the teacher to focus on teaching so tasks might be:
- setting up the classroom for lessons
- providing extra support to children struggling with a particular activity
- tidying up the classroom at the end of the class
- doing the displays of children’s work
- assisting with school trips and sports events
- in secondary schools, TAs usually work with pupils who have learning difficulties and disabilities.
What qualifications do I need to become a Teaching Assistant?
Kent County Council has not set mandatory qualifications for TA roles within Kent schools; it is dependent on the school whether they require applicants to have qualifications. You will need to read the job description and any of the vacancy supporting documentation.
TAs need to have good reading, writing, and numeracy skills and it will be useful to have some experience of working with children. You will also need good communication and organisational skills.
If you are considering a course, here is a diagram taken from the Teaching Assistant Focus website to assist you.
Guidance for the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) for support staff in schools.
How do I become a Teaching Assistant?
Other useful Information
Read more about being a Teaching Assistant on the National Careers Service website.
Search for Teaching Assistant Vacancies.
Support Staff:
School Support Staff are key to the day to day running of the school.
There are a number of different roles covering but not restricted to office administration, teaching assistants, catering, student support, site management, and cleaning.
Kent County Council has not set mandatory qualifications for support staff within Kent schools; however, you can choose to undertake qualifications and training to enhance your professional development.
If you haven’t worked in a school environment before it might be useful to volunteer in a school to gain experience in a support role and determine whether it’s right for you.
See the latest Support Staff Vacancies on Kent-Teach.
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