Graduate Teaching Assistant
Summary
We are looking for a Graduate Teaching Assistant at a caring specialist school. Ideal for recent graduates from social care, social work, nursing, art, music, or speech and language therapy—or those preparing for a therapy-related master’s—who want to bring their compassion, creative insight, and therapeutic interest into an educational setting supporting pupils with additional needs.
The Role
As a classroom-based Graduate TA, you will support pupils with complex learning needs, working alongside skilled educators and therapists to deliver tailored learning, communication support, and creative therapeutic-inspired activities. Your role will blend nurturing care, structured routines, and opportunities to embed expressive arts and communication strategies—a strong foundation for those aiming towards therapy, music and wellbeing, or mental health roles.
The Ideal Person and Skills/Education Needed
We warmly welcome graduates from social care, social work, nursing, art, music, speech and language therapy, and related fields. Those planning future study in therapy, creative arts in education, music therapy, speech therapy, or SEND-focused master’s programs will find this a perfect stepping stone. You should hold a relevant undergraduate degree and be compassionate, adaptable, creative, and committed to building positive, inclusive learning environments. Experience working with children or young people—whether in care, arts, health, or therapy contexts—is valued and seen as highly transferable.
The School
This is a warm, inclusive specialist school in Leeds that caters for children and young people with a wide range of needs, including autism, complex learning challenges, speech and language delays, sensory impairments, and emotional or medical needs. The school prides itself on a multi-talented staff team to deliver an individualised curriculum so each pupil can achieve outstanding progress.
Hours
Monday to Friday, 8.30 am–3.30 pm. Both full-time and part-time applications are welcome.
The Benefits
Enjoy competitive pay and gain hands-on classroom and therapeutic-inspired experience in a collaborative, supportive specialist setting. This role is an excellent platform for progressive career paths—whether in therapeutic professions, education, or further postgraduate training.
Step into a role where your understanding, creativity, and ambition for futures in therapy or education will inspire and support children to thrive every day.
Safeguarding children is an integral part of what we do and we have a stringent safer recruitment process. We undertake checks on all the candidates we work with. As such we require a current Enhanced DBS Disclosure for everyone working in Schools. If you do not have a subscription to the DBS Update Service, you may be required to complete a new DBS application as part of the registration process. If you take a temporary role with Sense Education you will be paid on a weekly basis. All pay rates quoted will be inclusive of 12.07% statutory holiday pay. This advert is for a temporary position but long term. In some cases, the option to make this role permanent may become available.