Anonymous

Skills

I have applied for this role, as I want to restart a career within a nursery. I didn't have the confidence before, but after three years at Manor Green Primary, my confidence in delivering outstanding practice to children, especially those with special educational needs, has grown exponentially and I have found an area I am really good at.

My colleagues describe me as a good team-player, who promotes staff well-being amazingly, that I resource creatively and my assessments/observations are extremely accurate, that I have a good understanding of what children need to
do next in order to show progression, and that my behaviour management approach is very good, that I am calm and de-escalate challenging behaviours well (all as shown in my progress report).

In my time at Manor Green Primary, I have also been the class's Communication Lead, ensuring all staff members are using a total communication approach - signing, use of ALD's and PECs and the use of switches.

I have grown my ability to lead a team, provide children with a safe space where they can grow and learn, and my ability to give children the best education in a way that is fun and child led.

I am patient, calm, have a good understanding of what the children I work with need, organised, able to manage behaviour that challenges, and I believe all of these qualities would make me a good learning support assistant. I am also an advocate for the children who don’t have a voice.

I have experienced an OFSTED visit, one where out of 6 team members there was only me and the class teacher in due to staff illness. The OFSTED inspector inspected me delivering learning to a group of our children and inspected the class teacher also delivering learning to the other group. The headteacher later let me know that the OFSTED inspector had said she "couldn't believe how much focus and patience you had with a very complex group of children". We later as a whole school found out we had got an Outstanding. If I were to join your school, I hope I can provide the same standard as I have done with the SEN primary school.

I’m very passionate about education and I want a career where I am making a difference to children’s lives – and I think that education is a big influencer on someone’s life. I want to help support children in their learning journey and be a big part of their success. I want to inspire and motivate children.

About

I worked at Manor Green Primary School from October 2020 – November 2023, teaching small groups of children, supporting the teacher, ensuring resources were available for lessons, providing personal care to children, and providing children with a safe environment in which they could thrive. I built positive relationships with students, my team, and other members of staff throughout the school. I worked well independently as well as within the team. When OFSTED visited, the inspector praised my patience and ability to keep calm and keep children with highly complex needs on task.

I worked primarily in a specialist EYFS class with children with a wide range of different disabilities, such as Charge syndrome, global developmental delay, autism and fragile X syndrome. I also covered in a wide range of classes, in all year groups and within both generic and specialist classes. I often taught small groups of children with a specially adapted EYFS framework, and although
I followed a plan, often I changed activities in the moment depending on the children's interests and attention spans. I also adapted learning to each child’s individual needs and personal learning goals. I also wrote many observations over the course of my day, using Evidence For Learning to write these and adding frameworks and tags.

I was also communication lead within my class, and therefore had responsibility for using PECS with the children, ensuring switches were available and working closely with our Speech and Language therapist to ensure our children had a way of effectively communicating.

I am also Team Teach trained for physical interventions, and also learned positive behaviour management and effective de-escalation techniques.

I left in order to become a full time carer for my nan who was terminally ill. After losing her and after grieving, I am looking to get back to work in a job I love and am good at, hence applying for this position as an apprentice nursery practitioner so I can gain the skills I need and get back to doing what I love.