Kara Copeland

Hello, my name is Kara and I’m applying for the Teaching Assistant position. I am currently living in Cumbria and will be moving in with my partner to Newcastle-Under-Lyme in August. My time in Cumbria will finish on the 20th July, where I will have completed my L3 Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship at Beacon Hill Community School.

I have spent 3 years working continuously with students having a range of needs and abilities, some of these are: SEND, SEMH, ASD, ODD, SLD, MLD, S&L, Visual impairments and Auditory impairments. I want to continue supporting pupils in a new area with the new knowledge I have gained. 

I’ve recently done training in First Aid, Prevent and Safeguarding; I try to do Safeguarding and prevent training yearly to maintain knowledge of the policies.  In my time within Beacon Hill Community school, I worked with outside agencies such as Occupational Therapists and Psychologists to collect information and construct it for pending EHCP’s; whilst always adhering to confidentiality and data protection policies. 

Being in a secondary school, I have noticed the impact of COVID with the transition between Key Stages. I'm a firm believer that children's development should come first and continue to uphold this value in my continuing practice. I have broadened my knowledge regarding the curriculum so that i'm aware of the expectations from Foundation to Key Stage 4. 

As a result, I am now able to support students in how to read and write at foundation level, to supporting year 11 applying for college and apprenticeships.

I'll complete my L3 Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship on the 20th July. 

The modules covered on my course is:

• Communication and professional relationships with children, young people, and adults.
• Schools as organisations.
• Support learning activities.
• Promote children and young people’s positive behaviour.
• Develop professional relationships with children, young people, and adult.
• Promote equality, diversity, and inclusion in work with children and young people.
• Support assessment for learning.
• Plan and deliver learning activities under the direction of a teacher.
• Support literacy development
• Support numeracy development.
• Support teaching and learning in the curriculum area. 
• Understand child and young person development.
• Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings.
• Understanding how to safeguard the wellbeing of children and young people. 
• Support children and young people’s health and safety
• Functional Skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) L1
• First Aid Training L2