What are the key strengths of a teaching assistant?

The importance of teaching assistants within the education sector is well recognised, as they provide valuable support for teachers in and out of the classroom. From primary and secondary school settings to special schools and other institutions, thousands of TAs help pupils to maximise their potential.

To achieve this, teaching assistants require a highly varied skillset, and they’ll often have strengths in several areas, as we demonstrate here.

Relationship building

Alongside developing working relationships with other school staff, TAs also need to build trusting relationships with the pupils they support.

This helps to keep pupils engaged in lessons and increases the likelihood of them raising any issues if they’re struggling to understand elements of the curriculum.

Communication

It might sound obvious, but much of the teaching assistant role in schools revolves around communication – from planning lessons with teachers to discussing topics with pupils.

TAs will need to chat clearly and concisely with pupils as this helps to limit confusion while simplifying tasks can also benefit youngsters by ensuring they understand the nature of the work.

Understanding learning

Any TA needs to know how youngsters learn, and this involves having a clear understanding of the key educational, development and learning theory.

This knowledge enables a teaching assistant to adopt different approaches with different pupils, making it possible to provide the best learning environment for them.

Resilience

Working as a TA can mean individuals deal with a wide range of different situations, and not all of them will be straightforward to manage.

A teaching assistant will need to quickly assess a situation and act accordingly in line with any school rules and procedures, making resilience a key strength.

Patience

Pupils will learn at different rates and will understand topics differently too, meaning a TA will require patience to help them through the learning process.

They’ll need to be calm and composed in any given situation and will need to recognise that there won’t necessarily be a quick fix to a problem.

Passion

Passion and enthusiasm often shine through in many different job roles, but this is especially the case with teaching assistants.

This passion reflects well on an individual and helps to boost engagement too, as pupils can tell when a TA has a genuine interest in helping them to succeed.

Other things to consider

If you’re considering a role as a TA, you’ll also want to showcase additional skills and knowledge at the interview, including any relevant qualifications you might have.

Experience in care and school settings is often also considered relevant for teaching assistant roles, as many of the key soft skills are easily transferable between the sectors.

Lastly, remember that while TAs will have a range of strengths, there are many opportunities for personal development to overcome any weaknesses that might exist too – so you don’t have to be the finished article right now.

Find your next Teaching Assistant job with Tradewind

As one of the leading teaching assistant recruitment agencies in the UK, you can trust us to help you find your next role. Whether you're looking for a part-time TA role to find around your other commitments, an SEN teaching assistant job where you can have a big impact or you're looking to find your first TA role after your studies, we can help. Check out all teaching assistant vacancies or get in touch if you need some help finding a role that's suited to you.

Have you found the role you were looking for? The next step is to brush up on your interview techniques and you can start by familiarising yourself with the commonly asked TA interview questions.