NCFE Teaching Assistant
Level 3 Diploma

This unit provides knowledge and understanding of how children and young people from birth to 19 years develop, including underpinning theoretical perspectives. It also includes actions taken when differences in development are identified and the potential effects of transitions on children and young people’s (CYP) development.

This unit provides the knowledge and understanding required to support the safeguarding of children and young people. The unit contains material on e-safety.

This unit aims to prepare the learner for working in a school and colleges. It covers knowledge and understanding of the structure of education, how schools are organised, school ethos, mission, aims and values, legislative and policy frameworks and the wider context in which schools operate.

This unit aims to prepare the learner for working in a safe school environment. It covers knowledge and understanding of the health and safety in education.

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Behaviour – what it is, and why it’s important;
• Positive and negative behaviour in the learning environment;
• Factors that influence behaviour;
• The importance of having a behaviour management policy;
• The role of the teaching assistant in managing behaviour;
• How to actively promote positive behaviour;
• How to actively discourage negative behaviour;
• Things that can get in the way, and how to deal with them;
• Best practice in developing a behaviour management policy in the learning environment.

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Providing effective support for your colleagues;

• Effective teamwork;

• Providing leadership for your team;

• Allocating and checking work in your team;

• Leading and motivating volunteers;

• Reflecting on and developing practice;

• Professional development and training opportunities;

• Providing information to improve policies, practices and provision;

• Mentoring in the workplace;

• Supporting competence achieved in the workplace.

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• National frameworks and curriculum guidelines for English

• Developing literacy skills

• Resources to support literacy development

• The teaching assistant’s role in supporting literacy skills

• Supporting pupils with special literacy and/or language needs

• National frameworks and curriculum guidelines for mathematics

• Developing numeracy skills

• Resources to support numeracy development

• The teaching assistant’s role in supporting numeracy skills

• Supporting pupils with special numeracy needs

• Enabling pupils to access the wider curriculum

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Using ICT to enhance learning

• Resolving ICT issues

• How ICT supports teaching and learning

• Changing Learning behaviour

• Identify ways ICT is used

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Understanding pupil learning and development
• How children think and learn
• Learning styles
• Making assessments
• Assisting effective planning of learning materials
• Providing and developing learning material and resources
• Ensuring pupil support through effective communication
• Ensuring an effective and organised environment
• Developing individual expectations for pupils
• Evaluating lesson plans and developing assessment

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Observing and assessing development

• The basic principles of child observation

• Observation methods

• Recording observations and assessments

• Planning provision to promote development

• The planning cycle

• Implementing and evaluating plans to promote development

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Acceptance and respect

• Inclusion

• School policies

• Discrimination and its effects

• Current legislation

• Own attitude and behaviour when working with young people

• How to challenge discrimination

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Understand the rights of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs.

• Understand the disabilities and/or special educational needs of children and young people in own care.

• Be able to support the inclusion of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs.

• Be able to support disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs to participate in the full range of activities and experiences.

• Be able to support others to respond to the needs of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs.

When you are settling bilingual learners into a new environment, if possible, it can be helpful to use their preferred language. This is because it will help them to feel that the learning environment is accessible to them and develop their confidence in the new setting.

This unit is designed to give you an overview of:

• Speech and language delay, impairments or disorders

• Specific learning difficulties, e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia

• Autistic spectrum disorder

• Permanent sensory or physical impairment including blindness, deafness and visual impairment

• Moderate, severe or profound learning difficulties affecting their ability to communicate and interact with others

We will all face a number of transitions in our lives; these will vary from life events that happen to all, to those that happen to only a few. Changes can be very difficult for children and young people as they can mean leaving behind familiar faces and routines and starting something new.

Play and leisure are important and beneficial for children and young people and contribute to all areas of learning and development. Through making their own decisions and being able to experiment through play and leisure, children and young people will be developing skills and experience in several areas.