Tower and Town, August 2016

  (view the full edition)

My Work as a Teaching Assistant

I have worked as a teaching assistant at St Mary's Infant School for 25 years. I fell into it! I came as a mum helper and was asked to apply; you could do that in those days. It suited me as the school holidays fitted in with family life and I had always worked with children. My experience as a mother of my own children has helped: knowing all children are different and are unhappy for different reasons and especially how to sort out battles. Sometimes they need someone motherly: they want a hug when they graze their knees.

When I started I was called a welfare assistant helping the children with cooking, sewing and gardening, going on walks tied in with a topic, hearing readers, playing maths games and word games. Now I support the teacher to support the curriculum. We do numeracy, literacy and phonics and that's the morning gone! The individuality has gone; all the children have to do the same. On the other hand, in the past when things went wrong every comment was negative but now the comments are more positive and aim to build self esteem.

I hear readers who need a reading boost. These days all mums work. Reading at home is on the back burner - they don't have as much time. I think I'm really lucky to be able to go to work and spend all morning reading. I also do phonics. Teaching of phonics for every child has been a real success and has worked really well in improving children's reading. The one-to-one reading sessions are TLC as much as anything; they make a huge difference to give children confidence and help them to keep up. I remember one child who said to me in the beginning "I like reading with you, Mrs Brown," then eventually "I like reading."

There have been a few changes over the years. Lots of children come to school by car or on scooters and so have lack of practice of walking. They find the walk to the swimming pool for swimming lessons very tiring to start with but they get used to it after a couple of weeks. Also speaking and listening is not as clear as it used to be. Computer games, mobile phones and television seem to influence this. But there are good years and bad years. I've loved working with all these children and I love the things they say. It's a pleasure and a privilege working with children. They teach you as much as you teach them.

Mary Brown