Teaching Assistant - Internal Suspension Room

Astrea Academy Trust; Barnsley; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 22,000; Full time

Job summary

Astrea Academy Netherwood in Barnsley seeks a Teaching Assistant to manage the Internal Suspension Room, providing structured, calm supervision and ensuring continued learning for scholars who need reflection time.

You will work closely with teachers and the pastoral team, delivering set work, promoting positive behavior, and feeding back on progress to help scholars rejoin mainstream lessons. A commitment to safeguarding and supporting vulnerable pupils is essential.

Responsibilities

• Supervise scholars in Internal Suspension, ensuring a structured, calm environment.
• Deliver set work and monitor progress to support learning.
• Promote positive behaviour through consistent expectations and restorative conversations.
• Feed back to teachers and pastoral staff to track reintegration into mainstream lessons.
• Provide targeted support for vulnerable scholars, including those with additional needs, and liaise with external agencies when required.

Job description

Teaching Assistant - Internal Suspension Room - Astrea Academy Netherwood

Do you want to be part of a team where you will help make a lasting impact on our scholars, many of whom are disadvantaged, and rapidly accelerate their progress?

Do you want to work in a school where you are free to teach, with impeccable scholar behaviour and unhindered by bureaucracy?

Astrea Academy Netherwood is an 11-16 academy which opened in September 2012, set in an extensive £35 million campus. As part of Astrea Academy Trust, Astrea Academy Netherwood is in an exciting period of development.

You will play a pivotal role in maintaining the academy's Internal Suspension Room, ensuring it operates as a structured, calm, and purposeful environment where scholars can reflect on their behaviour and continue their learning. Working closely with teaching staff and the pastoral team, the postholder will supervise scholars assigned to internal suspension, deliver set work, and promote positive behaviour through consistent expectations and restorative conversations. They will also be responsible for feeding back to relevant staff so that each scholar's progress and reintegration into mainstream lessons are carefully monitored and supported.

In addition to this core responsibility, the role holder will provide targeted support for the academy's most vulnerable scholars, including those with special educational needs, social, emotional, and mental health difficulties, or challenging home circumstances. Building trusting and supportive relationships will be essential, as the postholder will act as a key point of contact for scholars who may be struggling to engage with education, helping them to regulate their emotions, develop resilience, and access the support they need. The successful candidate will work collaboratively with teachers, pastoral leaders, and external agencies to remove barriers to learning, ensuring that every scholar, regardless of their background or challenges, is given the best possible opportunity to succeed.

We are values-driven and our vision is to provide an inclusive, aspirational and academic education for all our scholars, so that all of them will learn, thrive and lead successful lives. We are unapologetically ambitious for every child, no matter what their background, prior attainment or needs. We want to ensure that all our scholars have the option to be able to go to university or aspirational alternative. We are not going to reduce expectations because of a child’s background or home life, or because they are new to English or have a special education need. In fact, the opposite is true. It is our job to redouble our efforts to help children overcome these barriers so that they can flourish.

We value our staff highly and treat workload very seriously.

Our systems are high leverage, ensuring you can really focus on your core purpose.

What we offer:

• Support and progression opportunities


• Excellent support from the Astrea Trust Central team


• Highly visible/supportive senior leaders who have your back


• Excellent ongoing CPD, career development and promotion opportunities across the Astrea South Yorkshire region


• Opportunity to complete further qualifications


• An unrivalled professional progression model

What we are looking for:

The successful candidate will be:

• Aligned to our values and mission. If you are the type of person who fits with our culture, you will love working here


• Someone who passionately believes that all children can achieve, no matter what their starting point, background or needs.

We actively welcome visits and would be delighted to show you around our academy to appreciate fully our excellent learning environment (details in the applicant brief).

The closing date for all applications is midnight on 15th November 2026.

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks including references and enhanced DBS checks.