Teaching Assistants

Shaw Education Trust; Bury St Edmunds; On-site; GBP 19,000 - 23,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

LGPS/Teachers Pension

Generous holidays

Medicash Health

Discount for Teachers

Eye tests

Cycle to work

Institute of Education access

Professional development

Job summary

Unsworth Academy, part of Shaw Education Trust, is recruiting highly motivated Teaching Assistants to support our teaching staff in the classroom. You will help encourage and motivate students under the guidance of the Class Teacher, contributing to an ambitious school improvement journey and a world-class curriculum.

Joining us means working in a thriving, inclusive environment with dedicated colleagues. This role supports learners during 37 hours per week, term time only, with pay in line with

Job description

Unsworth Academy are now looking to recruit highly motivated Teaching Assistants to join their team. The main purpose of the role is support and assist our teaching staff within the classroom. You will help to encourage and motivate our students under the guidance of the Class Teacher. Unsworth Academy is a thriving, oversubscribed, co-educational and non- selective Bury high school. The school is on an incredibly exciting journey of school improvement. Our latest Ofsted report, in April 2025 was glowing and indictive of an outstanding judgement were it to have been a graded inspection. A new three-year development plan titled 'Exemplary Unsworth 2028 was launched in September 2025. It will guide our journey to an even more sophisticated level of provision for the wonderful community of Unsworth. At Unsworth Academy, our vision is to drive both the academic and character development of learners, so they can positively shape the society and communities they inhabit. We are unapologetically ambitious, fostering a culture built on individual ownership, holistic development and community strength. At Shaw Education Trust, we believe every role has the power to transform a life. Whether you're supporting behind the scenes, inspiring in the classroom, or leading with vision, you will be part of something truly meaningful. Our values- opportunity, integrity, community, and equity -guide everything we do. Our vision is "Opening doors to the world through the power of learning." We bring this to life through our mission: working together to inspire communities where every school is valued, every voice matters, and every learner thrives. We are a dynamic and growing family of primary, secondary, and special schools, proudly serving communities from Birmingham to Bury. Our people are our greatest asset, and we are deeply committed to their development through high-quality training, apprenticeships, talent development programmes, and research opportunities, we empower our staff to thrive as skilled, confident professionals. We champion wellbeing, value every voice, and foster a culture where you feel supported, motivated, and inspired to make a real difference. You will join a collaborative network of schools where shared expertise and a strong professional community drive success. Every academy within our Trust has an equal voice, and every colleague plays a vital role in shaping tailored learning experiences that raise aspirations and build brighter futures. If you have the passion, dedication, and drive to help shape lives and create futures filled with promise, we would love you to join our team. Together let's make the remarkable happen. We believe every child has the potential to be extraordinary. In our secondary schools, we pride ourselves on our innovative approach to curriculum design, to ensure all our schools have breadth and ambition for all students, regardless of their starting points and barriers. Standard curriculum models don't always engage all students, so we constantly seek to innovate and provide better opportunities to develop both knowledge and skills for life. We want our students to believe their curriculum is bold, exciting, purposeful, and ultimately leads to something meaningful for them. Some examples of our innovation include moving towards a trust wide approach to enrichment and competitions, to provide a world class enrichment programme and more opportunities for essential skills like reading and cultural capital. We are also introducing vocational and technical pathways, which run through the normal school curriculum but attract support from leading employers and universities to develop work-readiness in our students, so that they can progress onto T Levels and apprenticeships. We are currently at an exciting point in their evolution, with collaboration at the heart of our collective endeavour. We don't operate in silos: we value the power of the pack and strive to collaborate as a collective, ensuring no school or colleague is left behind. We are currently co‑constructing an aligned curriculum across all EBacc curriculum subjects, to create a world class curriculum, rich in powerful knowledge and skills. This is driving up standards through the sharing of the very best practice, whilst allowing each school sufficient flexibility for autonomy to do what is right for their local context. A by‑product of this approach has been the reduction in planning workload for colleagues, meaning they can spend more time on the things that matter and fostering strong relationships with pupils and delivery of the curriculum. As a group of schools, we take an evidence-informed approach to developing the quality of our teaching and learning, learning from research and best practice in the sector. We value a non‑hierarchical, supportive approach to developing great teachers. As a people-focused trust, we consider the professional development of our staff as a fundamental responsibility. Where any schools face any barrier, it has the mutual support of the others in sector to call upon for subject specific or general support, all facilitated by a group of servant leaders at trust level. Our Heads meet regularly and genuinely support each other in a non-competitive environment. We have team of directors with vast experience at headship, senior and middle leadership levels and our team of subject directors are supporting subject staff across the trust to design and deliver the very best curricula, providing subject specific pedagogical support. Our secondary schools are currently driving 'PedTech' across the sector: we believe teaching and technology should go hand-in-glove and are passionately committed towards providing a fully digitally enhanced curriculum. We are very close to achieving full 1:1 device delivery and are sprinting towards better use of iPads in lessons to enhance the experience and learning.

Employee Benefits

• An excellent Local Government Pension Scheme (Support Staff) / Teachers Pension (Teaching Staff)
• Support Staff only based on working full time, all year - Generous holiday entitlement from your first day of employment (37 days holiday rising to 39 days after 5 years' service including Bank Holidays)
• Access to Medicash Health & Wellbeing Plan: Enjoy health services designed to support your well-being.
• Free DiscountForTeachers Scheme for all staff (Support and Teaching), Exclusive discounts to save money with a wide selection of discounts and exclusive offers from hundreds of the biggest brands.
• Free Eye Tests
• Cycle to work scheme
• Access to our Institute of Education and fantastic opportunities to help you grow, contribute and flourish in your role and in the Trust.
• Colleagues within the Trust benefit from: Access to a full range of courses both in-house and professionally accredited. These courses include a variety of the National Professional Qualifications and the Early Carer Teacher Programme delivered by Shaw Education Trust as a delivery partner for Ambition Institute. Experienced leadership and subject-specific support. Guidance from former HMIs and serving Ofsted Inspectors within the Trust. Access to the Trust's Institute of Education and SCITT. Opportunities to work with different schools within the Trust as a Professional Advocate. Participating in peer reviews. Access to a suite of online courses. Placement, projects within our family of schools.

Actual Salary: £21,953.24 - £22,653.17 Working hours: 37 hours per week, 8.00am - 4.00pm, 38 weeks Term Time Only, plus 1 week (39 weeks per year total) Interview - Thursday 1st October