Psychology Graduate SEN Teaching Assistant – Autism & Complex Needs
Kingston Upon Thames, South West London
£93–£98 per day PAYE
Full-time (term time only), Long-term contract
ASAP start
This role is not for everyone. But if it is for you, it will be one of the most meaningful things you do.
You will be working in a specialist school supporting pupils aged 4 to 19 with Severe Learning Difficulties, complex needs, and Autism. Many of the young people you work with will be non-verbal or minimally verbal. Some will experience significant emotional dysregulation. Some will have sensory needs that shape every part of their day. Your job is not to fix any of that. Your job is to understand it, work with it, and build the kind of consistent, trusting relationship that helps a young person feel safe enough to learn.
If that sounds like something you are genuinely drawn to, not just willing to do, but actually interested in, read on.
The School
This is a supportive and friendly specialist school in Kingston, Surrey. It is a large, well-resourced provision, but it does not feel like one. Each class is small. The staff-to-pupil ratio is high. The environment has been built around the needs of the pupils, not the other way around.
The school works within the SCERTS framework, Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Supports. You do not need to know SCERTS already. You do need to understand why that kind of structured, consistent, communication-first approach matters for pupils with Autism and complex needs. The multi-disciplinary team includes speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, music therapists, and creative therapists. You will work alongside all of them.
This is a school that takes staff wellbeing seriously, not as a talking point but in practice.
What the Role Involves
- Supporting pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties, Autism, and complex communication needs across the school day
- Working within the SCERTS framework to support social communication and emotional regulation
- Implementing individual support strategies developed with the wider therapy and teaching team
- Using AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) tools and approaches with non-verbal pupils
- Supporting sensory regulation needs, understanding a pupil's sensory profile and responding accordingly
- Helping pupils access a personalised, flexible curriculum that is built around them
- Contributing to observations, records, and progress tracking as part of a wider MDT
- Assisting with personal care and hydrotherapy
What could be challenging?
Some days will be hard. You may support a pupil through significant distress. You may spend a whole session trying to help someone regulate before any learning can happen, and that is the learning. Progress here looks different to mainstream. It is slower, quieter, and sometimes invisible until it is not. If you need fast, visible results to feel like your work has value, this will frustrate you.
If, on the other hand, you find meaning in the small things, a pupil making eye contact for the first time in a week, a new communication symbol used independently, a moment of calm after a period of real difficulty. This environment will give you a great deal.
Who genuinely thrives here?
I am actively welcoming applications from people who do not have traditional SEN TA / Teaching Assistant experience but have the right foundation. That includes:
- Psychology, education, or social work graduates who want to work directly with young people with complex needs
- People with lived experience of Autism or learning disabilities, as a family member, sibling, or carer, who understand what it actually means to support someone with these needs
- Youth workers, learning mentors, or community support workers who have worked with young people presenting with dysregulation, communication differences, or social and emotional difficulties
- Care assistants or residential support workers, particularly those who have worked with non-verbal individuals or people with sensory needs
- Anyone who has supported young people with SEMH, ADHD, trauma, or communication difficulties in any context
What matters most is that you are patient, observant, consistent, and genuinely curious about the young people you work with. You do not need to have all the answers. You need to care enough to keep looking for them.
About Parker Smith Inclusion
We are a specialist SEND recruitment consultancy. We work exclusively in SEND, and it is all we do. We are PAYE-only by principle, and we are transparent about pay from the very first conversation. With over 350 five-star Google reviews, our reputation in this sector has been built on honesty and on getting the right people into the right schools.
If this role sounds right for you, get in touch. You can respond to this advert, upload your CV at psinclusion.co.uk, or call Heeji Moon on 0203 011 4848. We will have a proper conversation about whether this is the right move for you.