Our Autism Awareness Brand Ambassador, Cameron Douglas, gave us a behind the scenes look at what a typical day is like as a SEN Teaching Assistant.
8:45am
Before the pupils arrive we help our class teacher prepare the classroom for the day ahead. This usually involves setting up our visual class timeline, setting up our various workstations and preparing resources for whole class sensory circuits and attention autism activities.
9:00am
The children will start arriving with their parents/carers. We will meet the children on the yard and assist them into class to get them settled in. It is straight onto the carpet to sit on green chairs for the register. The visual timeline is on display so the pupils can see what exciting jobs are in store for the morning. Each child has their own individual green chair with their photo on and are getting better at learning to recognise their own picture and what chair is theirs. Our register time begins with singing our ‘hello’ song with each child being encouraged to give a wave when it is their turn to say hello. After registration it is then time for our whole class sensory circuits activities. This usually consists of three jobs: alerting, organising and calming. This gets the children’s bodies and mind’s ready for the morning ahead. After the sensory circuit activities, it is time for our ‘attention autism’ activity known as ‘bucket time’. The children must stay seated in their chairs and watch the teacher pull various objects from the bucket and entertain the children for a short time to gain the attention and interest of the pupils.
9:30am
Next up is our workstation activities! This could be anything from language, literacy and communication to math, numeracy or even science & technology. The work is specifically set up to accommodate the level of each child so although the work will be based around the same topic the level of difficulty of the work will vary from child to child. Once a pupil has completed their workstation tasks it is then free play time with the chosen toys and activities that were set out ready prior to them arriving. This is often linked to the work they have done at the workstation.
10:30am
Feeding time! It’s time for snacks to feed some hungry tummies! We have snack time at our yellow chairs around the table and is often a few rounds of toast with some milk, squash or water. Some of our fussier eaters can bring in their own snack to eat. After snacks we are putting our coats on to go play in our outdoor area known as the ‘quad’. Our quad area is super fun with lots to do from sand and water trays to swings and playhouses!
11:00am
It’s time to carry on with our workstations and work on some of the pupil’s IEP’s. Some might even go to our school’s soft play area or our light & dark sensory room!
12:00pm
Lunch time! Usually, our younger pupils will stay and eat their lunch in class while some older pupils go to the dining hall for their dinner. After eating all their lunch it’s time to go out for dinner time play.
1:00pm
Back to class with full bellies and all worn out from playing. Green chairs first for our afternoon register and whole class sensory circuits to regulate ourselves after a stimulating play time. Then it’s time to continue with IEP’s and children will be chosen one at a time to complete our main class activity which could be anything from using arts and crafts to make their own Mother’s Day cards to designing their own easter bonnets with support from our staff. It’s choosing time after this activity is completed meaning the pupils can choose their favourite toys to play with for the remainder of the afternoon.
2:30pm
Tidy up time! It’s time to tidy up ready to go home. Once we have put all the toys away pupils get their coats and bags on, sit on our green chairs and sing our ‘goodbye’ song.
2:45pm
Taxis, cars and parents wait on the yard to pick up their child after a super fun day at school. We take the children out and update parents/carers on all the fun things we have done and learnt today.
To support Autism Awareness Month, we are offering our ‘Awareness and development of Autism friendly classrooms’ and ‘Awareness of understanding Autism’ courses away for completely free. Click here to find out more.