SEMH Teaching Assistant

As a SEMH Teaching Assistant, your responsibilities will include:

• Supporting pupils with SEMH needs, either on a 1:1 basis or in small groups
• Helping students manage their emotions, behaviour, and social interactions
• Building positive, trusting relationships with young people who may have experienced trauma or disrupted education
• Assisting with class‑based learning activities and reinforcing targets from Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
• Working collaboratively with teachers, SENCOs, and other support staff to provide consistent, structured support

Do you have the resilience, empathy, and patience to support pupils with Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs? Five Education is seeking compassionate and committed individuals to join our team as SEMH Teaching Assistants. This role is ideal for those who want to make a real impact on the lives of young people who face emotional and behavioural challenges. You will be working in a supportive school environment with various sites across Somerset that are focused on helping pupils thrive, both academically and emotionally.

This is a highly rewarding position, ideal for those looking to develop their skills in behaviour support, mental health awareness, and trauma‑informed practice.

• Emotional resilience and a calm, patient manner
• A genuine passion for supporting vulnerable young people
• Confidence in dealing with challenging behaviour and de‑escalation techniques
• A high level of initiative and commitment to safeguarding
• Ability to build positive relationships and maintain professional boundaries
• Previous experience is not required. However, backgrounds in the following are beneficial:
  Youth work or mentoring, Mental health or social care, Behavioural support roles, Security, armed forces, or public service roles, Working with vulnerable or at‑risk individuals

• Free, high‑quality training delivered by Five Education
• Opportunities to move into permanent roles
• Full support from an experienced and dedicated consultant

Pay:
Your daily rate of pay would be £90 with potential to earn more based on experience, including holiday pay.

Successful applicants will be required to undergo reference checks, TRA checks and a DBS check, and will need to have a DBS. There will also be a face‑to‑face interview. If you do not have a non‑voluntary enhanced DBS on the update service, we will need to process a new one at a cost of £62.70, which will be refunded after 20 days of work, provided the new DBS is put on the update service.

We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as they are currently under‑represented at this level.