Teaching Assistant
Start date: April/May 2026
Grade/Salary: Single Status Grade 3, currently £24,795 per annum, full time equivalent. Actual salary: £17,659
Contract: Part time, term time only, 30 paid hours per week. Monday – Friday 8.45am - 3.15pm including an unpaid 30 minute break per day, fixed term contract for up to 12 months to cover a secondment (some flexibility in hours may be considered)
Join us as a Teaching Assistant on a fixed-term contract and make a real difference in the classroom. This is a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable experience, develop your skills, and contribute to students’ learning. Whether you are exploring a career in education or seeking a role that works around your future plans, this position offers flexibility and purpose.
As a Teaching Assistant, you will:
Support classroom learning and help shape young minds
Spark change and have a meaningful influence on students' futures
Enjoy flexible opportunities that fit around other commitments
Many of our Teaching Assistants have progressed into roles such as Teachers, Assistant SENDCO, Assistant Head of Year, or moved into Health & Care, Social Work, or Educational Psychology.
‘I worked as a Teaching Assistant before becoming a Teacher, and it was a great experience!’ (MARK Education Trust Teacher testimonial)
Benefits of working with us:
Flexible working approach
Staff recognition initiatives
Eligibility to join the Local Government Pension Scheme/Teacher’s Pension Scheme
Generous annual leave entitlement (support staff)
Access to Wellbeing Support through our Employee Assistance Programme, this includes free confidential telephone and face to face counselling
Opportunities to share your views through staff surveys and forums
Eligibility to access Blue Light Card and discounts
Discounted use of Gym & Exercise Classes at Uplands Academy
Free parking available onsite or within close proximity to all our schools
Free optician’s eyesight test for DSE users
Beacon Academy is a split site, semi-rural, mixed 11-18 non-selective converter academy with approximately 1600 students, including over 300 students in our Sixth Form. We are situated centrally in Crowborough on the outskirts of the Ashdown Forest, an area of outstanding natural beauty. We are close to Tunbridge Wells and the south coast. The vast majority of our staff travel to Beacon from a variety of locations within the southeast, including Brighton, Eastbourne, Lewes and Tunbridge Wells.
In September 2022, Beacon Academy, together with Uplands Academy in Wadhurst, became a member of the MARK Education Trust (formally Beacon Community College Academy Trust). The acronym, MARK, was selected because staff who work in the Trust are motivated, ambitious, resourceful, and knowledgeable. We were pleased to expand our Trust further in September 2025 with the addition of Hailsham Academy. This continued growth reflects our shared commitment to educational excellence, collaboration and supporting the success of all students across our Academies.
We work meticulously to secure a culture of unapologetically high expectations that are underpinned by our collective, uncompromising belief and ambition for our students, and for the experienced, loyal, highly skilled and highly-effective team of staff that teach them, allowing teachers to teach and students to learn in a school where leadership, management, behaviour and welfare are all judged as outstanding. MARK Education Trust is committed to the development of both its staff and students.
For further details, please contact the Human Resources department on 01892 603000 or email hr@beacon-academy.org. Please be advised that we do not accept curriculum vitae.
MARK Education Trust (Beacon, Uplands and Hailsham Academies) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an Enhanced DBS check, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed for all applicants.
NB: we advise applying promptly for this post as we reserve the right to close and interview early if sufficient suitable applications have been received.
Charlotte Burgess
01892603000
cburgess@markeducationtrust.org
Beacon Academy would like all candidates to answer specific questions for the personal statement section. For reference, here is a preview of the questions/headings:
