Sarah Walker, 33, who lives in Gateshead on being a special needs teaching assistant at Wingrove Primary School in Fenham in the middle of a global pandemic.
I wake up to my alarm at 6.15am and immediately go to wake my two children up for breakfast before I go and get dressed. Depending on what the weather is like outside, I will either wear a dress with thick tights or a t-shirt with trousers. After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I go downstairs to sort our two cats and two dogs out. This usually consists of letting the dogs outside and cleaning the cat litter. I immediately make my first cup of coffee; I would not be able to survive the work day without this cup of coffee! Among this I round up the Nine and 11-year-old making sure they’re all sorted for school.
I always make sure to leave the house no later than 7.10am otherwise I will be late for work. I catch the bus to the Metro station from my local bus stop. Slathering my hands in hand sanitizer I rush to my next mode of transport, the Metro into Monument Station. Now onto my third and final mode of transport for my travel to work, the bus into Fenham.
I arrive at the school I work in at 8.10am and deliver todays newspaper to the school caretaker and set up the classroom with todays morning task. We do anything from handwriting to phonics or fine motor skills as I work in year one. I have 10 minutes before the children start to arrive, so I go to the kitchen and order my lunch for the day.
At 8.35am the children start to arrive, and this year is very different from the last. Due to new COVID-19 restrictions, I have to collect the children from the yard all while socially distancing from the parents and families. I walk them inside, using a special pre planned route used by the school in order to ensure that class bubbles don’t mix upon entering the school. I remind the 30 students in my class to ensure they sanitize their hands as they enter the classroom, and hang their coats in the coatroom. I then instruct the children to sit in their name tagged seats, in socially distanced rows.
After everyone is seated in the classroom, I sanitize my hands then take the lunch register to send off to the school kitchen. I collect in any resources used for the morning activity, and sanitize everything used, in case a pupil is carrying the virus. Then at 9.15am, I take my phonics group, who are lower ability and/or SEN pupils to a premeditated, safe area within the school, which no other bubbles will use. We practice our phonics, and I give individual support to any child who is struggling with the work.
After this I take the children back to the classroom and support them in listening to the English lesson, and completing the assigned work. This is the bit where we get to see joyful spelling mistakes and funny sentences. When English is finished, we head out for breaktime and I provide first aid for bumps and scrapes, and hand the children their fresh fruit.
Finally, after a busy start to the morning, its my time for a break, so I go for a cup of coffee in the staff room. I didn’t always want to be a teaching assistant, in fact when I was 18, I was studying to become a nurse. But after taking on my husband’s daughter, I quit studying to be a full-time mum. I worked in H Samuels, and then had my two youngest children so became a full-time mummy. Then in 2017, I decided I would start studying to become a teaching assistant, so with two young children and a daughter completing her GCSEs in tow, I started studying again. I first started working in my current position in early 2018 with an autistic little girl who required a lot of support. From then, I became the school’s early years SEN teaching assistant, helping all young children with learning difficulties in their early years of school.
My break lasts 15 minutes, and before my coffee has a chance to go cold, I’m back in the classroom supporting the lower groups in our class topic. This usually consists of completing a story map or completing a task that follows on from the lesson, by helping children with what they need to correct. Then at 11.45am, the children tidy up whatever mess they made that morning, whilst I help the Class Teacher collect in work and mark it. Before we know it, its time to sanitize all the children’s hands and get our coats on ready to go out and play. Then at 12pm, I lead the children out onto the yard so they can have their small bit of freedom.
At 12.25pm, the children all line up and I lead them inside to sanitize their hands and take them to the lunch hall. I monitor the children as they eat, I cut up any food they struggle with and make sure they eat enough. Then at 12.55pm, the children put their trays away and sanitize their hands before we go back to the classroom.
Its time for my lunch break, and I have half an hour. I have my lunch in the staffroom, before heading back down to the classroom to help with afternoon activities. I take out a group of children to our designated safe area, and we practice our words and blending, we play games in order to make the learning fun. After that, I take out my lower ability and SEN student again to do some maths intervention, this helps them build up their maths skill.
We have a short afternoon break, followed by some handwriting practice. Finally, we have speech and language programmes, where I provide one to one guidance with three different children following a plan provided by their speech and language therapist.
Home time comes around fast, we sanitize our hands again, for what feels like the millionth time and I hand out letters to the children. I then lead them onto the yard and to their designated pick up spot, where the children are handed back to their parents.
Finally, at 3:30pm, the work day is finished and I can go home to my family. I head for my bus back to monument metro, making sure I wear my mask and sanitize at all times. Onto the packed Metro quickly, trying to keep the two-metre social distance, then finally my last mode of transport, my bus which drops me off on my doorstep thankfully!
When I arrive home, I have my dinner, and complete any planning needed for the next day. Finally, I can relax with my family after a long day in COVID times! At 10pm, I go to sleep, ready to repeat it all tomorrow.
The school days now are very different, and I lose count of how many times I sanitize my hands, its difficult trying to socially distance 30 5-year-olds.
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