Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) Diploma and Autism Awareness Bundle

Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) Diploma and Autism Awareness Bundle

The Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) Diploma home learning programme has been developed to enable those working, or hoping to work, in the role of ‘Higher Level teaching assistant’ (HLTA), to acquire and develop a level of understanding and skills that will help them to do this effectively.

The Higher Level Teaching Assistant Diploma (HLTA) course study modules are based around the professional standards for HLTA status which set out for teachers, employers and parents the contribution to pupils’ learning that HLTAs can be expected to make.  Although this course does not provide you with HLTA status, the course has been written alongside the 33 TDA standards and will provide you with the underpinning knowledge to progress in this field.

The standards cover three areas:

Professional attributes (standards 1-7)

These set out the attitudes, values and commitment expected of HLTAs.

Professional knowledge and understanding (standards 8-16)

These set out the knowledge and skills needed by HLTAs to be able to work effectively with teachers as part of the professional team supporting learning.

Professional skills (standards 17-33)

These set out the expectations for planning, monitoring, managing and evaluating learning within the framework of guidance and supervision agreed with the assigned teacher and in accordance with arrangements made by the headteacher of the school.

There is a mixture of question types requiring a range of responses, including: descriptive answers or the completion of practical activities. If you are currently working with children, the activities may be used in support of your particular role. However, if you are not actively working with children at present, you will find that wherever possible the questions are structured to provide you with alternative means of answering them. You may find it profitable to approach the head of one of your local schools, to explain what you are doing and to see whether there are any opportunities for you to gain experience by helping out in the school on a purely voluntary basis.

The starting salary for a Teaching Assistant ranges from around £11,000 to £16,000.  A Higher Level Teaching Assistant could earn up to £18,000 a year.  A fully-qualified FE Teacher can earn between £22,000 and £33,000 a year. - C&Q Qualification Guide 2009.

Autism is a diverse and mystifying condition that has been the focus of much scientific research over the last few decades.  The Autism Awareness Diploma aims to develop your understanding of autism and gives practical suggestions when working with autistic individuals.

Today, autism refers to a whole range of social, language and communication problems.  Severity ranges from hardly there at all, often undiagnosed and even unrecognised, to severe, where it is virtually impossible for people to participate in society.  There are no boundaries between the conditions Kanner and Asperger identified, often people are in-between, whether in between Asperger’s syndrome and Kanner’s, or in between “normal” and Asperger’s syndrome. Therefore, collectively we refer to “autistic spectrum disorder”, or ASD, as this allows for the differences in both symptoms and severity.  A person without ASD is called a neuro-typical.

This course will enable you to become familiar with various approaches to autism, have increased awareness of how to obtain a diagnosis and enable you to understand genetic environmental causes of autism. The Autism Awareness course will also explain how research in other conditions can help research into autism.