The feeling of being "belonged to somewhere" rather than being "just a spare part"

Hi everyone, it's been a minute, so here's a short & brief summary of what I've been up to these past few months.

I'm back to working full-time in education, but this time, it's on a permanent basis! (I'll explain more about that later as per this blog title)

I've also been doing a lot of work with my 2 policing projects. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll know what they'll involve.

It's definitely safe to say that I've been rather busy during that time! But since I have a whole day to myself, I thought I'd use the time to make this blog post. Most of what I will be talking about in this post, will be related to my career working as an Agency Teaching Assistant (TA), and finally getting the job as a permanent contracted Teaching Assistant role.

Turning the attention back to the above title, I want to talk about why I feel like going to a job where I actually feel like I belong somewhere, and not just going to a job where I feel like I'm just a spare part.

This was because that when I was an Agency TA for a year & 8 months, all I was doing was covering for contracted TA's in classrooms where the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) couldn't hire any permanent staff at the time. 

I admittedly enjoyed the getting to go to a variety of different schools aspect of the role, as I got to work with different pupils. That said, there was 3 schools that I worked in where they made me feel valued, and treated me like I was a permanent member of staff.

However, these things also didn't mean that I enjoyed the job role altogether...

Again, most of my time as an Agency TA just felt like I was nothing but a "spare part" as there were some schools that I had worked in where their staff didn't appreciate me working there. Even if it was just for one day. 

Without naming some schools I worked at, I would get told by the agencies who put me in those schools that they won't be suitable for me. All because I happen to make a mistake with marking someone's work, or how I interact with the pupils, or even just how I talked with the staff in general. You could say those schools were very nitpicky about which staff they'd like to have.

This went on until the 10th of June, where I had an interview at a SEN & SEMH school in Crawley. I remember going into the interview thinking: "Will this be another interview that I won't be successful in afterwards?" Only because I had SO many TA role interviews with the outcome of being unsuccessful. Although, I actually had slightly more hope in this one due to the SLT who interviewed me seemed very impressed with the amount of schools I had worked in since November 2024. Especially with the amount of experience of SEN & SEMH I have gained during that time.

Anyway, the following morning (the 11th of June), I got the phone call to say that I was successful in the interview, and have been offered my place at the school to start in September! This then gave me a strong feeling of relief, finally feeling like all of my patience, persistence & determination has eventually paid off for something worthwhile!

Once I started at the school on the 1st of September, I began to carry a sense of "belonging" by the fact that the job is mine, and no one can replace me. This also meant that I can carry on working in education for as long as I want to!

That's all for now, but I'll be sure to be back on here once I have more time to do so.

Over & out!🤚🏻

How it feels to have PDA

Good evening everyone!  

It's now been a fair few months since I was last on here, and for a good reason too... I have had the pleasure of working at Aurora Poppyfield School from the end of January to keep me busy, which I can say is very similar to Grafham Grange. Only with a fewer behavioural challenges. Unfortunately, my time there has now come to an end after Easter break due to permanent staff being hired in each class.

During my time at Poppyfield, I got to expand my knowledge of SEMH and how it differently affects different pupils in each class. Much like in every previous SEMH school settings I have worked in after Grafham. Also during my time working at Poppyfield, I got to gain more skills in working with students who happen to have something called Pathological Demand Avoidance, or PDA for short.

There was this one boy in year 7, who I was working closely with a majority of my time at the school, who had a complex level of needs. All of which include, ASD, ADHD, SEMH, Trauma, SPD, and of course... PDA. Obviously, I will not be naming this person for identification protection reasons, but I can share with you what I have learned about PDA just from spending time with this pupil, and turning it into another insightful post.

So, many of you reading this now will no doubt be thinking: "What on earth is PDA all about? I've never heard of it before." I'd say, try working with a pupil with PDA, then you'll find out for yourself.

To answer that question, PDA is where a person will avoid doing tasks and/or following instructions given by another person. Particularly from teachers. Although, it is important to keep in mind that people with PDA are not trying to be difficult in any way at all when it comes to not doing what they are told to do. This is because many kids living with PDA, are often overpowered anxiety, and in order to for them to feel safe & secure, they need to be in control of everything they are doing. 

To phrase the above explanation shorter, kids with PDA are constantly living in "survival mode".

As a good example, I'll use the pupil at Poppyfield I was working a lot with. He would almost NEVER go into the classroom to do any work, as his mind is constantly in survival mode whilst at school. And given the amount of needs this pupil has to cope with all at once, the very small demand of doing a simple worksheet will plunge him into overwhelm overdrive.

As a result, this pupil will do things to his own agenda just to feel secure, and in control to help him survive the school day without feeling threatened by anything that triggers his PDA. Even if this includes playing games with him all day. With that said, it's vitally important to be able to build trust with PDA pupils before you can even think about getting them to do what YOU want them to do.

God forbid, I know I have certainly struggled with this, and will probably still do to this day if I get to work with any PDA pupils again in the nearby future.

I hope everyone has found this little piece of PDA expertise helpful. Bye for now!

*I began this post on the 13/4, but didn't finish it until the 14/4*

The waiting game...

Hello you lovely lot! Hope you're all enjoying you week so far, as we've only got 3 more weeks left of 2025...

As of such, I'm trying my absolute hardest to relax & take it easy for the remainder of this month. This is due to no LSA work coming in now until after New Year. I like to say that it's been easy for some part, but other times, it's been emotionally exhausting & frustrating.

As a consequence, my mind always feels the need to keep busy to prevent me from being bored. This is just another thing I find incredibly frustrating about being an Agency LSA, in case if I've not mentioned that already.

For example: I can get a phone call from an agency on one day about me being available to be needed to work in a school for the next day or so. However, come the next day at precisely 7:30am the next morning, I get no phone calls whatsoever?! At around this time, I'll be calling the agency up to ask them if I'm still needed to work in the school today. But then they don't answer their phone, or I just get told that I'm no longer needed to work at the school anymore. Even though I've made every ounce of effort to be on "standby" just in case.

In my case, this is EXACTLY what has been going on for the past 2 months now, and frustrated would be an understatement to describe how I had felt throughout all of this malarkey. Hence, this blog's title - "The waiting game". And my intention for this post is to share this experience of constantly being put on hold by recruiters from several agencies, when they keep telling you that they will put you in a LSA job the following day('s), but they keep on leaving you out to dry but not contacting you in any way at all.

I get that there is hardly work now in the 3 weeks running up to Christmas, but to not be contacted by any agency to keep me updated on what sort of jobs I can start in the New Year is really grinding my patience down.

Any Agency LSA's reading this, or anyone working in a similar industry, I'd be very interested to hear if you've been through what I've been going through as well over the past 2 months.

Over & out.

A year into working in education...

It's somehow the 1st of December already?! Which can only mean a few things... Christmas is on its way! As is my birthday (the big 25 coming up in 28 days😬), New Year & more importantly, the 5th anniversary of this blog being created! (I'll be sure to do a post on that😉)

Anyway, hope this final month of 2025 has gotten off to a good start for you all, whatever you're doing. I fortunately had the day to myself today, so that means I'll be able to make a post on here.

This was another post I was meant to do a couple of weeks ago, as it marks 1 whole year of me working in education, (8th of November 2024 to be more priciest).

As of such, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on my journey. This also will include what I've learned, what I've enjoyed & the downsides of being an agency LSA, if I've not mentioned them already.

Since I began college, I've always wanted a career where I can work with young people to understand their mindsets. It was there & then that I've wanted to go down a psychology degree route. Although at that stage, I was a few years away from considering about going to university to undertake a psychology degree. 

Fast forward onto March 2023, when I was 3 months away from finishing college, and where I got the job as a Saturday Youth Worker at Challengers, I got talked out of going to university by one of my college tutors. Half of the reason was because he went to university himself, and told me face-to-face that the university experience is really not as people make it out to be. He also added that obtaining a psychology degree would not mean anything by the time I've finished uni. 

Fast forward again onto November 2024, where I've gained over a year's experience of being a Youth Worker to vulnerable young people, I decided to apply to lots of LSA jobs through CV Library. I'll tell you what, I was very impressed with the fact that one agency was very quick at getting back to me within just 24 hours! 

Here I am a year on, and I'm sat here with all of this more in-dept knowledge of some SEN needs that I've never heard of before or not have much experience of working with SEN needs that I do know of. For example, SEMH is definitely one of them. I'm sat here typing this, where I feel like I'm an expert with understanding SEMH, as I've gained so much experience & knowledge of how SEMH impacts a young person. As most of you know by now, I am best known for working at a SEMH school for 6 months, where I've found a fond passion of working with vulnerable young people who have experienced trauma in their early stages of life.

I have also worked in other education settings as well, where I got to put my expertise knowledge of SEMH, ASD & ADHD into good use. However, these have only been a couple of days here & a couple of days there kind of jobs, but it was still an enjoyable experience to get to work with different pupils with a variety of different SEN, as well as learn about how all of those SEN impacts these pupils nonetheless!

For those of you who are interested, here is a FULL list of all of the education settings that I have worked in over the past year:

• Bramley Oak Academy (for 1 day)
• Grafham Grange (now Bramley Grange Academy for 6 months)
• Gosden House (for 1 day)
• Merrist Wood College SEN department (1 week)
• Leith Hill School (3 days)
• Carwarden House (3 days)
• Pond Meadow (1 day)
• Brooklands School (1 day)
• Hollywater School (1 day)
• St Joseph's Trust (2 days)

I will be upfront & honest here by saying that I do find it frustrating that a few agencies I am now registered with, do not give me enough support when it comes to being placed into a school, where I intend to get more permanent work in. Especially if I really get on with the school & its pupils with needs that I have expertise in working with. Another thing I dislike, is where I will be specific to an agency that I do not want to be placed anywhere that I have little experience in. Biggest example would be in a school with non-verbal pupils. But they'll still do it anyway, all because they care about filling in staff gaps just so they can make their money for the day.

On a more positive note, I definitely like to think that I've been really successful in this industry so far! Especially how I've chosen not to go down the university route just for the purpose of getting a paper psychology degree at the end of it that doesn't mean much now in the career route I'm currently going down.

The pros & cons of being an agency LSA

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Since I've been an agency LSA for a year now, I thought about doing a post based on everything I have learned about being an agency LSA, as well as talk about the pros & cons of the job.

To be more precise, I first began applying for agency LSA roles on the 3rd of November of last year, and got officially employed into my 1st one on the 8th of November (5 days later). For most part, I'd happily say that I'm enjoying it, as the role itself is genially rewarding by helping young people thrive in education. However, the job itself can be extremely demanding due to the lack of expectations that some school staff won't tell you about before you go into the school('s) to do your job. 

Without further ado, here are the pros & cons of being an agency LSA...

  Pros:

• Meeting new people everyday - One of the things I really love about my job as an agency LSA, is that I get to meet different pupils, and learn many things about them. I never know, I may even learn something from one of them or more!...

• Getting to know how each school's curriculum works - I enjoy absorbing the knowledge of how each I school I've been into is ran, as this will be useful for me to pass onto anyone who wants to know if those school settings should be recommended to their children or children they know. Moreover, different schools have different vibes!

• Seeing familiar faces - Some of the schools I have worked in, I have seen some young people that I know of from Challengers (my Saturday & holiday job). Again, I enjoy absorbing the knowledge of that some young people from most of the Challengers schemes I have worked at attend these school settings. 

Cons:

• Not getting enough time to know the pupils well - Most of the schools I have worked in (with the exception of Grafham Grange) have only been for 1 day here, a few days there & another few days somewhere else. On an honest level, I really love getting to know the pupils I work with well, as this helps me to build a good, positive & trusting relationship with them by understanding how their mind works. Especially when they eventually gain enough trust in me to be their listening ear if they need/want to offload their thoughts.

• Low expectations from teachers - The one thing that really frustrates me the most about being an agency LSA, is that the teachers in the classes I get put into do not explain to me how best to be proactive in the class or how best to engage with each pupil. All this does is not only set me up to fail if I'm doing one or more days of trail shifts, but feel like I'm only present in the class as a "spare part".

• Little - no support from agencies - Another thing that really frustrates me about this line of work, is that some agencies (and I've registered onto about 10 different ones during October) will be very dismissive of your needs/requests. In the case of some agencies I'm with, I say to them that I specifically do not want to be placed into a school where I have to work with screaming non-verbal children, as I do not have much experience of working with them, but they'll still do it anyway when they call me up asking if I am available to work on the day they call me, all simply because for the purpose of the school giving THEM wages when these agencies fill school classes up with agency LSA's to fill in the holes, as well as keep the schools running as normal.

That pretty much wraps up this post. Hope you all find these pros & cons useful just in case you work in this industry to, or even thinking about it. 

I shall be back soon with another post!

*I began this post on the 18/11, but didn't finish it until the 19/11*