Complete City & Guilds Limited Occupational Qualification Learning Support specification revision resources. Tailored syllabus coverage with topic breakdowns, quizzes, and practice questions.
Specification Topics
- Child and young person development
- City & Guilds Level 3 Technical Occupational Entry for Teaching Assistants (Certificate) - Core Content
- Advocate on behalf of advice and guidance clients
- Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults
- Provide displays in schools
- Understand Child and Young Person Development.
- Identify and promote the contribution of Careers Education Guidance _CEG_ within the organisation
- Provide support for therapy sessions
- Understand How to Safeguard the Wellbeing of Children and Young People.
- Integrate Careers Education Guidance _CEG_ within the curriculum
- Safeguarding the welfare of children and young people
- Liaise with other services
- Manage personal case load
- Schools as organisations
- Negotiate and maintain service agreements
- Support assessment for learning
- Negotiate on behalf of advice and guidance clients
- Support children and young people at meal or snack times
- Operate within networks
- Support children and young people with disabilities and special educational needs
- Prepare and set up mediation
- Support children and young people’s health and safety
- Prepare clients through advice and guidance for the implementation of a course of action
- Support children and young people’s play and leisure
- Prepare to represent advice and guidance clients in formal proceedings
- Assist advice and guidance clients to decide on a course of action
- Develop professional relationships with children, young people and adults
- Support children and young people’s positive behaviour
- Present cases for advice and guidance clients in formal proceedings
- Promote Careers Education Guidance _CEG_
- Support children and young people’s travel outside of the setting
- Provide and maintain information materials for use in the service
- Support extra-curricular activities
- Provide support for other practitioners
- Support learning activities
- Support the use of information and communication technology for teaching and learning
- Stage and manage the mediation process
- Support clients to make use of the advice and guidance service
- Understand the importance of legislation and procedures
- Undertake research for the service and its clients
- Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings
- Contribute to supporting bilingual learners
- Assist clients through advice and guidance to review their achievement of a course of action
- Equality, diversity and inclusion in work with children and young people
- Design information materials for use in the service
- Promote children and young people’s positive behaviour
- Develop interactions with advice and guidance clients
- Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in work with children and young people
- Help improve own and team practice in schools
- Enable advice and guidance clients to access referral opportunities
- Invigilate tests and examinations
- Enable learning through demonstrations and instructions
- Maintain and support relationships with children and young people
- Move and position individuals in accordance with their plan of care
- Evaluate and develop own contribution to the service
- Support Children and Young People's Health and Safety.
- Facilitate learning in groups
- Prepare and maintain learning environments
Top Exam Board Tips
- When answering questions on development, always refer to the age ranges provided in the specification and use clear examples of observable behaviours at each stage.
- For influences on development, structure your answers around the PIES (Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social) framework to ensure comprehensive coverage.
- In assignments about transitions, always link theory to practice by discussing specific ways a teaching assistant can support a child, such as by preparing visual timetables or providing reassurance.
- Structure your portfolio to explicitly map each piece of evidence to specific assessment criteria, making it easy for assessors to locate required competencies.
- When reflecting on practice, always follow a clear model (e.g., Kolb or Gibbs) to demonstrate critical thinking and depth of analysis.
- For practical observations, prepare by discussing with your assessor exactly which standards will be covered and have supporting resources ready.
- Link theory to practice by citing relevant educational theories or frameworks when explaining why certain support strategies were chosen.
- Use concrete examples from your placement or case studies to illustrate how development theories apply in a school setting.
- In assessment tasks, always link influences and transitions to the child's overall well-being and learning, drawing from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework if relevant.
- When describing stages, be specific about age ranges and differentiate between physical, intellectual, language, emotional, and social development.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing the typical age ranges for specific milestones, e.g., expecting all children to walk by 12 months without considering individual variation.
- Overlooking the interplay between different developmental domains; for example, not recognizing that a physical disability might affect social and emotional development.
- Assuming all transitions are negative, without acknowledging that planned transitions (like starting nursery) can be positive opportunities for growth.
- Confusing the teaching assistant role with that of a qualified teacher, such as planning lessons independently or taking sole charge of a class without supervision.
- Failing to maintain professional boundaries, e.g., breaching confidentiality by discussing pupil information inappropriately.
- Providing generic support without tailoring approaches to identified individual learning needs, leading to lack of progression.
- Neglecting to document or evidence practical competence sufficiently, relying on assertion rather than concrete examples in portfolios.
- Confusing atypical development with delayed development, or failing to recognise that development can be uneven across different domains.
Key Terminology & Definitions
- Know the main stages of child and young person development, Understand the kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s development, Understand the potential effects of transitions on children and young people’s development
- Core knowledge
- Practical application
- Be able to prepare for advocacy, Be able to assess the potential results of the advocacy, Understand the details and requirements of the other parties, Be able to prepare to present the clients interests, Be able to present the clients’ interests
- Understand the principles of developing positive relationships with children, young people and adults, Understand how to communicate with children, young people and adults, Understand legislation, policies and procedures for confidentiality and sharing information, including data protection
- Understand the school policy and procedures for displays, Be able to design displays, Be able to set up displays, Be able to maintain displays, Be able to dismantle displays
- Understand the expected pattern of development for children and young people from birth - 19 years., Understand the factors that influence children and young people’s development and how these affect practice., Understand how to monitor children and young people’s development and interventions that should take place if this is not following the expected pattern., Understand the importance of early intervention to support the speech, language and communication needs of children and young people., Understand the potential effects of transitions on children and young people’s development.
- Be able to gain support for the role of CEG within the organisation, Be able to identify opportunities for promoting Careers Education Guidance (CEG) within the organisation, Be able to implement and evaluate a strategy to promote CEG within the organisation
- Understand the benefits of therapy sessions, Be able to prepare for therapy sessions, Be able to provide support in therapy sessions, Be able to observe and record therapy sessions, Be able to contribute to the review of therapy sessions
- Understand the main legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding children and young people., Understand the importance of working in partnership with other organisations to safeguard children and young people., Understand the importance of ensuring children and young people’s safety and protection in the work setting., Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been abused or harmed., Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been bullied., Understand how to work with children and young people to support their safety and wellbeing., Understand the importance of e-safety for children and young people.
- Be able to identify opportunities to integrate Careers Education Guidance (CEG) within the curriculum, Be able to plan and implement the integration of CEG within the curriculum, Be able to monitor and maintain the integration and success of CEG within the curriculum
- Know about the legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people including e-safety, Know what to do when children or young people are ill or injured, including emergency procedures, Know how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been abused, harmed or bullied
- Understand the process for liaising with other services, Be able to establish procedures for exchanging information with other services, Be able to provide information to other services, Be able to obtain information from other services
- Be able to maintain case notes, Be able to review personal case load, Understand factors that affect case loads, Be able to establish priorities for dealing with personal case load
- Know the structure of education from early years to post-compulsory education, Understand how schools are organised in terms of roles and responsibilities, Understand school ethos, mission, aims and values, Know about the legislation affecting schools, Understand the purpose of school policies and procedures, Understand the wider context in which schools operate