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Supervisory Assistant

11/25/2025

The Supervisory Assistant is responsible for supervising children during the mid-day break and maintaining discipline on school premises. This includes overseeing meal times, ensuring health and safety regulations are followed, and addressing minor issues as they arise.

Working Hours

40 hours/week

Company Size

10,001+ employees

Language

English

Visa Sponsorship

About The Company

The Education Authority (EA) was created on 01 April 2015 as a new organisation responsible to the Department of Education (DE) for the delivery of education services to schools and youth centres across Northern Ireland. The work we do impacts the lives of tens of thousands of children, young people and their families every day. The services we provide are essential in supporting, encouraging and facilitating learning within our communities to develop generations of young people who are equipped to succeed in life and work in the modern world. As a public sector organisation, we must continue to deliver these vital services in a challenging environment of increasing financial pressure and under intense public scrutiny. EA is at the beginning of an exciting journey of organisational transformation and modernisation. Emerging from the five Education and Library Boards (ELBs) our aim is to build a new organisation which is focused on meeting the needs of all our young people equally, removing barriers to learning and ensuring equality of access to excellent education services so that every child can develop to his or her full potential.

About the Role

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE: Supervisory Assistant

REPORTS TO: Principal/Senior Supervisory Assistant

JOB PURPOSE

Responsible individually or as a member of a team for the supervision of children and the maintenance of discipline for the children remaining on the school premises throughout the mid-day break (i.e. the interval between the close of morning school and the re-opening of school in the afternoon).

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Assist in the supervision of children in all areas of the school and ground in order that health and safety regulations are observed and school discipline is enforced.
Liaise with the principal/senior supervisory assistant on all matters relating to mid-day supervision.
Deal with minor problems, accidents/sickness and report any serious incident to the principal/senior supervisory assistant immediately.
Supervise children consuming meals and packed lunches, including:

(a) the movement of children between classrooms and dining areas where necessary, including dining areas outside the school premises.

(b) the supervision of queues, seating arrangements, and the circulation of pupils to and from service points.

(c) the supervision of the conduct of diners.

To be responsible for:

(a) collection of dinner tickets where appropriate.

(b) the distribution of meals within the dining area as appropriate.

(c) ancillary associated duties (eg, cleaning up spillages, ensuring tables are cleared and cleaned, removal of litter from all areas used for the consumption of food including packed lunches, etc).

(d) assisting children where necessary.

Duties as delegated in connection with cash cafeterias
Carry out all duties to comply with:

(a) the Health and Safety at Work (NI) order 1978;

(b) Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instruments and Regulations and other legal requirements;

(c) Codes of Practice.

Carry out all duties in the working conditions normally inherent in the particular job
Complete all necessary paperwork.
Carry out duties for jobs up to and including those in the same grade, provided such duties are within the competence of the employee.

This job description will be subject to review in light of changing circumstances and is not intended to be rigid and inflexible but should be regarded as providing guidelines within which the individual works. Other duties of a similar nature and appropriate to the grade may be assigned from time to time.

In accordance with Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998), the post-holder is expected to promote good relations, equality of opportunity and pay due regard for equality legislation at all times.

To view the summary of terms and conditions for this post, click here.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

NOTES TO JOB APPLICANTS

You must clearly demonstrate on your application form under each question, how, and to what extent you meet the required criteria as failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted. You should clearly demonstrate this for both the essential and desirable criteria, where relevant.
You must demonstrate how you meet the criteria by the closing date for applications, unless the criteria state otherwise.
The stage in the process when the criteria will be measured is outlined in the table below.
Shortlisting will be carried out on the basis of the essential criteria set out in Section 1 below, using the information provided by you on your application form.
Please note that the Selection Panel reserves the right to shortlist only those applicants that it believes most strongly meet the criteria for the role.
In the event of an excessive number of applications, the Selection Panel also reserves the right to apply any desirable criteria as outlined in Section 3 at shortlisting, in which case these will be applied in the order listed. It is important therefore that you also clearly demonstrate on your application form how you meet any desirable criteria.

SECTION 1 - ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

The following are essential criteria which will initially be measured at the shortlisting stage and which may also be further explored during the interview/selection stage. You should therefore make it clear on your application form how, and to what extent you meet these criteria. Failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted.

Factor	Essential Criteria	Method of Assessment
Experience	Evidence of experience of working with, or supervising children in a formal environment, ie school, nursery, playgroup or youth group.	Shortlisting by Application Form
Knowledge	Evidence of knowledge of the following areas: The requirements of a Supervisory Assistant Child Protection and Safeguarding, as relevant to the role Health and Safety regulations, as relevant to the role	Shortlisting by Application Form
Other	Willingness to undertake job related training as and when required	Shortlisting by Application Form

SECTION 2 - ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

The following are additional essential criteria which will be measured during the interview/selection stage.

Factor

Essential Criteria

Method of Assessment

Skills / Abilities

Evidence of an ability to work flexibly to help ensure safe and supportive child-centred supervision

Evidence of effective interpersonal and communication skills

Proven effective team working skills

Evidence of good planning and organising skills to ensure work is completed on time to the required standard

Interview

Values Orientation

Evidence of how your experience and approach to work reflect the School values/ethos. You will find information about our Values on the school website

Interview

SECTION 3 - DESIRABLE CRITERIA

Some or all of the desirable criteria may be applied by the Selection Panel in order to determine a manageable pool of candidates. Desirable criteria will be applied in the order listed. You should make it clear on your application form how, and to what extent you meet the desirable criteria, as failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted.

Factor	Desirable Criteria	Method of Assessment
Experience	A minimum of six months’ experience of working with, or supervising children in a formal environment, ie school, nursery, playgroup or youth group.	Shortlisting by Application Form

DISCLOSURE OF CRIMINAL BACKGROUND

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 defines working directly with children or young people or in specified places as ‘regulated activity’.

In the event that you are recommended for appointed to a post that involves ‘regulated activity’, the Education Authority will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure of Criminal Background. Please note that you WILL be expected to meet the cost of an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate. Details of how to make payment will be sent to you at the pre-employment stage.

Further information can be accessed at NI Direct or the Department of Justice.

APPLICANT GUIDANCE NOTES

To view the applicant guidance notes, please click here.

To learn about the many great benefits of joining the Education Authority, click here.

The Education Authority is an Equal Opportunities Employer

Key Skills

SupervisionChild ProtectionHealth and SafetyInterpersonal SkillsCommunication SkillsTeam WorkingPlanningOrganizing