Teaching assistant cover letter: a UK example, template and tips

Example letter

Copy the letter

Example

Megan Hughes

Sheffield

megan.hughes@example.com

07700 900264

10 November 2026

Mrs Joanne Clarke

Headteacher

Brindle Lane Primary School

Sheffield

Re: Teaching Assistant (Key Stage 1), ref. BLP-TA-12

Dear Mrs Clarke,

I am applying for the Key Stage 1 Teaching Assistant post (ref. BLP-TA-12) advertised on the Teaching Vacancies service. I have volunteered in Year 1 at my children's primary school for the past two years, and your advert's focus on early reading is exactly the work I enjoy most.

Three mornings a week, I lead phonics catch-up groups of four to six pupils, following the school's phonics programme and recording each child's progress on the class tracker. Last year, five of the six children in my group passed the phonics screening check. I also read one-to-one with pupils who need extra practice, and I make the resources the teacher plans, from sound cards to word mats.

Your person specification asks for experience of supporting pupils with special educational needs and of following a behaviour policy. I have supported a pupil with an EHC plan during lunchtimes and trips, using the visual timetable and calm-down strategies agreed with the SENCO, and I follow the school's behaviour policy consistently. I have completed the school's safeguarding training and hold GCSEs in English and maths, and I am now studying for a Level 3 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning.

Before volunteering, I worked for six years as a supervisor in a busy pharmacy, which taught me to stay calm, keep accurate records and speak clearly to worried parents. I would welcome the chance to visit the school before interview. I am available to start in January and can work the full term-time hours in your advert.

Thank you for considering my application.

Yours sincerely,

Megan Hughes

This teaching assistant cover letter follows the advert closely. The opening names the post, the reference and the Teaching Vacancies service, then links the candidate to the school's priority. The second paragraph proves the classroom experience with a result, the third answers two points of the person specification, and the fourth turns a non-school job into transferable skills. All names and places are fictional.

To adapt it, change the key stage, the example of your work with children and the two criteria you answer. Keep the structure.

The National Careers Service job profile lists what the job needs. Your letter should give evidence for the ones the advert stresses:

• Building good relationships with children, with sensitivity and understanding.
• Clear spoken communication to motivate children to learn, and active listening to understand their needs.
• Patience and the ability to stay calm in stressful situations.
• Flexibility across activities, and enjoying working with teachers, parents and carers.
• The everyday tasks: preparing materials, setting up the classroom, working with individual pupils and small groups, recording and reporting progress, looking after children who are upset or unwell.

Schools set their own entry requirements, but the profile notes you will usually need GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 in English and maths, and that you must pass enhanced background checks. Mention your GCSEs, any course in supporting teaching and learning, a first aid certificate and an enhanced DBS certificate if you already have one.

Before you write, check how the school wants you to apply. Under Keeping children safe in education 2026, the statutory guidance for schools in England in force since 1 September 2026, schools should ask applicants for a full employment history with reasons for any gaps, qualifications, referees, and a statement of the personal qualities and experience that make them suitable and show how they meet the person specification. The guidance adds that schools should only accept a CV alongside an application form, as a CV on its own does not give enough information.

• The advert asks for an application form: your teaching assistant cover letter becomes the supporting statement, in the box for it or as a separate letter if the form allows. Take each criterion of the person specification in order and give an example for each.
• The advert asks for a CV and cover letter (some agencies, nurseries and independent schools): send both, and expect to fill in a form later.
• Gaps in your history: explain them briefly. The guidance asks schools to look for gaps in employment and the reasons given for them when they shortlist.

1. Read the job description and person specification and mark the essential criteria: key stage, phonics, SEND, one-to-one support, lunchtime cover, hours.
2. Research the school: its website, its values, its latest Ofsted report, and a visit if one is offered. A headteacher quoted by Tes advises personalising the letter to the school and making clear why you want to work there in particular.
3. Address it to a person: the headteacher or the contact named in the advert, with the title the school uses on its website. Our guide on how to address a cover letter covers every case.
4. Open with the post and one link to the school: the reference number, where you saw the advert, and the reason this school fits you.
5. Give two or three examples from classrooms, clubs, childcare or your own family, each with what you did and what changed for the child.
6. Close with your availability and a thank-you, then ‘Yours sincerely’ if you named the reader or ‘Yours faithfully’ after ‘Dear Sir or Madam’.

Paid classroom experience is not required for every post. The National Careers Service lists volunteering in a local school or community group as a way in, and the same headteacher quoted by Tes advises not dwelling on what you lack: share your experience of looking after children, volunteering and raising your own family, and show you understand child development and additional needs.

Any SEND experience is worth mentioning, Tes points out, even with your own children or family members. Name the needs you have supported and the strategies you used, rather than a general ‘experience of SEN’.

• Writing ‘I love working with children’ without one example of what you did with them.
• Sending the same letter to every school, or leaving the last school's name in it.
• ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ when the headteacher's name is on the school's website.
• Mixing the pair: a named greeting must end with ‘Yours sincerely’, not ‘Yours faithfully’.
• Ignoring the person specification, which is what the shortlisting panel scores against.
• Going over one page, or leaving spelling mistakes in a letter for a job that involves teaching reading.

Your CV still matters for agencies and independent schools: see our teacher CV example. For a general letter, see our sample cover letter for a job application.