Teacher Assistant Development

We recognise the huge contribution that Teaching Assistants (TAs) make to the progression of our children’s learning.

EEF evidence shows that TAs can provide noticeable improvements to pupil attainment when working well alongside teachers, providing excellent complementary learning support.

TAs are also crucial in helping ease teacher workload and stress, reduce classroom disruption to increase student attainment and also help to improve students’ confidence and self-esteem.

The emphasis on the effectiveness of our TAs has been driven by the push for greater inclusion of pupils with SEND and EAL seen in our schools. This presents an excellent opportunity for improvements in practice, with such a large and already committed resource in place. The recommendations in the EEF guidance recognise the fact that schools are operating within already tight budgets; however, noticeable improvements in pupil outcomes can be made through the thoughtful use of our teaching assistants, without significant additional expenditure.

To this end, we have devised a series of short training sessions aimed at delivering key messages to TAs that will support more effective, targeted delivery in the classroom.