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Chapter 1
Roles and responsibilities
We have acknowledged already that working with TAs may not have been something you anticipated when you first trained as a teacher. You chose this profession no doubt because you wanted to work with young people. Even if you gained your teaching qualification fairly recently, as we have already acknowledged, your training may not have addressed working with and directing the work of TAs. But as we will discuss, working in collaboration with support staff is clearly one of the expectations of teachers, as it appears in the standards for qualified teachers in all regions of the UK. Effective deployment is also an aspect of schools in which inspectorates are taking an increased interest, further emphasising the need for teachers to add the skills associated with this responsibility to their repertoire. And as the subsequent chapters of the book make clear, there is an associated skill set and a range of actions that can be taken when carrying out this responsibility.
So we begin this chapter with a brief overview of the regulatory mandates for teachers working with TAs, and then consider some of the main principles of differentiation as the basis for employment of TAs. Lastly we consider some of the characteristics of this group of employees and the implications for classroom practice.
Requirements across the UK
In all four regions of the UK, regulations relating to both special and mainstream education address the question of TAs and the teacherās responsibility to actively work with them. The SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2015) for England states that:
Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, including where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff.
Implicit in this statement is the word āallā ā teachers are responsible and accountable for all the pupils in their class. And not simply responsible in a general sense, but responsible for their progress and development. It could be argued that teachers delegate some of this responsibility to TAs. However, the 2011 general Teachersā Standards in England (DfE, 2011) lists as part of a teacherās āwider professional responsibilitiesā:
ā¢ develop effective professional relationships with colleagues, knowing how and when to draw on advice and specialist support and
ā¢ deploy support staff effectively.
As we discuss throughout the course of this book, effective deployment does not mean handing over a student to the sole charge of a TA and expecting the TA to take care of the studentās needs. The deployment of TAs and the type of work they undertake clearly needs to be a joint venture. Published teacher standards from the other regions of the UK also make reference to working with other adults in the classroom, including support staff.
In Wales, the guidance for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) (DCELLS, 2009) provides extensive detail of the many ways in which teachers are expected to work with TAs, including: ārecognise and understand the contribution provided by and needed from support staff ā¦ in the learning processā.
Teachers must also āunderstand how other adults ā¦ can contribute to teaching and learning and how teachers can use this contribution as a resource. This understanding assumes awareness of other colleaguesā roles and how a teacherās responsibilities relate to and complement those of others.ā
To gain QTS, trainees must ādemonstrate that they take part in, and contribute to, teaching teams ā¦ [and] plan for the deployment of additional adults who support learning in children and young peopleā.
In Scotland the Mandatory Requirements for Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (General Teaching Council for Scotland, 2012) include:
create and sustain appropriate working relationships with all staff ā¦ to support learning and wellbeing, taking a lead role when appropriate and work collaboratively to contribute to the professional learning and development of colleagues, through offering support and constructive advice and through disseminating experience and expertise, seeking opportunities to lead learning.
This requirement clearly includes the provision of training of TAs. The General Teaching Council for Northern Irelandās 2011 document Teaching: The Reflective Profession states that:
Teachers will deploy, organise and guide the work of other adults to support pupilsā learning, when appropriate.
At initial training stage they are required only to gain an understanding of the āpotential benefits arising from the deployment of other adults to support learningā. However, even during induction they must identify roles and responsibilities of additional adults who work in the classroom, and also ādeploy them effectively to help personalise pupilsā learning and plan and organise how they are to support learningā.
Similarly the school inspectorates of each of the regions make clear statements about the needs for teachers to engage in working with TAs. The Education and Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland states that teachers are responsible for managing and organising the day-to-day work of Classroom Assistants (CAs) who support students with special needs in their classrooms. Unfortunately, a 2005ā6 report on the effective use of CAs noted that very few of the schools inspected provided guidance for teachers in how to carry out this role. Likewise few teachers reported having received training or advice from their schools on how to manage CAsā work.
In Wales, 2010 guidance from Estyn on school inspections, under the heading of Good Resource Management, specifies:
The school deploys teaching and support staff well and they have the knowledge and expertise to cover all aspects of the schoolās curriculum.
In Scotland, the publication How Good is Our School? (HMIe, 2007) provides quality indicators for schools, among them Staff Deployment and Teamwork. Illustrating a Level 5 school (on a 6-point scale) one of the statements reads: āOur staff team is deployed effectively to meet learnersā needs and improve provision. Staff such as ā¦ classroom assistants work in classrooms and contribute effectively to our learnersā progress.ā
These are unequivocal and far-reaching statements of the expectations of teachers.
As a SENCOā¦
There is a real need to see the TA as a learner or trainee as well as a colleague. This book is not just about getting teacher and TAs together in order to create a more friendly, collegial atmosphere in the school ā it is about increasing the overall effectiveness of all staff who are involved in the teaching and learning process that is central to the schoolās purpose. Some of the TAs in your school will have received a certain level of training and preparation for their work, but realistically much of the work they do is of a highly specialised nature and requires proper teaching skills. This may be controversial, from a number of perspectives:
ā¢ They do not have the professional status of a teacher, because they have not received the appropriate professional preparation and accreditation.
ā¢ They are not paid at the same level as professional teaching staff, so they should not be required to operate at the same level of expertise.
So there are those who say that TAs should not be āteachingā. Nevertheless, within the limits of their job description and despite their non-professional status, their assignments so often relate to the enhancement of learning for students who struggle. The knowledge and skills required to carry out this work successfully are significant. We would go so far as to say that many teachers do not have a clear understanding of the needs of students who struggle, particularly in secondary schools where the emphasis is on teachersā subject content knowledge. So how can we expect TAs to act in a teaching capacity on behalf of the teacher without proper preparation? If schools are to continue to rely on TAs ā particularly for students whose needs are different from the majority of the class ā schools need to make the proper investment in their ongoing training. As a SENCO you may be best placed to advocate for this training, especially as local need will be quite specific, so training needs to be tailored according to those needs and the current skills and knowledge of your TAs.
A 2007 report by Estyn states: āThe significant increase in support staff numbers means that senior teachers find it time-consuming to organise and deploy these staff.ā
This has been a very real concern for some years now in schools, but the Estyn report also offered reassurance: āthere is evidence that TAs who are suitably qualified and supervised will make a difference to student achievementā. This is encouraging, but it also highlights the importance of the twin needs of support staff: relevant training and supervision.
We cannot over-emphasise the above point. In the next chapter we look at the research relating to TAs, some of which indicates that TAsā work is not as impactful as we would like. But it should be no surprise if we weigh the responsibilities they are given against the preparation they receive for those responsibilities. We repeat the question that we first asked in the Introduction: What is it that you want from your TA? If you want competence commensurate with the demands of her work assignments, someone must take the necessary steps to ensure she has the necessary skills.
Working together
You may recall from your initial training or subsequent study the work of theorists such as Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner, who viewed learning from a social constructivist perspective: that learning is a process of making sense of the world, and this sense-making is enhanced through interactions with others. Their theories largely related to childrenās early learning but some of the underlying principles offer food for thought in relation to teachersā work with TAs:
1. Learning is a process of interaction between the known and the unknown, or what is yet to be learned.
In relation to teachers and TAs: this highlights how important it is for the learner (in...
