How to Be a Brilliant Teaching Assistant

Susan Bentham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138059771
• eBook ISBN: 9781351671002
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

How to Be a Brilliant Teaching Assistant draws on knowledge from very experienced teaching assistants and Susan Bentham's own extensive research to explore the common denominators that unite all brilliant teaching assistants. The book explores becoming a brilliant teaching assistant as a journey and not an end point, and provides support that will help you along the way, whether you're just starting out in your career or you've been an experienced teaching assistant for years.

This accessible book covers all aspects of the teaching assistant role, such as:

• Key roles and responsibilities
• Meta-cognition and understanding children's learning
• Delivering high quality lessons alongside teachers
• Developing useful subject knowledge
• Undertaking research and professional development

Illustrated with activities, discussion points and anecdotes, this book is a source of support, guidance and inspiration for every teaching assistant engaged in the ongoing process of becoming an outstanding professional.

Chapter 1

What’s in a name?

Introduction

Ever heard the phrase ‘Behind every good teacher there is a great ­teaching assistant’? Sound about right? Well, without a doubt the support a brilliant teaching assistant (TA) could give can be endless, and if the partnership between a teacher and a TA is strong, then the result can only be an amazing educational experience for all. You see great partnerships all over the place such as, Johnny and Baby from Dirty Dancing, or Torvill and Dean, Britsh ice dancers and former Olympic and World champions. When people work together and complement each other, sparks fly.

So the million dollar question is, ‘How do you become a brilliant TA?’ How do you make those sparks fly? How do you become the teaching assistant that is able to support pupils to reach their potential?

We hope that this book can support you on your journey to becoming brilliant or propel you towards even greater brilliance. In this chapter we aim to equip you with the necessary knowledge and understanding regarding the key roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants. But to begin this chapter focuses on the history of TAs and the key documentation related both to your role and the governance of the school. It has been said that to understand where you are going it is important first to come to terms with where you have been; as such, we explore the ever-evolving role of the teaching assistant.

But first – how many teaching assistants are there?

In reading statistical information regarding the number of TAs and teachers in schools, the numbers are often presented in terms of headcounts, that is, the actual number of individuals working in schools. However, this statistic can be misleading as the majority of teachers work full time while the majority of other staff in schools, to include TAs, work part-time. Therefore most statistical information takes account of this and presents numbers in regard to full-time equivalent (FTE) members of staff.

The 28 per cent

Let’s look at the state of play in English schools from 2000 to 2013. During this time the number of TAs dramatically increased despite a slight decrease in student numbers; indeed, the number of TAs more than tripled. There were 79,000 (FTE) TAs in 2000 and 240,000 (FTE) TAs in 2013 (Masdeu Navarro, 2015, p. 10). The rise in TA numbers can be compared with the increase in teachers over this time, which was 14 per cent (Statistics UK, 2013a, 2013b). As a result, the overall student–teaching staff ratio fell dramatically.

‘In November 2016 there were 957.9 thousand full-time equivalent (FTE) school workforce employees, to include classroom teachers, teachers working at leadership levels, teaching assistants, school support staff and auxiliary staff, in state-funded schools in England. 48 per cent of the schools’ workforce were teachers, 28 per cent teaching assistants and 25 per cent were non-classroom based support staff’ (DfE, 2017, p. 4).

A brief history of TAs

Part 1: 1960 to 1978

As early as 1960 teaching assistants had arrived, though during this time they were referred to as general assistants or welfare assistants. As early as 1967 the Plowden Report (DES, 1967) highlighted the potential role of assistants to support teaching programmes and raise educational standards. Moyles and Sushitsky (1997), reflecting on these years, noted that welfare or general assistants were predominately women who were employed within primary schools to encourage and help pupils. Further, their responsibilities included preparing resources; collecting and returning pupils’ work; first aid and undertaking lunch and break-time duties (Clayton, 1993, p. 34). In other words, these general assistants were involved in tasks such as cleaning paint pots, sharpening pencils, collecting dinner money and listening to pupils read. The year 1978 marked a pivotal point in education within this country in that the Warnock Report (DES, 1978) was published. This ground-breaking report established three key principles:

•pupils with special needs should (as far as possible) be educated in mainstream school;

•schools should promote a ‘positive and challenging’ approach to special educational needs (SEN) pupils that emphasised abilities and potential;

•SEN should include not only those children who attend special school but children who have transitory or continuing difficulties.

As such an increasing number of pupils with special educational needs were integrated into mainstream schools, consequentially additional staff was needed and these often were teaching assistants.

Baskind and Thompson (1995) reflecting on the Plowden (DES, 1967) and Warnock (DES, 1978) reports commented that both:

had envisaged that assistants should be engaged because of their personal qualities, it was further expected that successful candidates would have a good general education and that continuing in-service training would be received once employed. Indeed the Plowden Report was visionary in its anticipation of future incentive allowances for additional responsibility and a planned programme of training that could provide a career route to teacher training.

(p. 47)

Part 2: 1979 to 1987

The evolution and expansion of the teaching assistant continued; though, if you were working within a school at this time your official designation would probably be the ‘NTA’, standing for non-teaching assistant.

The 1981 Education Act (1981) was pivotal as the first piece of legislation that imposed a duty upon local educational authorities, mainstream schools and teachers to provide the necessary support to children with special educational needs so that they would be able to flourish. Again there was a further increase in the number of teaching assistants employed. Research by Hodgson, Clunies-Ross and Hegarty (1984), identified TA responsibilities during this time to include:

•Hearing children read

•Interpreting for hearing-impaired children

•Checking that pupils were ‘at work’

•Preparing teaching material and other resources

•Cataloguing books

•Helping with creative activities

•Note-taking

•Engaging children in conversation

•Taking groups for home economics

•Helping children with implements during practical lessons

•Acting as an amanuensis

•Tidying the library, organizing and putting-up displays

•Helping with language programmes

(Clayton, 1993, p. 35)

During this time teaching assistants had two main roles: the first involving activities that freed ‘the teacher from routine and mundane classroom activities of a non-professional nature, and the second consisting of carrying out direct instruction under the teacher’s guidance’ (Clayton, 1993, p. 35).

In terms of recruitment Hegarty (1985) indicated that upon starting a job as a TA, two-thirds had some professional training, usually the National Nursery Examination Board (NNEB) qualification, though most had no experience of working with pupils with SEN. In terms of conditions of work, Wigley et al. (1989) found that all TAs surveyed held temporary contracts,

for a maximum of 27 hours per week. The number of hours can be increased or decreased at short notice. They are not paid for school holidays, but have a leave entitlement of twenty days plus statutory bank holidays.

(Wigley et al., 1989, p. 3)

Part 3: 1988 to 2002

As we move from the decade that brought us the movie ET and the fall of the Berlin Wall into the decade that brought us the Spice Girls, The X Files and Titanic, the number of TAs within England increased again. The Education Reform Act (HMSO, 1988) introduced the national curriculum, local management of schools, a new school inspection body and stipulated national standard assessment tests to measure attainment levels; all of which added pressure to teachers. The 1989 Children’s Act (1989)and 1993 Education Act (1993) further established the statutory ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Author and contributors
• Introduction
• 1 What’s in a name?
• 2 Becoming a brilliant TA
• 3 The essentials
• 4 Understanding learning
• 5 Understanding behaviour
• 6 Relating to others
• 7 What is best practice?
• 8 Using best practice to make a difference
• 9 What does a brilliant TA look like?
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index