In the present climate of school budget reductions and with increasing pressures being placed on schools to meet ever-more demanding levels of achievement, the impact made by teaching assistants is a keenly discussed topic of conversation.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is clear: teaching assistants are not typically adding to pupils’ attainment, although if deployed well they have the potential to do so. How, then, can we maximise fully the potential of our teaching assistant workforce? How can we ensure that there is a positive impact on standards, particularly in the context of whole-class work?
Long gone are the days where teaching assistants functioned primarily as a teacher’s assistant. Resource management and classroom organisation are still parts of the job, yet it is the learning-centred aspects of a teaching assistant’s role which have developed over the years.
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