Introduction

Both the role and image of teaching assistants have changed radically over the last few years. What they do in schools and classrooms and how they are used to raise standards has altered irrevocably. What everyone needs to accept, however, is that these changes are continuing, and implementing the National Workload Agreement means that teaching assistants must develop further skills, techniques and strategies.

In October 2000, the Government provided extra funding and guidance on how schools could use teaching assistants more effectively. The Guide to Good Practice in the Deployment and Management of Teaching Assistants (DfES, 2000) made it clear that the Government was financially committed to support up to 20,000 more teaching assistants by 2002. There have also been moves to develop new National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) covering the work of different levels of teaching assistants, together with skills-based courses from the Workers Education Association (WEA) and the Open University. This all points towards large-scale development and radical change.

The challenges of coming to grips with workload reform mean that teaching assistants should be able to use their skills to work more closely with teachers and begin to ‘teach’ groups of pupils and, possibly, whole classes.

Many schools are already making changes which allow this to happen and the number of teaching assistants seems to be growing quickly. A recent Government survey makes it clear that:

... the use of support staff has increased in 7 out of 10 primary schools over the last three years. Ninety seven percent of headteachers said that the increase had improved teaching and learning.

p7, Excellence and Enjoyment: A Strategy for Primary Schools, DfES, 2003

The challenge for most schools is to combine the two roles of reducing workload and supporting better teaching and learning. Many teaching assistants are capable of developing the necessary skills to support both roles, but one of the challenges for schools is to balance out the necessary training that teaching assistants need, with the recognition that pay is low and that currently there are very few national conditions of employment or set duties for them. All schools should be flexible and innovative about what they expect of teaching assistants. They need to do this effectively because they cannot function as successfully as they would like without the support and skills that teaching assistants bring to their job. OFSTED recognises the important roles teaching assistants play and will, during their changed inspection routines, ask more questions about how teaching assistants are used and what effect they have on educational standards. Schools will need to show how teaching assistants are used to raise standards.