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Support staff: key personnel for improving school performance
13 October 2008
NAPTA has updated its popular Workforce Development Programme so that it can continue to help local authorities and schools to meet the changing demands being placed upon them.
At a time when local authorities are under pressure to improve provision in schools, the focus on support staff increases. In most schools, support staff outnumber teachers, so their successful development can have a significant impact on a school’s ability to meet its targets and is crucial to authorities charged with maintaining workforce reform.
The Workforce Development Programme now makes it even easier for schools to link the professional development of their support staff with improving the quality of the school’s provision. Designed to save leadership team members and middle managers time, the updated programme couples improved reporting with expanded and updated Development Resources. It fully incorporates the new National Occupational Standards for Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools, revisions to the HLTA Professional Standards and extensions to the Support Work in Schools qualification.
The programme’s redesigned reports give individuals, managers, CPD leaders, heads and local authority officers (especially school workforce advisers) even better feedback and interpretation of the data collected, leaving them to concentrate on development and delivery rather than analysis.
The Development Resources that accompany the programme are so popular and extensive that they have become known as the National Support Staff Resource Bank. Now that they are updated, expanded and online, members can access all the material anywhere, any time. They also now include QGP’s legal guide The Support Staff Little Pocket Book 2008, new team leadership resources and links to extensive, carefully mapped video resources from Teachers TV.
“Never has the emphasis on the positive contribution that support staff make to school improvement been so great. As a result, the development needs for this diverse group of staff is a priority. NAPTA’s Workforce Development Programme provides a tried and tested route to getting the best from these often highly experienced practitioners. With the new updates, schools can rest assured that the programme offers a time-saving way for managers to improve school performance.”
Roger Smith, Chairman, NAPTA
For more information on the new NAPTA Workforce Development Programme, contact Kate Price Thomas or Jacquie Cox on 01223 224930 or email enquiries@napta.org.uk.
NOTES:
NAPTA, the UK’s leading support staff organisation, is a membership organisation that works with schools, local authorities and other education settings to realise the potential of support staff, whatever their role.
The Workforce Development Programme is already in use with over 120,000 practitioners in more than 6000 schools across well in excess of 100 authorities. It highlights staff competence and confidence levels as well as providing substantial training material to improve support staff performance.