1. What We Do – Does It Make A Difference?
Session 1 – TA Training Toolkit

2. Session Objectives

3. Objectives Be clear about the purpose and expectations of the role
Understand what makes a difference and what doesn’t
Begin to identify ways to become more effective
Ensure that we know what is expected of us at our school

4. Me and My School

5. The Role … It’s All About Support ..
… for the TA in carrying out the responsibilities and functions of the role
… by the TA for pupils, teacher and school
.. Helping with classroom resources and records
… helping with the care and support of pupils
… providing support for learning activities
… providing support for colleagues

6. Your School… Expectation of Dress Confidentiality Guidance
Are You Familiar With All of These ?
Confidentiality Guidance
Key Policies e.g. Safeguarding
Internet &
E-safety Code
First Aid Procedures

7. Are You Familiar With All of These
Your School…
The Pay Policy
Are You Familiar With All of These
Policies ?
Staff Absence Policy
Grievance Procedures
Risk Assessments
Health & Safety

8. Your School… Your Line Manager SENCO
Are You Familiar With All of These
People ?
SENCO
Designated Safeguarding Officer
Assessment Coordinator
Premises Officer / Site Manager

9. Your School… The Number of Children In Your School
How Many SEN Children There Are ?
Could You State With Confidence …
What %ge of Pupils Have English as an Additional Language ?
How Many Children On The CP Register ?
Key Areas For Improvement In the School Currently

10. Your School… Supporting Children To Achieve Compliance
Protecting Children & Yourself
Impact
Why Is Knowing All These Things Important To My Role ?
Knowing Where To Turn For Advice
Ensures Improvement
OFSTED Expectations
Being Seen As Part of the Team
Efficiency

11. What the Research Shows Us…

12. What We Know There is very little research on Teaching Assistants
The most useful was produced by the Sutton Trust in 2011
It looked at lots of evidence from around the world
It identified those methods or approaches that had impact and those that didn’t

13. Method / Approach / Aspect
The Sutton Trust
The trust identified 34 aspects of school life and assessed what the cost was to provide it and what impact it had on learning ….
Homework +1
Cost
£ = Low
£££££ = High
Method / Approach / Aspect
Impact
(In Months)
+ = positive
- = negative

14. Early Years Intervention
The Sutton Trust
The top three activities that have impact in primary schools …
Individual Feedback +8 ££
Early Years Intervention +6
£££££
One to One Tuition +5
££££

15. The Sutton Trust Setting / Streaming Physical Environment Uniform
The bottom three activities that have impact in primary schools …
Setting / Streaming -1
Physical Environment -1 ££
Uniform

16. The Sutton Trust Teaching Assistants
What did it say about teaching assistants ?
Teaching Assistants +1
££££

17. The Sutton Trust What else did it say about teaching assistants ? 4 1
TA Duties Differ From School To School 1
General Duties Have Limited Effect 2
No Difference Between Progress In Classes With No TA 4
Individual Support Shows Moderate Benefits 3
Some Children Can Perform Worse With TA Support 5
Often The Lower Ability That Get TA Support – This Means No Teacher Input 6
Can Impact Positively On Pupil Attitude & Teacher Morale 8
Important That TA’s Supplement Teacher Input and NOT Substitute It 7

18. What Does This Mean For Us ?
Consider these questions ….
Does the research seem to ring true in your school ?
Does their view on Teaching Assistants make sense ?
What evidence do you have to support or challenge this view ?
Are we supporting learning or managing tasks ?
How we measure the impact you are having in school ?

19. So, What Next …

20. Next Steps… In this session we have :
Looked at how we fit into our school
Reviewed what information will make us employees with impact
Identified what the research tells us about the effect of teaching assistants
Began to relate the research to our own situation

21. Next Steps… How Effective Are You ? Improving Impact Non-Negotiables
Our next three sessions will look at …
How Effective Are You ? 1
Improving Impact 2
Non-Negotiables 3

22. Session End

23. Session 2 : How Effective Are You ?
TA Toolkit
Session 2 : How Effective Are You ?

24. Objectives Identify what effective practice is
Review our job expectations
Identify your strengths and weaknesses

25. Throughout this, and
subsequent sessions,
you will need to use
and refer to two items:

26. Part A :Looking At Job Expectations

27. The next activity can
be recorded in the
workbook …

28. Looking at the sample (or your actual) job descriptions please :
Highlight the areas of support for the pupils you believe you undertake regularly
Highlight the areas of support for the teacher you believe you undertake regularly

29. Now, using the areas you have highlighted identify the
areas of activity you REGULARLY undertake
Areas Of Activity You Have Highlighted As Regular
Examples Of What You Do
Are There Any Opportunities for Further Improvement ?
Now, using the areas you have highlighted identify the
areas of activity you RARELY undertake
Areas Of Activity You Never Or Rarely Undertake
Reasons For Not Doing So
Is This A Possibility ?
If Not, Why Not ?

30. Looking at the sample (or your actual) job descriptions please :
Highlight the areas of support for the curriculum you believe you undertake regularly
Highlight the areas of support for the school you believe you undertake regularly

31. Now, using the areas you have highlighted identify the
areas of activity you REGULARLY undertake
Areas Of Activity You Have Highlighted As Regular
Examples Of What You Do
Are There Any Opportunities for Further Improvement ?
Now, using the areas you have highlighted identify the
areas of activity you RARELY undertake
Areas Of Activity You Never Or Rarely Undertake
Reasons For Not Doing So
Is This A Possibility ?
If Not, Why Not ?

32. last activity identify
Now, reflecting on the
last activity identify
up to four areas you
could improve on and
three areas you
excel in …

33. Part B : Being Effective

34. Therefore, to be effective…
What is ‘effective’ …
Successful or achieving the results you want …
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Therefore, to be effective…
You need to know what the
outcomes and expectations are …

35. We have defined ‘effective’ under
eight themes…
Personal &
Professional Knowledge 1
Commitment &
Motivation 2
Planning
& Personal
Organisation 3
Pupil
Progress
Focus 5
Problem
Solving &
Decision
Making 8
Relationships With
Colleagues 4
Teamworking 7
Communication 6

36. through the eight areas of effective practice. Identify
Now, individually work
through the eight areas of
effective practice. Identify
areas where you are more
effective and areas
Where you are
less effective. You
can also identify and record areas where you have
some impact but could
be more effective with
more support and or
training.

37. identified from the eight areas to three key strengths you believe
Finally, narrow down
the aspects you have
identified from the eight
areas to three key
strengths you believe
you have. Then identify
three targets for
improvement – but only
select those that will
have the biggest impact.

38. Session End - Thank You -

39. TA Toolkit
Session 3 : How else could you support ? What are the non-negotiables in your school ?

40. Objectives
Identify new ways in which TA’s could work within the school, classroom or with individual pupils
Identify barriers to becoming more effective
Agree what should we expect of each other professionally

41. Session 3 : Part A

42. If the school is to be effective then it must always :
Review it’s own performance
Identify areas of strength to build on
Identify areas of weakness to address
Ensure that all it’s elements (such as staffing, resources, time) are being used to the greatest effect

43. In Our School … We Spend £XXXX On TA’s Each Year
If Not, How Do We Know That
The Investment Is Worth It ?
Can We Quantify
What Impact
TA’s Have In This
School ?
In Our School …
This Equates To
XXX% Of Our
Budget
How Are You
Contributing To
These Areas ?
Our Schools Key
Areas Of
Improvement
This Year Are …

44. Differently May Not Have A
That You
Are Valued ?
That The
Activities You
Provide Are
Motivating ?
That What You
Do Makes A
Difference ?
How Do You
Know…
That Working
Differently May Not Have A
Bigger Impact ?
That Children
Enjoy Their
Time With You?
That Your
Partnerships
Are Effective?

45. We have identified five work areas that we believe you could possibly
Target
Groups
Liaison
We have identified five work areas
that we believe you could possibly
develop your role in.
Whole Class Role
These areas are ….
Managing A
Group
Finally …

46. Work your way
through Section 3 of
the Prompt Cards
and record your
thoughts in the
Workbook.

47. barriers to making this
Now – share your
thoughts with the
rest of the group.
How can you be
sure that this will
have value and
impact on
standards ?
What are the
barriers to making this
happen ?

48. Session 3 : Part B

49. differently or changing what you do completely. To move on, we also 1 2
Often the things that
make a real difference
aren’t major. It’s not
always about doing
more, but often about
doing something
differently or changing
what you do completely.
To move on, we also
need to be clear about
expectations – what we can expect from
ourselves and what we
can expect from our
School (incl. teachers).

50. this is related to three
In small groups, identify what you believe should be non-negotiable in your school. Remember that
this is related to three
themes :
The school
Teachers
TAs

51. What will be the impact of these non- negotiables ?
How will you know they are effective ?
What are the potential barriers to making them work ?
How will you share these and get others to ‘buy in’ to them ?

52. Session End - Thank You -

53. TA Toolkit
Session 4 : Review and Next Steps

54. Objectives Review the process so far and what we have learnt
Plan to address weaknesses and improve impact
Build on strengths
Action plan for individual improvement

55. Part A : Review

56. We have ….. Reviewed what our school needs us to know …1
Identified what research tells us about effective
methods of supporting for achievement 2
Looked at our schools expectations of us 3
Been critically honest about our own strengths
and weaknesses 4
Looked at opportunities for improving both
value and effectiveness 5
Identified the non-negotiables we believe are essential to
having impact, value and effectiveness in our role 6

57. Part B : Bringing It All Together

58. In this part of the session, we want to :
Look at the work we undertook with teachers and senior staff
Review their views and perceptions
Challenge and accept their views of our own performance

59. We asked the teachers
in the school to
review what (a) they
thought were the
strengths and
weaknesses in the
school and
(b) what they thought
TAs thought …

60. Take a look at the views given …
Consider and discuss …
Are their views accurate ?
Do they have any merit ?
What issues / views would you like to challenge them on ?

61. We asked the teachers to
review your
performance under the
eight themes we used.
They evaluated each
aspect under ‘more
effective’ and ‘less
effective’.

62. These are personal views only – they only represent one persons view
Consider :
Do you think this is an accurate reflection of your strengths and weaknesses ?
Does it match your own assessments ?
If not – why not ?

63. Finally, we asked each
teacher to identify no
more than 5 things
that should be
celebrated about you
and 5 things that they
would like to see
from you …

64. How do the areas for celebrating make you feel ?
What would the barriers be to not achieving the areas in ‘would like to see you’ ?

65. Part C : Final Steps

66. Finally …
We need to bring all the areas of review together into a cohesive plan
This will need to identify :
Areas for improvement
What skills you have that could be shared with / taught to other TA’s
How any targets will need to be accomplished
What support you would need to achieve these goals

67. Observations should be included in our plan :
Why ?
External view on our performance –
different perspective – can identify real strengths and give a view on effectiveness and impact
What ?
Watch us in an area we regularly undertake
e.g. small group, interventions etc
When ?
At least once per year – BUT suggest at least
once per term to get value from it
Who ?
Could be line manager OR peer or colleague OR
teacher you work with daily

68. You will need to agree on a code of conduct
for the observations.
You may find the
Illuminate Learning
document a useful
starting point.
Although drawing up
your own will create a
sense of ownership and
responsibility.

69. What Support Will you Need ?
What Will Your
Objectives For
Improvement Be ?
What Strengths Do
You Have That Will Be
Helpful To Colleagues ?
What Training and
Development Needs
Do You Have ?
What Support Will you Need ?
How Will These Be
Achieved ?
Next Step Is To
Draw Up Your
Personal Action Plan
What is the Timescale
For Achieving Each
Target ?
What Other
Opportunities Do You
Think Would Be
Helpful To You ?
What Focus Should
There Be For the
Observations(s) ?
When Will The
Observations Be ?

70. the chance to consider all the areas we have
Now that you have had
the chance to consider all
the areas we have
reviewed it is now time for
you to draw up the
action plan.

71. When drawing up the plan
remember it must be …
Time
Related
Achieveable
Specific S M A R T
Measurable
Realistic

72. Finally …. Who will monitor the plan ?
Who will agree that it is appropriate ?
How is the training and development plan to be implemented ?
Will you review this during the year ?
How will the impact be measured ?

73. Session End - Thank You -