The starting point for assessing TA deployment in your school is the self assessment guide provided below.
In this guide you will find a series of Red-Amber-Green self-assessment grids. These will help you to analyse your existing practice and to identify which areas are secure (green), developing (amber) and in need of improvement (red). The great advantage of using the self-assessment guide is that it provides a framework through which you and your colleagues can effectively evaluate what is currently happening in your school. In addition, the green sections of each grid give you a clear sense of what best practice looks like. You can use this to:
- Inform your vision
- Set goals and milestones
- Talk about and discuss what you are working towards
- Set a benchmark to strive for
- Create a shared language in the school
When using the self-assessment guide, a number of options are open to you:
- Use the guide yourself to assess current practice in the school from a leadership perspective
Share the guide with colleagues – for example, the TA - Development Team – and work collaboratively to openly and rigorously assess practice.
- Invite every teacher and teaching assistant in the school to complete an assessment of current practice, as they see it, using a copy of the guide. You can collate the results.
If opting for the third approach, you might choose to collect response anonymously. In some situations this helps to elicit more honest and accurate information.
Whichever approach you choose to take, bear in mind that the guide is a starting point on a developmental journey and be analytical about where practice sits. There is likely to be a range of practice in your schools and it’s important to capture those differences (e.g. estimate the percentage of practice in ‘Red’, ‘Amber’ and ‘Green’ across the school). As a tool, this gives you a means through which to say ‘this is where we are’ and ‘this is where we want to be.’ Used in this way it becomes a living document. Something to return to through the school’s developmental journey, acting as a reference point through which to make judgements about the changes which are taking place.