Writing for The Guardian, Kate Hodge discusses the EEF’s recent report Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants.
The number of full-time teaching assistants (TAs) has more than trebled – from 79,000 to 243,700 – since 2000. Schools spend approximately £4.4bn on support staff, which equates to 13% of the education budget.
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So what does the evidence tell us about how best to deploy TAs? In a recent report, Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants, the Education Endowment Foundation set out to answer this question. Experts devised seven recommendations based on an analysis of existing research. While the recommendations are primarily for headteachers and senior leadership teams (SLTs) – the authors stress that overhauling the TA’s role will be much more successful if management take the lead – classroom teachers and special educational needs co-ordinators (Sencos) will also find the strategies useful.
The recommendations are split into three categories: use of TAs in the classroom; TAs making interventions outside the classroom and linking the work of teachers and TAs.
Read the full article here.