New guidance on how to deploy teaching assistants effectively in your school
Teaching Assistants (TAs) play a vital role in schools, but ensuring they have the greatest impact takes careful planning. Our latest guidance, based on a comprehensive review of the evidence, provides five practical recommendations to unlock their potential:
1. Enable all pupils to access high-quality teaching by strategically deploying TAs in classrooms.
2. Develop pupils’ independence by using TAs to scaffold learning rather than providing direct answers.
3. Use structured, evidence-based interventions where appropriate.
4. Prepare and train staff to ensure effective TA deployment.
5. Engage all staff in the implementation process for lasting change.
The guidance includes practical tools and strategies to help schools apply these recommendations.
Explore the guidance: Deployment of Teaching Assistants | EEF.
Resources to help you make the most of your Early Years Pupil Premium spend
With a 45% increase in Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding, early years settings in England can now claim up to £570 per eligible child per year. To help settings make the most of this additional funding, our new resource outlines a balanced approach to spending:
Develop high-quality practice through investment in professional development.
Provide targeted support via evidence-based interventions.
Lead, plan, and sustain change through meaningful engagement with staff.
Developed with early years leaders and aligned with DfE guidance, this resource ensures your EYPP decisions are evidence-informed and impactful.
Explore the resource: Early Years Pupil Premium | EEF.
New research projects recruiting schools and early years settings
This term, we launched recruitment for 11 new research projects to evaluate evidence-based programmes across early years, primary, and secondary education. The projects are part of our work to build the evidence base and give the education sector trustworthy information about how to boost outcomes.
The projects, which are mainly focused on the themes of writing and secondary maths, use different approaches to improving outcomes. These include peer-to-peer coaching to build maths skills in secondary school pupils, and professional development for reception class teachers to support early maths skills through play and structured activities.
Each project has been selected because of its potential impact on the attainment of socio-economically disadvantaged pupils and will be independently evaluated to give a reliable estimate of its impact.
By taking part in one of our projects, you could access high-quality professional development at a subsidised rate.
Search your school or setting and apply here: Take part in an EEF project.
Round-up of other key links:
We dropped a three-part podcast series exploring whether teaching is an art or science.
We opened applications for a new evidence partnership for the 16 – 19 sector.
We added five new evaluation reports to the global evidence base.