"Stop vilifying teaching assistants" says union

Academic research is being misused by the media to attack teaching assistants, according to the public service union Unison.
Two big research reports published last week both point to the need for support staff to be properly trained and paid for the work they do. And they highlight the problems created when schools expect them to fill roles they are not qualified to fill.

But some press reports have used the research to denegrate teaching assistants, and their contribution to children's education.
Christine McAnea, Unison's head of education, said, “As a key member of the education team, teaching assistants (TAs) have a very valuable role to play in delivering high quality education for children. They are not teachers – they don’t have the same training or access to ongoing support and certainly don’t get paid the same.
“Recent reports from the Institute of Education and London Metropolitan University highlight two sides of the same problem – that too many headteachers are exploiting low paid support staff. But this is being used by some as an excuse to blame dedicated and hard-working teaching assistants and indeed the whole school remodelling programme in general."
Unison is calling for better pay, training and more paid time for teaching assistants to do their jobs, and backs the Government's plan to train all learning support staff to Level 3.

Researchers take the lid off TAs' role in schools

Two big research studies for the government show that while teaching assistants are playing a fast-growing role in schools, the conditions they work under are not keeping pace.

The studies, one from the Institute of Education and the other from London Metropolitan University, both suggest teaching assistants are doing increasing amounts of unpaid overtime, and both found a lot of dissatisfaction about pay and contractual arrangements.

According to the London Metropolitan Study, less than half the TAs who take whole classes have allocated time to plan, even though they were mostly taking classes during planned as well as unplanned teacher absences.

Most TAs said they enoyed being responsible for whole classes, and that this was a good use of their skills and experience. But one in three said they needed more training and development, especially in behaviour management.

The other study, The Deployment and Impact of Support Staff Project, has taken place over five years. It has produced a lot of detailed information about TAs and the circumstances of their work.

Most support staff are white women aged 36 or over. Two thirds have qualifications equivalent to GCSE level or below, and a third have higher levels of qualifications. Most are on permanent contracts, and primary school staff receive lower wages than secondary or special school staff.

The study found that most teachers have no time allocated for planning, or exchanging feedback, with their classroom teaching assistants, and the majority have had no training to help them work with support staff in classrooms.

Despite this, most teachers felt supported by teaching assistants, and said the growth in the number of support staff had increased their job satisfaction.

This was because pupils' needs were being better met, and their learning and achievement was being enhanced. They also said the personal qualities and skills of support staff and the increased time available to them for teaching had made a positive difference.

But the study found that individual support for pupils in the classroom seemed to have a negative effect on their educational progress. The more individual support pupils received over the year, the less progress they made in English and Maths.

The researchers say these findings are not explained by differences in the pupils themselves (eg that pupils getting most support are low ability pupils and therefore are making slower progress), because their research methods accounted for these differences.

The researchers suggest the negative impact of individual support could be because TAs are not able to prepare lessons, and that low ability children who are supported by TAs may have less contact with their teacher and the curriculum.

Deployment and Impact of Support Staff project from the Institute of Education

Aspects of School Workforce Remodelling Strategies Used, and Impact on Workload and Standards from London Metropolitan University

TAs can "stigmatise" SEN children

Teaching assistants should not work exclusively on a 1:1 basis with pupils, according to researchers. Although some children might need some 1:1 support, it's better for them if they are supported as part of a group.

Studies also underline the importance of teachers and teaching assistants to have allocated planning time together.

Studies on the impact of teaching assistants working with pupils with SEN in mainstream schools give mixed messages, but half the studies said too much reliance on teaching assistant support can hinder children's interaction with other pupils and teachers, and may lead to them feeling stigmatised.

TAs need to be skilled at encouraging children to interact with others, but also to be sensitive about times when a pupil needs to make up their own mind about what to do, say academics. Other studies said TAs can have a positive impact on pupils with SEN by helping them engage in school work, and if they have been trained, in communicating with other children.

In general research shows that teaching assistants have made a big, positive difference to children's learning both directly and through their support for teachers.Trained TAs working in the classroom help pupils with literacy and language problems make significant gains in learning.

Teaching assistants also have an impact on the way teachers work. Their presence allows teachers to introduce more creative and practical activities than they could otherwise, and to spend more time working with groups and individuals.
Having another adult in the classroom makes teachers feel supported and less stressed. Knowing that children are getting more attention and support makes teachers' job more satisfying.

Team teaching in which TAs support small groups in whole class activities promote a more inclusive ethos. TAs can also mediate between teachers and parents, encouraging parents to get more involved in their child's schooling. But schools need to take care that teachers also maintain good contacts with parents.

Academics at Manchester university and London's Institute of Education reviewed all the research studies on the impact of teaching assistants, and their implications for government policy and for practice in schools.

They say

• the largely positive impact of TAs needs to be encouraged through a stronger framework for training, and a career structure capable of motivating teaching assistants.

• Teacher training needs to include training on working collaboratively with teaching assistants.

• Pupils with special needs learn and participate more easily if 1:1 support is kept to a minimum.

• Teachers and TAs should work as a team to plan support for individual pupils, but teachers should use TAs across the whole class rather than assign them exclusively to individual children.

• TAs are most effective in schools where they are part of the staff team which values their contribution to decision making, and where the different complementary roles of teachers and TAs are clearly understood and respected.

The impact of adult support staff on pupils and mainstream schools
Alison Alborz and others. Department for Children, Schools and Families 2009.

Medical procedures survey

What's your school's policy on giving medicines to children, and undertaking medical procedures?
Trade union Unison is conducting a survey after receiving a growing number of enquiries from school staff with concerns about the administration of medicine and the undertaking of other medical procedures.
Schools should be making sure that children and young people with medical needs receive the best possible care and that staff are trained and able to deliver it, says Unison.
"UNISON would like to know if school policies are being deployed effectively or if support staff are being asked to administer medicines or perform medical procedures inappropriately, with risks to pupils and themselves."
The survey which can be completed anonymously will close on April 27.

Unpaid overtime by TAs must stop, schools told

Schools have been told by an official committee to change the way they employ teaching assistants.

The Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (WAMG) – made up of government, employers’ and union representatives – has issued new guidelines in response to worries about the way support staff are being used in some schools.

TAs are being required to take on responsibilities they are not appropriately trained or skilled for in some schools, it says. In primary schools, support staff who have not been trained to HLTA level (including in behaviour management) should not be used to cover planned or unplanned teacher absences even in the short term, says the guidance.

They are also being expected to do unpaid “overtime” which is unacceptable says the WAMG. If a TA’s working arrangements do not fully cover the work required of the post there should be “a proper discussion” to resolve the issue. This could include paying overtime, extended their contractual hours and pay, or getting another member of staff to do the extra work, says the guidance.

The new guidance also says that too many HLTAs are being hired on “split” contracts – in which they are paid as HLTAs for some of their time and at a lower rate as basic teaching assistants for the rest.

Schools are taking too a narrow view of the HLTA role – seeing it only in connection with teachers’ PPA time. This means the skills of teaching assistants with HLTA status are not being fully used to raise standards, as intended.

Casual arrangements in which TAs who have achieved HLTA status are given extra pay only for the hours they work with whole classes “are not in line with the aims of workforce reform and the principles of the National Agreement”, says the guidance.

“The National Agreement explicitly recognises that support staff should receive remuneration that reflects their level of training, skills and responsibilities – and this is particularly important as higher level roles develop.”

The guidance also says schools should review the use of term-time only contracts. These now cover the majority of permanent support staff, but they are sometimes issued “inconsistently, without transparency, and can be applied disproportionately to part-time staff.” The new national negotiating body for support staff in England, due to start work this year, will be looking at the issue of term time only contracts.

The Appropriate Deployment of Support Staff in Schools. Department for Children, Schools and Families July 2008. www.dcsf.gov.uk

Action called for to regulate use of teaching assistants

Tighter regulation is needed to stop schools asking teaching assistants to take on too many teaching responsibilities, according to Unison.

Speaking at the union’s annual conference last week, Unison national secretary Christina McAnea said TAs were often being asked to take whole classes.

Many have not received the right training or support for the duties they are being asked to perform, and they are also not paid for them.

“We are pushing the government and the employers to provide much tighter regulations and for these to be more closely monitored,” said McAnea.

New pay body to define TA roles

Work is to start in September on defining TA roles and responsibilities.

Schools minister Jim Knight said a new negotiating body for school support staff will provide “national consistency” to the way school support staff are deployed and paid.

“Support staff are having an increasing role in supporting teachers – both inside the classroom and out. However it is important to ensure that tasks are properly allocated and that staff are fairly rewarded for the work they do” said the minister.

“Roles need to be clearly defined and there must be real consistency between the different roles, and across the national picture.”

The DCSF says that by September the new pay body will have an independent chair, and a framework.

It's official - TAs' main job is teaching

Teaching assistants' main job is teaching children rather than assisting teachers, says a major government study.
And children get six times more direct attention from TAs than from teachers.
Classroom based support staff are in a "direct pedagogical role" for much of the time, supporting and interacting with pupils. They spend more time doing this than assisting teachers, or the school, say the researchers from London's Institute of Education.
With teachers, pupils were most often one of a crowd, in "audience mode"as they listened to the teacher talking. But with teaching assistants they were six times more likely to be the focus of attention, with more active and sustained interactions. The amount of individual attention children get from TAs varies with their level of need, but they all received more from TAs than teachers.
Teaching assistants in primary schools work mostly with groups of children, while secondary TAs were more likely to work one to one with pupils.
The research confirmed that more and more TAs are working unpaid overtime. They were "coping with work in excess of their paid time as they became more drawn into lesson planning, preparation and feedback."
The growth in TAs' teaching role was happening in individual schools mainly for practical rather than deliberate educational reasons.
Although many were positive about their jobs, these new responsibilities were often not matched with better pay, more paid hours, inclusion in meetings and decision making, or opportunities for training, say the researchers.
Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools and the Impact of the National Agreement (Strand 2 , wave 1)