Making the Most of Your Teaching Assistant: Good Practice in Primary Schools

Making the Most of Your Teaching Assistant is an essential handbook for every SENCo and teacher responsible for managing Teaching Assistants. Based firmly in the classroom and focused on supporting pupil progress it provides clear guidance and practical support in deploying, training and monitoring the effectiveness of Teaching Assistants. This easy-to-use book:

• sets the current context of the development of the role of Teaching Assistants within that of wider workforce reforms
• advises on how best to advertise, recruit and interview Teaching Assistants
• proposes a process for the successful induction of new Teaching Assistants
• explores a variety of ways in which you can deploy your Teaching Assistants, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and defining roles and responsibilities
• suggests how schools can monitor and evaluate the impact of the work of their Teaching Assistants on the academic and social progress of all their pupils
• provides forms and other resources that can be photocopied and used immediately to support the work of Teaching Assistants
• gives many examples of current best practice with scenarios and case studies based on real events in real schools.

This book is an invaluable source of information and advice for class teachers and leadership teams who seek to make the most effective use of the teaching assistants in their schools to support the teacher, the learning, the curriculum, and the school as a whole. Trainee and new teachers will find the book an invaluable resource in preparing to work alongside and manage teaching assistants in their classrooms.

Sue Briggs is Inspector for Inclusion and Adviser for SEN and Inclusion in Warwickshire. She is an Ofsted inspector for primary and special schools and a specialist member of the SEN and Disability Tribunal.

Sue Cunningham is Director of Inclusion in a large mainstream secondary school.