Teaching assistants play a valuable role in our schools (updated)
26 Feb
Video interview with General Secretary Deborah Lawson about teaching assistants (November 2013)
“Teaching assistants are professionals fulfilling a professional role.”
“Research has demonstrated that increasing the number of teaching assistants in schools can improve student attainment.”
“TAs do make a significant contribution to the way pupils learn and achieve.”
“Parents and head teachers value the individual attention that teaching assistants give to children.
“Voice also values its teaching assistant members and will continue to support them and their valuable role.”
Update: 26 February 2016
Update: 1 February 2016
“Setting standards for your TAs”: Your Voice, January 2016
Update: 11 November 2015
“Sending the wrong signal to teaching assistants”: SecEd, 11 November 2015
Update: 16 October 2015
Voice’s “furious” reaction to decision not to publish TA standards
Update: 12 March 2015
Update: 27 February 2015
Education Endowment Foundation: Unlocking the potential of teaching assistants
Update: 3 October 2014 / 28 October 2014
Voice welcomes review of professional standards for teaching assistants (3 October 2014)
Call for evidence launched (28 October 2014)
Further information:
“Teaching assistants can improve literacy and numeracy skills when they are deployed well”: Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (7 February 2014) Voice welcomes report on teaching assistants
Increased expenditure on Associate Staff in schools and changes in student attainment (IOE, 2011)
Tag: Teaching assistants
28 November 2013
Twitter: @BoltonCollegeTA: ‘”@Voicetheunion: Teaching assistants’ valuable role in our #schools blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/?p=9022 #LoveTAs #education #TAs” So so true!’
http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/blog/teaching-assistants-and-the-pupil-premium-setting-the-record-straight/
TES: “Teaching assistants can be overlooked, but used in the right way they can be invaluable in your crusade against bad behaviour”: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6386137
Guardian Teacher Network: “2014: the year of the teaching assistant?”: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jan/08/education-2014-teaching-assistant-school-support-staff
Teaching assistants improve children’s attainment, says new research (Deborah Lawson comments)
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1142009/teaching-assistants-improve-childrens-attainment-research
http://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/addressing-the-bigger-picture-on-teaching-assistant-interventions/
‘Assistance for assistants’: Letter from Deborah Lawson about teaching assistants in TES
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6406240
“The assurance that the government values teaching assistants and has no plan to remove them is very reassuring to the whole education workforce.”
#ukedchat today: https://twitter.com/ukedchat/status/489365523336265728/photo/1
Voice Official Response 2096: Consultation on Developing a Set of Standards for Teaching Assistants
Voice’s response to DfE’s call for evidence
http://www.voicetheunion.org.uk/index.cfm?cid=1401
In TES: https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=11006680
TES: “Why our support staff need superstar status” https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=11006985
“It’s time we built up support staff’s pay” General Secretary’s letter in TES today:
http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TESLetter24042015.jpg
Penultimate paragraph that was edited out: “Support staff carry out a vital role. However, previous attempts to establish a national pay and conditions structure have not been a priority for successive governments, leaving the pay and conditions of staff at the mercy of market forces and affordability, rather than a true reflection of the worth and value of their qualifications, knowledge, experience and skills.”
Comment from Schools Week: http://schoolsweek.co.uk/editors-comment/
In SecEd http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/teaching-assistants-providing-outstanding-classroom-support/
In TES today: “We’ve got an army of TAs to deploy on the front line” by Alex Quigley
http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/TEStas201115.pdf
“Teaching Assistants should go to Heaven first” http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4c7062fcc595743466b2a37c2&id=90077ca07b
In TES today: “Seven steps to using teaching assistants effectively”: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/seven-steps-using-teaching-assistants-effectively
Nursery World: “Teaching assistants boost children’s speaking abilities”: http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1156135/teaching-assistants-boost-childrens-speaking-abilities
The EEF report and resources:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/compelling-evidence-to-make-sure-4bn-spent-annually-on-tas/
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/campaigns/making-best-use-of-teaching-assistants/
In TES: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/why-do-teaching-assistants-not-get-appropriate-recognition
Day in life of TA
http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/?p=13686http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/?p=13686
Stress: https://www.educationsupportpartnership.org.uk/blogs/claire-renn/stresses-strains-being-teaching-assistant
The inequalities of ‘Equal Pay’ reviews
http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/?p=13923
In TES: “TAs can be amazing”: http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/TEStas29072016.pdf
BBC Radio 4 Today 0840
How important are teaching assistants in the classroom? Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, and Ros McMullen, who spent 15 years as a head teacher and in school leadership.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07v0h78 02:48:30
On TES: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/teaching-assistants-provide-essential-individual-attention-pupils
On TES online:
https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/lets-stop-taking-our-teaching-assistants-granted
In TES: Rob Webster interview
The researcher and former teaching assistant explains to Jessica Powell how schools can maximise the potential of their TA workforce
https://www.tes.com/news/tes-magazine/tes-magazine/tes-talks-rob-webster
TA resources: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/resources/making-best-use-of-teaching-assistants
“Stop treating TAs as second-class citizens”: TES letters, 3 March 2017
http://blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/TES030317.jpg
In TES: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/six-steps-ensure-effective-ta-led-interventions