Teachers TV has launched a nationwide competition to find TAs with Talent. They are looking for the gems of the classroom to feature in a special programme to be transmitted in the New Year.

They want to know about inspiring Teaching Assistants and what talent or skill they bring to their classroom or school. Do they run a fantastic school club? Are they a captivating story teller? Maybe they are a gifted musician that has transformed the school choir or productions?

The competition runs from now until 7th December 2009.  The panel of judges will shortlist three finalists, who will be visited in their schools in January 2010. Teachers TV will make a short video of each finalist and upload it to the Teachers TV Facebook page, where the audience will vote for an overall winner. Voting will open on 27th January 2010 and shall close on 8th February 2010.

All the details and terms and conditions can be found on our website at www.teachers.tv/ta.

Image - kindergarten, in session

A new report, which is highlighted on the BBC News site, states that pupils who are supported by teaching assistants make less progress than their classmates. The report explains that this isn’t the fault of the teaching assistants… it’s because those children spend less time with the teacher.

What is your experience? If you’re a teacher, how do you work with your TA to ensure that their support is used most effectively in the classroom? If you’re a teaching assistant, how do you feel about this report?

Unison has said that teaching assistants were increasingly being used as a cheap way of covering teachers’ lessons. The schools minister, Jim Knight, said teaching assistants eased the burden on teachers but should not lead classes for more than a short period.

Christine McAnea, head of education at Unison, said schools either chose to ignore guidance in place over the use of support staff or did not understand it. She said:

“There’s too much flexibility in it and we’re trying to negotiate much tighter guidance. Schools can use people who aren’t qualified teachers to cover for them, provided headteachers are sure they have the skills, knowledge and experience and are working under a system of supervision. Schools are abusing this and there’s an impact on standards and staff who are already very low paid.”

She continued by saying that qualified support staff can, under supervision, provide short-term cover for teachers provided they know what they are doing.

Here’s an article all management and Teaching Assistants should read:

“When an invoice for £650,000 landed on Phil Jones’s desk last October, it was something of a shock. The headteacher of Oakham primary school in Sandwell soon discovered that his wasn’t the only school reeling. Other headteachers in the borough had received official brown envelopes too, and the total sum being demanded amounted to £55m.

The invoices were from Sandwell metropolitan borough authority: the council was charging its schools for the backpay it anticipated would be owed to mainly female educational support staff who, among other council employees, had been systematically discriminated against in salary terms for years.”

Read the full article on the Guardian’s webpage.

Over the weekend another excellent forum for HLTAs and Teaching Assistants came to my attention. Teaching Assistant and HLTA Support (www.taandhltasupport.com) is a newly established forum aimed at all staff in education, though does have its main focus on support staff and enabling them to develop their practice and be aware of the changes not only in the curriculum but in National developments.

The forums administrator has achieved the HLTA status and has forums specifically aimed at Continuing Professional Development. There are also links to National Strategies, Resources and helpful links for those on a course. The staff at the site seem very friendly and willing to share their knowledge and expertise with all.

According the BBC teaching assistants make significant contributions to
pupils’ learning.  Research  by London University’s Institute of
Education, said teaching assistants also faced a range of challenges.  The reseach was initiated because teaching assistants are now covering more classes with the introduction of PPA time.  The report said more work was needed on how much assistants were using
teachers’ lesson plans and on what pupils thought of them.

The BBC has some comments taken from the report:

• Assistants clearly believed that they made “significant
  contributions”.
• They were acting as a bridge between teacher and pupil, interpreting and
  adapting what the teacher was doing so pupils’ learning was more successful,
  supporting groups and individuals, and promoting pupils’ autonomy.
• Teachers were “generally positive”, welcoming the support and
  especially the flexibility that the presence of an additional adult gave them.
• Teachers and head teachers said assistants were “very valuable to them as
  resources and as support for their work”.

Can’t fail to emphasis how much I agree with the last comment.  Well done TA’s!

According to the BBC the number of qualified nursery and primary school teachers fell by 3,160
from 2002 to 2005.  However there were 26,150 more teaching assistants. Critics of the government’s
workforce reforms claimed they were being used to replace teachers.

The government and its supporters said this was nonsense, there were simply
fewer school-age children.  General secretary of the NUT agreed there were fewer children – but that
presented an opportunity to cut class sizes. 

After mentioning a Teaching Assistants Forum that I came across the other day I’ve now found another one.  This forum is specifically for HLTA’s, but the discussion ranges from what how to become a HLTA to questions and answers to generally feel good chat.   The site is very active always seems to have members online who who are willing to share information and answer questions based on their experience.  Don’t think because you’re not a TA you can’t join either – they were very welcoming to me as a teacher.

HLTA Forum : http://www.freeforum101.com/forum/index.php?mforum=hltastaffroom

The Guardian is reporting on how new legal rights to restrain unruly pupils and confiscate disruptive mobile
phones and music players are to be extended to all frontline staff including teaching assistants and
playground supervisors.  The rights will not be available to staff such as cooks and caretakers.

The changes are
designed to stop badly behaved pupils disrupting lessons and then claiming: "You
can’t do anything to me, Miss".  Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister said:

"Our proposals will strengthen teachers’ authority and give
them the confidence to take firm action on all forms of bad behaviour. They will also send a strong message to parents and pupils that a culture of
disruption and failure to take responsibility will not be tolerated. Our white paper proposals are about strengthening every school in every
community, particularly in deprived areas and the discipline measures are a good example of this."

The moves were welcomed by the National Union of Teachers. Head
of education John Bangs said:

"We are delighted that the Government has extended
the legal right for a teacher to have the right to discipline.  We can
see the argument for all support staff who have contact with children to have
that right.  We are going to work very closely with the Government to
make sure every teacher has the right to discipline and that there are no
unforeseen consequences."

I forgot to mention another resource that was mentioned, and highly recommended, on the AQA Maths course yesterday.  This was a book that was written specifically for Teaching Assistants.  The book is called ‘Assisting Numeracy – A Handbook for Classroom Assistants’ (ISBN: 18-74099-72-3).  According to the blurb on the back of the book:

This book will equip the classroom assistant with the skills they
need to further children’s progress. It offers ideas on how to engage
the children in mathematical thinking, ‘draw out’ the mathematics of
everyday situations and help children become more numerate. It also
offers advice for assistants working with children with special
educational needs or learning English as an additional language.

It includes notes for classroom assistant and teacher
activities, extensions and variations,
aims and assessment points,
learning checklist and a glossary.  The TAs that were on the course with me seemed impressed with the book. It is available online from Amazon.  Please remember if you order it online to get a receipt so that you can claim back the money from school fund! If anyone has a copy of the book already please add a comment to say if it’s worth buying or not.