‘Well trained Teaching Assistants are a key resource and are used very effectively in many (primary) schools.’
OFSTEDs Review of Primary Education 1994 – 1998 (1999)
Teaching Assistants (TAs) have an essential role to play in the smooth and effective running of a school. They are an extra pair of eyes, ears and hands for the teacher and give support to the structure of the school.
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(Teaching Assistant’s Pocketbook. Dot Constable. 2005)
Teaching Assistants work in Primary, Secondary and Special Needs Schools. Individual duties and responsibilities can vary greatly but will be outlined in their job description. A TAs role is to support – this can be in a classroom situation, with groups or individual pupils
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A Teaching Assistant, as the name suggests, is there to help pupils achieve results whilst attending school. This is where the most differences in roles can be seen. In primary schools, a Teaching Assistant assigned to a class is responsible for assisting all pupils in that class. There are many tasks this involves including: • Checking work and encouraging pupils to correct mistakes. • Listening to
Teaching Assistants support classroom management and assist with general administration. They help manage pupil behaviour and support pupils’ health, safety and emotional/social development. Teaching assistants establish relationships with learners and help pupils to access the curriculum. They support the development and effectiveness of work teams, work with other professionals and liaise effectively with parents.
Higher level teaching assistants (HLTAS) have a variety of training requirements to adhere to for example numerical and literacy skills up to NVQ level 2 which ensures that they are able and confident in what they are teaching. HLTAS should also have a broad knowledge of learning strategies from independent to group within the curriculum to allow a pupil to fulfil their potential. HLTAS should also have a solid knowledge of the curriculum along with skills in curriculum development and delivery this is to allow HLTAS to be able to teach to a high standard and be aware of what a pupil needs to do to get them to move up a sub level or level in different
A teaching assistant can have discussions with the teacher after obtaining a copy of the prepared lesson plan. Some time may need to be set aside for these discussions to take place, such as break or lunch times. These lesson plans are usually prepared in advance, the teaching assistant can provide support by doing their own prep work or helping out with task resources.
In addition, the teacher is responsible for researching the subject area to ensure a wide, current knowledge base that will help when establishing credibility and professionalism, and then to develop a variety of interesting ways to deliver the content whilst ensuring a safe working environment for students. The teacher’s role is then to deliver the lesson content in a manner consistent with the learning styles and requirements of the delegates. These might include lecturing, large group discussion or case studies.
The function of a HLTA will be relevant and specific to the setting that they are employed, but the overall aim is to help children to achieve their full potential through a number of teaching methods suitable to each childs needs.
Schools employ and have teaching assistants, to again, create the best possible learning environment for the pupils. As a teaching assistant I will work as part of a team working to make the pupils learning journey, a successful one. I will attend staff meetings and continue to develop my skills through in-house training and other relevant courses. I will maintain and contribute to school policies and procedures, and work in partnership with parents and carers on behalf of the school.
A teaching assistant plays an important role for the standards of behaviour expected in the classroom.
The teacher's role is to plan lessons, direct and assess pupils learning. The role of the teaching assistant is to support the teacher in planning, delivering and evaluating learning activities and also, under the teacher's direction to give support to the class, whether it is the whole class, small groups or individuals.
Although the class teacher is primarily responsible to plan, deliver and review all learning activities for the class, a teaching assistant can work alongside the teacher and make contributions that can improve the teachers plan, alter the delivery to make it more effective for pupil attainment and extend the teachers initial review. “Planning, teaching and evaluation follow a cycle which gives structure to the learning process” (Baker, B., Burnham, L., 2010) and is vital in my role as a teaching assistant. I aim to describe how I aide the teacher to plan and deliver lessons and how I give feedback to the teacher about individual pupils, in order for the teacher make improvements in her planning and to be able to target individual
Another important point of this lecture, in my opinion, that has application in teaching is discrimination. Although all teaching assistants may be aware of the consequences of discrimination and therefore they may not intentionally want to do this act, they should act in a way that all students feel that the teaching assistant does not discriminate against them. For example, in lab classes, the teaching assistant should spend an equal time to ask the question of each student. If a TA spend 20 minutes to answer the question of a specific student, for instance, the rest of students may feel that the TA want to help him or her more than others. I, personally, take at most 5 minutes to answering the question of each student so that there will
My role as a teaching assistant is to take on tasks such as preparing the classroom for lessons and clearing up afterwards, which allow the teacher to concentrate on teaching. To support pupils with particular individual needs, sometimes my role is to work one to one, while others work in small groups or work with one of these groups. The teacher is not able to give every pupil individual attention, assistants provide essential support to the pupils and the lead teacher. My responsibilities also include:
As a teaching assistant/learning mentor, you are able to take more time with students to enable effective communication, whether this is one on one support or a small group. The students will benefit from this as they have been able to understand more comprehensively the task at hand, however if they do struggle with anything we can take the extra time with them to give them guidance which will help the student fulfil their learning potential.
The class teachers’ main role is to monitor and assess pupils’ achievement. They need to be aware of the progression made by all the children in their class and be able to report back to both the parents and other staff. As a Teaching assistant my main role is to support the class teacher whilst this ongoing assessment of pupils takes place. The teacher can measure the progress of each pupil by carrying out lessons and setting the children clear objectives. At the start of each lesson so that the children are clear about the objectives the class teacher writes
A learning support assistant assists the teacher in the delivery of the learning, they are also in charge of assessing pupils or groups they are working with. This is then fed back to the teacher to inform the next steps. Al earning support assistant may have responsibility for putting in place learning activities to meet the
Job title was stated as assistant PE teacher, roles were; setting up equipment for lessons, taking warm ups and full lessons (at times), helping students with both practical and theory based work and finally, marking work for both GCSE and A-Level.