Over the last decade or so as pupil roles have risen, the number of teaching assistants has increased whilst teacher number have remained relatively steady. (You do the maths on that one!)
There is insufficient funding in state schools, to provide smaller class size to improve learning, the private schools way. However using timely practice in maths lessons, along side teaching assistants provides - in our opinion - more effective small group targeted teaching and personalised deliberate retrieval practice. The timely practice part of each lesson embeds learning more efficiently and deeply and provides a perfect opportunity for feedback.
While the number of teachers in mainstream schools in England has remained relatively steady over the last decade or so, the number of full-time equivalent TAs has more than trebled since 2000: from 79,000 to 243,700. Teaching assistants comprise over a quarter of the workforce in mainstream schools in England: 35% of the primary workforce, and 14% of the secondary school workforce. The number of full-time equivalent TAs has more than trebled since 2000: from 79,000 to 262,800. On the basis of headcount data, there are currently more TAs in English nursery and primary schools than teachers: 273,200 vs. 248,900.1 About 7% of TAs in state-funded schools have higher-level teaching assistant (HLTA) status.
A key reason for increasing the number of TAs was to help deal with problems with teacher workloads. In 2003, the government introduced The National Agreement to help raise pupil standards and tackle excessive teacher workload, in large part via new and expanded support roles and responsibilities for TAs and other support staff. The growth in the numbers of TAs has also been driven by the push for greater inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) into mainstream schools, with TAs often providing the key means by which inclusion is facilitated. Given that SEN pupils and low-attaining pupils are more likely to claim Free School Meals (FSM)1. TAs also work more closely with pupils from low-income backgrounds. Indeed, expenditure on TAs is one of the most common uses of the Pupil Premium in primary schools, a government initiative that assigns funding to schools in proportion to the number of pupils on FSM.
A combination of these factors means that schools now spend approximately £4.4 billion each year on TAs, corresponding to 13% of the education budget. This presents an excellent opportunity for improvements in practice, with such a large and already committed resource in place. The recommendations in this guidance recognise the fact that schools are operating within already tight budgets; however, noticeable improvements in pupil outcomes can be made through the thoughtful use of existing resources, without significant additional expenditure.
R1: TAs should not be used as an informal teaching resource for low attaining pupils
Absolutely agreed.
The evidence on TA deployment suggests schools have drifted into a situation in which TAs are often used as an informal instructional resource for pupils in most need. This has the effect of separating pupils from the classroom, their teacher and their peers.
Although this has happened with the best of intentions, this evidence suggests that the status quo is no longer an option.
School leaders should systematically review the roles of both teachers and TAs and take a wider view of how TAs can support learning and improve attainment throughout the school.
R2: Use TAs to add value to what teachers do, not replace them
In the comments on the more specific recommendations below, how this might happen with timely practice is spelled out.
If TAs have a direct instructional role it is important they add value to the work of the teacher, not replace them – the expectation should be that the needs of all pupils are addressed, first and foremost, through high quality classroom teaching. Schools should try and organise staff so that the pupils who struggle most have as much time with the teacher as others. Breaking away from a model of deployment where TAs are assigned to specific pupils for long periods requires more strategic approaches to classroom organisation. Instead, school leaders should develop effective teams of teachers and TAs, who understand their complementary roles in the classroom.
Where TAs are working individually with low attaining pupils the focus should be on retaining access to high-quality teaching, for example by delivering brief, but intensive, structured interventions (see Recommendations 5 and 6).
R3: Use TAs to help pupils develop independent learning skills and manage their own learning
A successfully completed timely practice assignment, is one where every question is independently and accurately completed entirely by the learner (although reading the question, spelling and scribing are allowed) - this principle is firmly shared with all learners and teaching assistants when they begin to use timely practice and needs to be shared with any other adults visiting or joining the class thereafter.
Research has shown that improving the nature and quality of TAs’ talk to pupils can support the development of independent learning skills, which are associated with improved learning outcomes. TAs should, for example, be trained to avoid prioritising task completion and instead concentrate on helping pupils develop ownership of tasks.
TAs should aim to give pupils the least amount of help first. They should allow sufficient wait time, so pupils can respond to a question or attempt the stage of a task independently. TAs should intervene appropriately when pupils demonstrate they are unable to proceed.
R4: Ensure TAs are fully prepared for their role in the classroom
Lesson plans, with timely practice, are short - and teaching assistants, should be enabled to share access to these. Plans show which learner will learn which layer from each topic and the customer knowledge base provides easy access to learning resources, so the teacher and teaching assistant can start on the same page, when discussing how they will share the delivery of the lesson.
Schools should provide sufficient time for TA training and for teachers and TAs to meet out of class to enable the necessary lesson preparation and feedback.
Creative ways of ensuring teachers and TAs have time to meet include adjusting TAs’ working hours (start early, finish early), using assembly time and having TAs join teachers for (part of) Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time.
During lesson preparation time ensure TAs have the essential ‘need to knows’:
Concepts, facts, information being taught
Skills to be learned, applied, practised or extended
Intended learning outcomes
Expected/required feedback.
R5: Use TAs to deliver high quality one-to-one and small group support using structured interventions
Timely practice can be used to give extra teaching, or extra practice and feedback. In both cases timely practice provides a clear guide of what to teach each learner next on each topic (and exactly where any learning gaps are) and efficiently schedules retrieval practice and feedback, which should should be shared between the teacher or teaching assistant:
within lessons that the teacher and teaching assistant are both teaching e.g. one week the teacher will work with the learners who have a teaching assistant allocated to them, whilst the teaching assistant works with other learners and the other week, roles are reversed
when timely practice is used in lessons taught by the teacher and small group interventions taught by the learning assistant the way that these are shared is described in R7 below.
R6: Adopt evidence-based interventions to support TAs in their small group and one-to-one instruction
Timely practice follows closely EEF evidence based recommendations - not because we knew in advance what EEF would say - but because we are following evidence based research on how teaching can better become embedded learning. We believe it is not teaching which is the “weak link” but lack of deliberate practice (i.e. personalised practice which embeds learning)- which is too complex for the teacher to provide - without a tool such as timely practice.
R7: Ensure explicit connections are made between learning from everyday classroom and teaching structured interventions
Timely practice is both
a conduit for communication - at a granular level - between the teacher and the teaching assistant.
Deeply embedded learning
embedding learning and learning gaps are clear.
Practice will automatically be shared between maths lessons and intervention sessions. That is, what the teacher and the teaching assistant have both recently taught are practised more frequently, questions on these layers will be practised in which ever session gives the best timing to embed the learning most deeply in long term learning.
and a short cut way for the teacher to let the teaching assistant know what to teach next. When the teacher and teaching assistant start working together the bite of learning might be specific e.g. givenADDsign (7) - the teacher indicates which small bite of learning the teaching assistant should teach. As their collaboration moves on the teacher might say e.g. I’ll be teaching givenADDsign or I’ll teach all the integer topics next. With timely practice it is easy to see what to teach next on each topic and the teaching and learning resources are readily available, so timely practice can provide a responsive, detailed curriculum for small group intervention.