Mumsnet Talk

Our school have class TAs - all almost full time, they deliver RWInc and take little groups out.

As a TA I am interested in finding out more about the ways TA's provide effective input.

Are the more effective input TAs better trained? Do you have any idea what training they have received? Is there a book they have read? Are they "managed" in a different way (one thing I would love is to know what's being covered in class in advance, but this seems hard to get to).

Any ideas about where I could find more information would be greatly appreciated.

I have googled and got the sutton report mentioned and from there found this https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RR605.pdf

I'd be very interested to hear opinions/pointers from teachers though.

Ime there is such variation in TA roles that even in the same school children receive less or more effective input depending on the TA they work with.
Some of the LSAs at my school are very skilled and their development and delivery of intervention programmes have a big impact on outcomes. Others are less skilled and their lack of enthusiasm reflects in the poor motivation of learners.

A recent Sutton trust report stated how the kids who spent the most time with TAs were the further behind (ie being taught by TAs instead of teachers meant they made less progress)

So OFSTED are now looking to see TAs are deployed appropriately.....

agreed our method works for us and I'm sure your method works well for your pupils

(My child with 1 to 1 is at approximately the same level as yours, btw)

Mrz, I know. They are different models - not better, not worse, just different.

We work very differently ... teachers and support staff don't sit with any group and we don't withdraw children for interventions. I have 1-1 support for a child who is developmentally 18 months stage and needs constant care.

In Maths and Literacy, my TA sits with a different group each day, to deliver a specific 'guided' task e.g. to do a challenge task with the most able, or to address a particular issue with e.g. punctuation for a group of children. Definitely not 'always with the SEN children'. Yes, she works with SEN children in her intervention time - and there is a 1 to 1 in my class also who is always with her [statemented, multiply-disabled] charge - but we specifically work to avoiud dependence.

High levels of TA support can mask SEN and also create a culture of dependence.

Spot on Mrz! That's exactly what happened with my dd and hindered us requesting input from outside agencies because school said she was fine! My dd was only fine because of the level of adult support she had but is now 100% reliant on adults within school to the point she now attends a special school to help her develop independence in a safe setting even though academically she's above average.

My son is having difficulties with reading/writing and talkinKg in school and their reassurance to me was the high level of in class support as there is always a TA sat at his table. My response to the SENCO was support is only any good if it's the right, targeted support. She looked at me gone out!!

I think they do it to stop parents applying for statements as there are hardly any statemented kids in the school (if any) but the amount of stories I hear of the kids that leave there having their difficulties identified as soon as they start secondary is ridiculous!

We have 'class' TAs for Maths and Literacy each day. For the remainder of the day, those TAs deliver specific interventions to children who have particular difficulties. Depending on the intervention, that may be to children throughout the school or it may be to children from their 'home' class. We have chosen to spend money training TAs in SEN interventions rather than training teachers in them, so our TAs are very highly skilled.

sometimes having a TA makes it tougher .... absolutely

TA? What's that? I teach P2 on my own all week.

High levels of TA support can mask SEN and also create a culture of dependence.

In my son's small primary (1 class per year) they have 2 TA's in every class all day and in my son's year 1 class there are 3 as a couple of children (including my son) need a lot of differentiation ans support.

My dd was diagnosed ASD at secondary and they said she had coped so well at primary due to the high level of in class support.

We have TAs in DCs classes, YR, 1 and 2 anyway.

Our classes all have a TA, except reception which have a nursery nurse instead, most have a 1:1 as well. DS's class normally has 3/4 adults in.

In our school this is the norm. The TA's only work in the morning with parent helpers to support the class teacher some afternoons.

Yes because most schools do maths and literacy in the morning, which is when the TA is most needed. Afternoons are usually topic work/ art/ music/ PE/ ICT etc. In my school even though most classes have a full time TA, we usually spend afternoons taking kids out who need extra 1:1 help or doing classroom resources/ photocopying etc.

yes, morning only is normal.

Sometimes having a TA makes it tougher ...it depends on how good the TA is simpson.

I do have a child in my class with 1-1 support but that doesn't benefit other children in the class.

I think it's normal.

DS1 was in a Y3 class with no TA. When he did a runner another child was sent after him.

At the school my DC are at now, they have full time TA's in KS1 (Reception has 3 (sometimes 4) TA's for two classes.

KS2 has one TA between two classes. (Unless there are DC with SEN)

The yr1 TA is at my DC school not my placement school, sorry for confusion....

The school I have my placement in (not my DC school) has 2 TAs in the reception class although one of them is a 121 but she does help out with the rest of the class as well.

Not sure if the rest of the school have TAs in each class though (it's only an infant school so just till yr2).

Mrz - doesn't it make it tougher, not having a TA?? Or I guess you are used to it, if you have never had one.

The TA in yr1 is often not in the class but takes kids out maybe 4-5 at a time to do extra work....

Both my children went through primary school without a single TA not even in reception

I think my DC school must be in the minority as they have a school nurse to themselves too, which I thought was the norm until I read other posts about it on here.

It is a bog standard primary school btw....