Research School Network: Deployment of teaching assistants: 4 key messages for school leaders What are the key considerations for school leaders from the newly-updated EEF guidance?

Teaching assistants are crucial to the work of our schools. Their contributions are invaluable, particularly for those pupils most in need of additional support.

The Education Endowment Foundation originally published their guidance on deployment of teaching assistants 10 years ago. A lot has changed since its publication, making a new review of the evidence and practice in this area timely. You can read the full report here, but we present here 4 key messages for leaders involved in the deployment of teaching assistants in their schools.

1. Ensure a member of the senior leadership team has clear responsibility for TA deployment in the school

In every school, a member of the senior leadership team should take the lead on TA deployment, something that our conversations with schools indicate is often not the case. This leader will need to gain a thorough understanding of the research evidence contained within the EEF report, and use this to guide any future changes in practice.

The leader should initially seek to understand current practice in their school. This might involve asking questions such as:

• Which pupils do TAs tend to work with most?
• What kinds of support are being provided by TAs?
• What support and training exists for TAs, and what are teachers’ levels of confidence around effective deployment?

Research evidence suggests that if someone not on the senior leadership team is tasked with enacting change, this can lead to changes either not being made or not being sustained in the longer term.

2. Make all staff clear about the role of TAs in your school

A part of the named senior leader’s role is uniting all staff around the role of TAs in the school, ensuring everyone is ​‘on the same page’. This is especially important as TAs can sometimes lack a voice in schools, which means that clarity relating to their deployment is essential.

It is worth considering if all teachers and TAs would give the same answer to the question ​‘What is the role of the TA in our school?’, and how current practices fit it with the school’s wider vision and culture.

Clarity on the primary and secondary responsibilities of TAs can also protect them from ​‘role creep’, and allows them to be trained and prepared for the specific roles they will undertake. This might be supported by a handbook or set of principles which support their initial induction and their ongoing professional development.

3. Focus on the systems and structures that support TAs to do their job effectively

Ensuring TAs are well-prepared for their role in the classroom is likely to require some defined systems and structure to support this. A key question for leaders links to professional development. It is easy to focus on the challenges related to ring-fencing time for TA professional development, and use these as an excuse when PD is inconsistent or absent. Instead leaders need to build professional development opportunities into their plans, considering the use of video exemplification, guidance documents, and adjusting timetables or even contracts to make time for this work.

Consider where space can be created specifically for teachers and TAs to collaborate, discuss their roles, and carry out preparation: this could be part of an INSET day, team meetings, or – if feasible – during PPA time. And on a day-to-day basis, consider the mechanisms for teachers sharing the key ​‘need to knows’ with TAs in advance of a lesson, including what the lesson entails and what the TA will be asked to do.

4. Maintain a focus on high quality teaching for all

The best available evidence indicates that great teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve attainment and future outcomes. To ensure TAs are deployed in a way that helps all pupils access high-quality teaching, a strategic approach to TA deployment that focuses on effective TA deployment practices both inside and outside the classroom is needed. These practices are outlined in the first three recommendations of the EEF report, and some useful tools such as those pictured below can support schools in implementing these.

It is worth considering how many staff in your school would see the role of the TA as support for individual or small groups of pupils, rather than as part of a ​‘teaching team’ alongside teachers and leaders.