Research School Network: Deploying Teaching Assistants – updated guidance report – part 1 This blog is the first of a two-part series looking into recommendations 1 and 2 of the updated EEF report on TA deployment.

The EEF have just released an update to their ​“Deployment of Teaching Assistants” guidance report – this blog is first half of two pieces on the update; firstly, exploring the theory included within recommendations 1 – 2, followed by a discussion style blog with Research School Associate, current Assistant Head teacher and former SENCO, Kate Blight on the practical implications of this for schools and leaders. Watch this space for part 2!

Teaching Assistants are crucial to the work of schools, providing invaluable contributions through a role that is broad, ever changing and at times challenging. Schools need to ensure that deployment of teaching assistants is ​“intentional” and designed to ​“supplement not replace” the teacher, however doing so effectively is a complex and multifaceted challenge.

The first of our two blogs on the updated guidance report will look at the theory underpinning recommendation 1 – 2.


Recommendation 1: Deploy TAs in ways that enable all pupils to access high quality teaching.


It is generally accepted that the most efficient support we can put in place for our students is to ensure they experience high quality teaching. Deployment of TAs must therefore ensure that all pupils (particularly those who need it most) our able to access the teacher and ensure the teacher remains their primary educator. It is therefore necessary for schools and teachers to consider how they can ensure the role of the TA is flexible within their class, allowing the work closely with certain students, while also having the agency and confidence to break away and provide wider support/​triage understanding across the rest of the class.

The above point seems logical, and simple on paper but it is in fact complex, for example a strength of the very best TAs is their knowledge of and investment in the particular students they work frequently with, and yet we want to achieve the above we must move the norm away from TAs working solely with these students. In addition to this we must ensure mechanisms are in place for teachers and TAs to liaise so as to ensure they have the essential subject knowledge and task specific needs to assess and support student learning – something that is never easy in the hectic world of education. Perhaps even more importantly we need to plan how to avoid students becoming overdependent on TAs, and support TAs to avoid prioritising task completion over developing strong learning habits.

Some of the recommended solutions for this exist at systematic school level. For example, the guidance suggests that schools should avoid assigning TAs to specific pupils for long periods, while others are at the classroom level with the report advocating that teachers should establish a clear understanding about how the teacher and the TA role will complement each other. This should ensure all pupils are given access to high quality teaching from the class teacher. One way this can be achieved outlined in the report is to have TA’s circulating the room and identifying students who are stuck or require extra support and notifying the teacher of this.

Recommendation 2: Deploy TAs to scaffold learning and to develop pupils’ independence


Getting the balance right between supporting and inhibiting learning is tough – it is a very fine line that is highly context specific, and changeable from student to student, subject to subject and even day to day. So again, schools and their leaders must ask themselves how they can support and train their TAs so that they can

- Encourage pupils to take risks
- Provide the appropriate amount of support at the appropriate time
- Ensure pupils retain responsibility for their own learning
- Feel confident in asking open questions which allow students to explore topics and their knowledge
- Give the least amount of help first and understand the benefits of students struggling for a while.

Recommendation 2 provides a framework for TA to pupil interactions to support TAs in cultivating these positive learning behaviours. The framework begins at the highest level of independence for pupils, in which they self scaffold with minimal to no TA input, as they allow students to think and work out solutions themselves.

This is followed by prompts, in which TAs can support pupils who are unable to self scaffold by encouraging them to draw on their own knowledge and metacognitive process to tackle the task – for example asking students ​“what do you need to do first?”. Below this level is ​“clueing” in which TAs provide clues worded as questions to provide a hint for students to recall needed knowledge or strategies.

At the lower level of the framework is modelling whereby TAs (assuming they have the subject knowledge/​skills to do so) model the work/​task with students actively watching and listening. Finally, and sometimes occasionally appropriate is ​“correcting” in which the TA corrects student work. This does require no independent thinking from the pupil and therefore should not be used unless other options have been unsuccessful.

If you want to read the full guidance document, the report can be found via this link.
Remember the next research school blog will be with Kate Blight and myself exploring the practical implications of the guidance report recommendations and how best to implement change in accordance with these recommendations.


Ben Crockett, Assistant Headteacher and Deputy Director Durrington Research School