Research School Network: Maximising the Impact of TAs – our programme launched by Rob Webster

This week we launched one of our three day training programme Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants Programme (MITA). We were delighted to welcome Rob Webster(Centre for Inclusive Education, UCL Institute of Education) to lead participating school leaders through an engaging and insightful session.

Leaders from nine local schools from across Suffolk, encompassing primary, secondary and alternative provision enjoyed this great opportunity drawn out of a highly significant evidence base.

The launch session utilised the valuable resources linked to the EEF Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants Guidance Report; generated by the research findings by Rob, Jonathan Sharples and Peter Blatchford, the report sets out seven recommendations to maximise the impact of teaching assistants.

Involvement in his highly informative, accessible evidence-based programme will help schools transform the way they use teaching assistants, focusing on the quality of support rather than quantity, and greatly increasing their positive impact on the progress and attainment of pupils.

Feedback at the end of the launch was very positive and when asked to sum up the experience in three words responses included:

excited, nervous, enthused

challenged, change, hopeful

excited, positive, clear

empowering, informative, excited

Before the second session on March 7^th, participants will be completing gap tasks in their school context. This includes carrying out a review of practice/​process/​provision; this will then form the basis for exploring how to make effective use of this self-evaluation data before examining MITA principles in depth, focussing on:

• what they look like in the classroom
• practical strategies and ideas
• action planning

Here’s to exciting and valuable next steps.