Leadership
Empowering Support Staff to Become the Engine of School Improvement
Turn teaching assistants from an extra pair of hands into a planned part of every lesson, and find skills you didn't know they had.
- 36 minutes
- Recorded webinar
- 0.5 CPD hours
- Certificate
Members
14 days free, then £70 a year or £7 a month.
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What you'll learn
- Audit how you deploy support staff against the EEF's recommendations
- Run five-minute 'work dating' sessions so teachers and support staff plan together
- Observe support staff and link what you see to their appraisal targets
- Use a skills audit to find hidden talents and put them to work
- Give support staff a regular meeting and a real say in school improvement
About this course
Support staff are often the biggest cost in the classroom and the least briefed. They build strong relationships with pupils, then walk into lessons with no idea what the teacher wants from them.
One SEMH special school changed that, and its assistant head shows you how. They audited their practice against the EEF's guidance on teaching assistants, wrote a policy from scratch and started observing support staff in the week after teachers, linking what they saw to appraisal. The idea people ask about most is 'work dating': each teacher gets five timed minutes with each learning support practitioner to agree the academic plan and the behaviour plan.
A one-page skills audit turned up a CBT-trained counsellor and an aspiring art therapist already on the team, and both now run interventions. Your own staff may be hiding a few surprises too.
- For early career teachers, governors and 3 other roles. Primary, secondary and special.
Recording
Open in order
- 19 min
Webinar Playback
- 18 min
Q&A