School support staff "often underestimated"

The general public values school support staff and believes their role is often underestimated, according to a new survey.
The Training and Development Agency for Schools commissioned the survey of more than 1000 adults.
Seventy percent agreed that support staff play a valuable role in schools supporting pupils and teachers, and three out of five agreed that the value of support staff is often underestimated.
The TDA hopes to use the information to encourage school heads to invest more money in training their support staff.
Graham Holley, the TDA's chief executive, said, "Support staff are quietly transforming the way the modern school workforce operates. They are making a big difference to the lives of children and young people across many key areas".
He said that more schools were now taking a whole team approach to staff professional development, recognising that when it is tailored to specific needs and work areas, staff training is one of the most effective ways of driving up standards in schools.

Warning over TA medical procedures

Teaching assistants are carrying out complex medical procedures without proper training, a trade union claims.
Unison says TAs are being asked to change colostomy bags, do tube feeding, and administer medicines to children, often with no specialist training.
The union is calling for an urgent review of the medical procedures taking place in schools, and warns that the current situation is "an accident waiting to happen".
A survey by the union found that more than 70% ofTAs and school support staff are expected to administer medicines or carry out medical procedures as part of their job.
Unison head of education Christina McAnea said, "Children with medical needs must have access to a fully rounded education. But this must be done safely and can only happen where lines of responsibility are clear, staff are trained and supported, and it's not left up to goodwill or to individuals being made to feel guilty.
"We are bound to see a serious incident if schools don't get the help they need to manage children's special medical needs."
Unison's warning over medicines in schools

Move to centralise school job advertising

Teaching assistants will be able to advertise themselves to schools on a new government-funded school recruitment web site for England, to be launched in the autumn.
The Schools Recruitment Service has been set up to cut the cost of job advertising to schools and local authorities. They will be able to recruit teachers and support staff through the site by advertising vacancies directly but also by trawling through pre-registered job candidates.
The new web site is to be run by a private company, Tribal. It will be fully funded by the government to start with, gradually become self-funding over the first two years. It's not clear from the publicity whether job candidates would have to eventually pay to register their details.
According to the Deparment for Children, Schools and Families nearly 100,000 teaching vacancies are currently advertised each year – with an annual teacher turnover of 20 per cent. In addition to this, an estimated 50,000 non-teaching positions in schools are advertised annually.
The new service is likely to hit the TES newspaper where most teaching vacancies are advertised but it may also affect smaller specialist agencies.

TAs can "stigmatise" SEN children

Teaching assistants should not work exclusively on a 1:1 basis with pupils, according to researchers. Although some children might need some 1:1 support, it's better for them if they are supported as part of a group.

Studies also underline the importance of teachers and teaching assistants to have allocated planning time together.

Studies on the impact of teaching assistants working with pupils with SEN in mainstream schools give mixed messages, but half the studies said too much reliance on teaching assistant support can hinder children's interaction with other pupils and teachers, and may lead to them feeling stigmatised.

TAs need to be skilled at encouraging children to interact with others, but also to be sensitive about times when a pupil needs to make up their own mind about what to do, say academics. Other studies said TAs can have a positive impact on pupils with SEN by helping them engage in school work, and if they have been trained, in communicating with other children.

In general research shows that teaching assistants have made a big, positive difference to children's learning both directly and through their support for teachers.Trained TAs working in the classroom help pupils with literacy and language problems make significant gains in learning.

Teaching assistants also have an impact on the way teachers work. Their presence allows teachers to introduce more creative and practical activities than they could otherwise, and to spend more time working with groups and individuals.
Having another adult in the classroom makes teachers feel supported and less stressed. Knowing that children are getting more attention and support makes teachers' job more satisfying.

Team teaching in which TAs support small groups in whole class activities promote a more inclusive ethos. TAs can also mediate between teachers and parents, encouraging parents to get more involved in their child's schooling. But schools need to take care that teachers also maintain good contacts with parents.

Academics at Manchester university and London's Institute of Education reviewed all the research studies on the impact of teaching assistants, and their implications for government policy and for practice in schools.

They say

• the largely positive impact of TAs needs to be encouraged through a stronger framework for training, and a career structure capable of motivating teaching assistants.

• Teacher training needs to include training on working collaboratively with teaching assistants.

• Pupils with special needs learn and participate more easily if 1:1 support is kept to a minimum.

• Teachers and TAs should work as a team to plan support for individual pupils, but teachers should use TAs across the whole class rather than assign them exclusively to individual children.

• TAs are most effective in schools where they are part of the staff team which values their contribution to decision making, and where the different complementary roles of teachers and TAs are clearly understood and respected.

The impact of adult support staff on pupils and mainstream schools
Alison Alborz and others. Department for Children, Schools and Families 2009.

Call for action to stop violence and abuse against TAs

Nearly half of all teaching assistants experience violence or abuse at work, according to a trade union.
A Unison survey of TAs accross the UK found that nearly one in four had been physically attacked, and 47% had experience a physical threat or verbal abuse. One in fourteen needed medical attention following violence.
Unison's head of education Christina McAnea said, "Many of our members work with children with special educational needs, often with challenging behaviour.
"Schools must have very clear policies and procedures in place to deal with this and to support staff.
"There should also be more comprehensive risk assessments to anticipate dangerous and difficult situations."
"Teaching assistants work long hours, often on low pay. It is shameful that they should also be expected to put themselves at risk of being attacked or abused."
535 teaching assistants responded to Unison's Time for Change local government survey.

Learning Support is investigating violence against teaching assistants.
Click Here to complete our survey

Schools told "prepare for flu"

Schools have been told to start planning for a flu pandemic.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families says the a pandemic of Swine Fever is now believed to be imminent, and local authorities and schools should make urgent preparations.
Government guidance says schools should share plans with staff and parents.

Schools may be advised to close before other organisations because children are "highly efficient spreaders" of infections among themselves and to adults in their families.

The head or governors would make the final decision on whether to close a school. This could be because of government advice or because too many staff are already off sick.
Schools are advised to:

• make sure they have up to date contact details for staff and parents
• make provision for keeping a sick child separate from other pupils and with minimal contact with staff until they they are collected or taken home, and
  
• make sure children or staff showing any signs of infection go home as soon as possible

If the school closes, staff would still have to attend unless they were ill or looking after a sick relative.

Local authorities have a duty to provide education for children of school age who are out of school, so teachers could set and mark work. But the government admits it hasn't yet come up with a plan for distributing the work to pupils or collecting it from them.

As well as the general guidance, the government has produced advice on preventing the spread of infection in schools, and a model school plan for a flu pandemic.
You can find them on this page of Teachernet.

High cost of noisy classrooms

Thousands of children will needlessly miss out on education if the Government does not make sure schools have good acoustics, say a charity.
The National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) says sound quality in the classroom is important to all children, but background noise is especially harmful to the learning of children with SEN or with English as an additional language.
The charity warns that acoustics are a low priority in many newly built school buildings. "Some new classrooms are being build that are hostile listening environments. Large, open classrooms are being promoted without considering how new designs work for children with special educational needs. The Government has committed to inclusion and equality for disabled children. If schools don't sound good, we will fail to meet this goal."
NDCS wants the government to urgently introduce a requirement that all new school buildings pass an acoustic test before they are used.

TA "exploitation" condemned

Support staff are being exploited because of reforms designed to reduce the workload of teachers, a teachers' union conference has warned.

A motion passed at the ATL conference says the Workload Agreement improved teachers' work-life balance. But the conference "deplored" the resulting exploitation experienced by support staff.

The motion called on the union's leadership to lobby for the forthcoming school support staff negotiating body to make sure "all who are involved in the direct day-to-day teaching of children are treated fairly", and reward and develop the professionalism of support staff.