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Teaching Assistant
Find fresh inspiration and practical ideas for Teaching Assistants in our education articles. Read professional updates, broaden your knowledge and discover transferable good practice in our case studies. There are also many specific topic areas for you to explore. Choose from the menu on the left, or click on the 'Articles' tab at the top of the screen and scroll down for a full list.
Workplace stress: protect staff and avoid litigation | Teaching AssistantEmployers looking to prevent and defend claims of stress, and employees who are suffering from stress at work, should make time to read the complex litigation involved, urges Tamara Ludlow Managing challenging behaviour | Teaching AssistantPupils' challenging behaviour tops the list as the most stressful part of teaching; but can it be managed by teacher training? The effects of CPD on behaviour management are investigated by Elizabeth Holmes Teachers share their thoughts on the TLA | Teaching AssistantCan the Teacher Learning Academy double the number of teachers it has enrolled by 2011? What are the benefits of signing up? Four teachers describe their involvement with the academy Reading intervention programmes | Teaching AssistantWith 20% of children leaving school with lower than expected literacy levels, additional support is needed. Reading Recovery, a reading intervention programme developed in 1993, offers exactly that, say Rebecca Jenkin and Isobel Goss Storytelling to facilitate inclusion | Teaching AssistantLouise Coigley enhances and develops the communication of SEN children and adults through inclusive storytelling. Michael Jones describes seeing her in action Empowering teaching assistants to raise standards | Teaching AssistantMuriel Thomson tells how she has transformed the way support staff are used at Brixham College, Devon, bringing wide-reaching benefits across the school Every Child Matters: challenges and opportunities for CPD | Teaching AssistantWhat impact will Every Child Matters have on CPD in schools? According to Steven Coombs and Mike Calvert, it will be huge; and schools need to be ready M-level degrees: what can teachers expect? | Teaching AssistantAcademic or obscure, instrumental or professionally liberating? CPD Update editor Cliff Jones asks what we can expect the new Master's degrees for all teachers to look like Helping hands: making best use of TAs | Teaching AssistantTo allow full use of teaching assistants, curriculum managers need to ensure both TAs and teachers have the support they need. This involves quality line management and a clear understanding of how to plan for effective learning, Lynn Maidment explains Assisting the assistants: CPD for teaching assistants | Teaching AssistantAre schools rising to the challenge of CPD for the whole workforce? Elizabeth Holmes investigates what schools need to do to ensure everyone receives professional development Thinking skills in action | Teaching AssistantHow can the process of developing thinking skills be put into practice? A glimpse into the environment within a day nursery in south-east England shows how Early years PiP Cards: 1.3 Keeping Safe | Teaching AssistantEarly Years Update focuses on the importance of well being, as part of a range of practical ideas to underpin the information in the Early Years Foundation Stage Principles into Practice cards Personalised learning: promoting engagement and reflection | Teaching AssistantWith increasing pressure to deliver personalised learning, John Blanchard offers strategies for putting it into practice where it counts: the classroom The benefits of introducing young children to ICT | Teaching AssistantCrispin Andrews looks at how staff at two children’s centres are reaping the benefits of information communication technology How to use ICT to support young children's learning | Teaching AssistantEarly years practitioners have used ICT to support young children’s learning in diverse ways, writes Julie Steer Early Years PiP Cards: 1.2 Inclusive Practice | Teaching AssistantEarly Years Update focuses on the importance of inclusion, as part of a range of practical ideas to underpin the information in the Early Years Foundation Stage Principles into Practice cards Student voices: Year 7 pupils leading the plenary | Teaching AssistantA project aimed at raising the profile of plenaries at Sandringham School, St Albans, has evolved into a catalyst for change that allows students to make their voices heard in the school. Deputy head Ceddy de la Croix explains Making written feedback effective | Teaching AssistantComment-only marking is vital in helping students to reflect on their own learning, but implementing it can be a challenge. Jason Edwards, vice principal at Priory Community School, Somerset, describes how his school has overcome the initial problems Provision for pupils with moderate learning difficulties | Teaching AssistantMichael Farrell considers provision for pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) Early Years PiP Cards: 1.1 Child Development | Teaching AssistantEarly Years Update focuses on development and learning as part of a range of practical ideas to underpin the information in the Early Years Foundation Stage Principles into Practice cards Shaping a CLASI learning environment | Teaching AssistantAntidote’s development director Marilyn Tew describes how schools can encourage learning by promoting 'CLASI-ness' - where children feel capable, listened to, accepted, safe and included Reading 'catch up' at Lyndon Green school | Teaching AssistantSarah Whitehead describes a project that she undertook as part of a postgraduate professional development course for SENCOs. She highlights the value of having time for systematic professional reflection, and how this can be used to good effect when introducing 'Catch Up', an intervention designed to support reading development Activities to develop gross motor skills | Teaching AssistantGross motor skills are the movements of the large muscles of the body. These activities will help to develop and improve gross motor skills. Activities to develop social communication skills (pragmatics) | Teaching AssistantPragmatics refers to the ability to communicate in social situations. These classroom activities will help all children to develop social communication skills. Activities to develop grammar (syntax and morphology) | Teaching AssistantThese classroom activities can help develop grammar skills, particularly syntax and morphology Questioning skills as a tool for participation | Teaching AssistantJo Smith provides some practical tips on how to develop questioning skills as a tool for promoting participation and learning New resource for teaching synthetic phonics | Teaching AssistantA six-phase programme for teaching phonics aims to help children become fluent readers by the age of seven Tackling low achievement: children with SEN | Teaching AssistantA research study on tackling low achievement suggests that children with special educational needs form a large percentage of low achievers but more could be done to assist them through their schooling Managing gender difference issues in the D&T workshop | Teaching AssistantIs it possible to create a more 'gender balanced' learning environment? Natalie Griffiths explains how she investigated the effect of gender on learning in the D&T classroom and developed strategies to benefit pupils of both sexes The meaning of 'learning environment' | Teaching AssistantPam Woolner looks at the variety of ways in which the widely-used term 'learning environment' is employed Risk and challenge in the early years | Teaching AssistantKatrina Foley describes how young children’s independence and self-management skills can be promoted in an environment which celebrates risk, challenge and empowerment Ideas for topic-based learning in science | Teaching AssistantCrispin Andrews looks at the increasing emphasis on topic-based learning and offers some ideas to teach science through the topic of birds Literacy: fabulous fridge magnets | Teaching AssistantTrevor Millum outlines a truly novel way to get pupils to enjoy manipulating and using words The problems and pitfalls of 'learning styles' theories | Teaching AssistantThe idea that it is possible to raise attainment by teaching according to individual learners' styles is a popular one, but is it grounded in strong research evidence? Elaine Hall reports Physical support in games and PE | Teaching AssistantKris Lines surveys this highly litigated area — and suggests a step-by-step approach to safety within the law What is Mind Mapping? | Teaching AssistantBarry Mapp introduces the capabilities of Mind Mapping and explains some of the features that make it unique From G&T pupil to G&T teaching assistant | Teaching AssistantWhat is it like for a former pupil to return to her old school as a G&T teaching assistant? Meeting the needs of SEN students | Teaching AssistantInclusion of SEN students requires lots of involvement from teaching assistants. Enid Alston introduces a new training course designed to help Making the most of your TAs | Teaching AssistantThe relationship between teachers and teaching assistants is a changing one. Angela Youngman investigates and offers guidance to ensure effectiveness Learning mentors improve behaviour | Teaching AssistantThis article examines the role of the learning mentor and how they can be deployed in the school for the benefit of the whole learning community. David Morley reports Encouraging communication, curiosity and creativity | Teaching AssistantLinda Thornton and Pat Brunton explore ways to use the children’s curiosity about their world to become self-motivated, independent learners. Developing pencil control and mark-making | Teaching AssistantMaggie Parker-Heys urges practitioners to appreciate the skills required to form even the simplest letters. Can we choose our values? | Teaching AssistantIn his introduction to a new column, Dr Graham Haydon focuses on choice and discusses how the decisions we make influence our everyday life. Challenging homophobia | Teaching AssistantDavid Watkins argues that homophobia is something we should talk about and offers practical advice for creating LGBT-inclusive schools. The importance of physical touch | Teaching AssistantPsychologist Sylvia Clare discusses the importance of physical touch in helping children and young people reconnect to learning. The art of listening | Teaching AssistantIn an edited excerpt from his new book, clinical psychologist Steve Killick writes about the importance of listening to young people. Teaching through dark feelings | Teaching AssistantSecondary drama teacher Julie Leoni writes about how she teaches through the darkest days of winter Child abuse and its affect on brain development (part two) | Teaching AssistantChild abuse can affect a child’s ability to learn. In the second of two articles, Jenni Whitehead looks at ways of helping such children in the classroom. Creating an inclusive environment for children with disfigurement | Teaching AssistantHow can you handle children’s surprise at a new classmate’s disfigurement in a way that is positive for everybody? Jane Frances of Changing Faces offers some practical ideas. Vygotsky and the child apprentice | Teaching AssistantLev S. Vygotsky is the subject of Steve Mynard's article on the psychology of child development. Sexual exploitation: signs to look out for | Teaching AssistantJenni Whitehead looks at signs that show a young person may be at risk of abuse. Making working memory work in the classroom | Teaching AssistantDr Tracy Packiam Alloway of the University of Durham has researched the difficulties faced by children who have a low working memory. Primary workshop ideas wanted! | Teaching AssistantAny primary school teachers out there with workshop ideas? I’m organising a few Antarctica mornings for local primaries and I’m trying to work out what to do Peer feedback and self-assessment | Teaching AssistantSarah Treneer and Claire Kendall describe how they developed a technique for encouraging children to reflect on their own and others’ learning through the use of peer feedback. Challenging the myths | Teaching AssistantJane West looks at some misconceptions about giftedness and how to dispel them. Teaching young children to give each other massage | Teaching AssistantSmall children can get quite noisy and frenetic. It can take time to calm them down. Angela Youngman investigated one very popular method – to teach the children to give and receive simple massage. Effective communication and engagement | Teaching AssistantCommunication is by its very nature a two-way process. Children need to have these skills if they are to particpate in shared and meaningful communications. In this Inset package, based on the need for effective communication and engagement as described in the Common Core, Roger Hurn provides information and activities to help your staff think about ways of helping children to practise and develop their communication skills. Computers and early years | Teaching AssistantAngela Youngman talked with Justine O’Driscoll of the Bedford Just Learning Nursery about making computers accessible for children in the early years. Case study: the Effective Early Learning Project | Teaching AssistantPauline Cox explains what was involved in taking part in the Effective Early Learning (EEL) Project. Effective Early Learning project | Teaching AssistantThe Effective Early Learning (EEL) Project, aims to improve the quality of children’s learning in early years settings. Pauline Cox explains the project's aims. Attachment theory | Teaching AssistantAttachment theory is explored here by Steve Mynard, who summarises some of the research and suggests ways that you could use this in your setting. Activities to develop semantic knowledge | Teaching AssistantSemantic knowledge is the ability to understand narrative. This includes the ability to understand the meanings of words in different contexts, as well as a knowledge of the meaning of relationships between words. The activities listed here will help develop semantic knowledge. Activities to develop word finding skills | Teaching AssistantWord finding is the ability to access vocabulary from the long-term memory. These activities can help develop word finding skills and can be used in lessons for the benefit of all pupils. Activities to develop and improve listening skills and attention | Teaching AssistantListening is the ability to attend to sounds across a range of stimuli. Pupils with listening and attention difficulties have one of two problems... Activities to develop spatial awareness | Teaching AssistantSpatial awareness is the ability to be aware of oneself in space. Awareness of spatial relationships is the ability to see two or more objects in relation to each other and to oneself. These activities will help develop spatial awareness skills and can be used in lessons for the benefit of all pupils Activities to develop verbal comprehension | Teaching AssistantVisual comprehension is the ability to listen to information that has been given orally, then remember it, understand it and use the information across a range of tasks. These activities can help develop skills in this area, and can be incorporated into lessons for the benefit of all pupils. Activities to develop visual perception | Teaching AssistantVisual perception is the ability to recognise, interpret and organise visual images. The activities listed here will help develop visual perception skills and can be incorporated into lessons to benefit all pupils. Activities for developing skills | Teaching AssistantThis series of classroom activities will be useful for SENCOs, teachers, assistants and mentors. Each page focuses on a different skill set – from spatial awareness to visual discrimination to semantic knowledge Activities to develop auditory memory | Teaching AssistantAuditory memory is the ability to recall information that has been given orally. The activities listed here can help develop auditory memory and can be incorporated into lessons for the benefit of all pupils. Activities to develop visual memory | Teaching AssistantVisual memory is the ability to recall information that has been presented visually. The activities listed here can help develop visual memory and can be incorporated into a lesson for the benefit of all pupils. Activities to develop visual discrimination skills | Teaching AssistantVisual discrimination is the ability to recognise similarities and differences between visual images. The activities listed here can help develop visual discrimination skills and can be used in lessons to benefit all children. Activities to develop phonological awareness | Teaching AssistantPhonological awareness is the ability to be aware of sounds within words and to be able to break down words into syllables and into phonemes. The activities listed here can help develop phonological awareness and can be used in lessons for the benefit of all children. Activities to develop auditory discrimination skills | Teaching AssistantAuditory discrimination is the ability to detect similarities and differences when listening to sounds. The activities listed here can be used to strengthen auditory discrimination skills and can be incorporated into a lesson to benefit all children. Building a class library | Teaching AssistantRob Sanderson of Wigan Schools Library Service offers some practical advice for building an early years library. Valuing and developing creativity | Teaching AssistantFormer head Roger Smith looks at ways of promoting creativity in schools, arguing that the concept needs to have its place at the centre of the curriculum. Martin Luther King Day poems – from Benjamin Britten High School | Teaching AssistantTo mark Martin Luther King day, students wrote poems on social responsibility themes. Martin Luther King Day – student inspiration at Benjamin Britten High School | Teaching AssistantOn Martin Luther King Day, suggestions from Year 8 and 9 students at Benjamin Britten High School. Student voice at Whalley Range High School | Teaching AssistantMany schools would say their students have a voice, but do they really? What about at Whalley Range? Managing writing in the early years | Teaching AssistantUse all the openings possible to encourage your children to express themselves through the written word, says Lynn Cousins. Christmas carol concert | Teaching AssistantThis seasonal assembly for infants looks at the carol service or carol concert – an annual fixture in many schools Early Years: signs for success | Teaching AssistantAngela Youngman finds out about a scheme to improve communication in early years settings through the use of sign language. Mental Model for Learning | Teaching AssistantWhat is inside a learner's head? Effective Learning | Teaching AssistantThe Brain and Learning. Why the Brain Thrives on Variety | Teaching AssistantThe human brain learns best when it has a variety of ways to take in new information. The key is to provide children with a smorgasbord of methods to sample new information, because the brain searches for novelty. Working Smarter With Brain Breaks | Teaching AssistantFrom a selection of teaching tips by Clinton Lamprecht. Structured writing | Teaching AssistantWriting frames undoubtedly have their uses, but they can also limit the creative talents of the more able, writes Frank Bruce Creating an Energetic Environment | Teaching AssistantThe environment around you can have a profound effect on how you feel and function and whether you feel creative, focused and relaxed. Creating an energetic environment around you can have positive effects on your health,efficiency, enjoyment and speed of completing certain tasks. Transactional Analysis in the Classroom | Teaching AssistantAn alternative approach to behaviour management. Restorative Justice | Teaching AssistantBuild a sense of community responsibility and belonging, supported by reconciliation and the identification of positive ways of resolving difficulties and tensions. Identifying time stealers | Teaching AssistantImproving your time management skills means being aware of the things that eat into your time and prevent you getting on with the important and urgent tasks. Children's Learning Needs | Teaching AssistantIs Your Teaching Meeting Children's Learning Needs? Quick Tips for Enhancing Classroom Learning | Teaching AssistantTraditionally, teaching used to primarily teach pupils and then test them. The 'chalk and talk' methods and 'auditory modes' of instruction have now been widely discredited. In fact, one of the main reasons why some schools fail their OFSTED reports is because the conventional teaching methods they adopt do not meet pupils' learning needs. Restorative justice | Teaching AssistantA form of Relationship Management. Non-conscious learning | Teaching AssistantSusan Norman explains non-conscious learning. Do you know what's going on in your classroom when your back's turned? Or even when it isn't? Scoring with music | Teaching AssistantMark McKergow explains how to develop soundtracks for your classroom – and highlights the benefits Learning preferences | Teaching AssistantAndy Bowman reflects upon some of the learning preferences he has observed in his class, and discusses the steps he and his colleagues have taken to begin to support these 10 ways to promote a calm classroom | Teaching Assistant10 Ways to Promote a Calm Classroom. Emotional wellbeing | Teaching AssistantIf pupils feel safe, secure and, above all, happy at school, they are less likely to play truant and the atmosphere is more likely to be conducive to learning. Top Tunes for Your Classroom | Teaching AssistantMusic can be used as themain activity in the classroom todeliver subject content, as it is motivating and inspiring. Here are some practical ideas from Sarah Todd, an AST at Stanchester School near Yeovil. Encouraging independent learning | Teaching AssistantAndy Bowman explores strategies to begin to develop independence and resourcefulness in young learners. When all else fails | Teaching AssistantSometimes, regardless of how much effort we put into planning, stimulating and rewarding, we will still come across the pupil who is determined to disrupt at all costs. In this instance, conflict is probably unavoidable and will have to be confronted. 5 ways to make an impact with new classes | Teaching AssistantSeptember can be a scary time of year if you are a newly qualified teacher (NQT) who is facing your own class, sometimes for the first time ever. This article suggests 5 simple ways to impact upon your new class The language of persuasion | Teaching AssistantSusan Norma suggests ways of influencing students' behaviour from a NLP perspective. Conflict management | Teaching AssistantConsidering the carrot or the stick: which incentives are you giving? Your pupils and back pain | Teaching AssistantSadly, the number of children with back pain is increasing. In recent years, growing interest has spurred studies that support this worrying trend. Tessa Hicks explains how teachers can help protect their pupils from unnecessary pain. Theory of constraints | Teaching AssistantLinda Trapnell examines the impact of TOC on playground behaviour. The importance of emotional safety | Teaching AssistantIn her final article on how teachers use emotions, teacher trainer Susan Gibbs discusses why emotional safety is so important in enabling children and young people to learn. Make classroom groups work | Teaching AssistantSome key findings from research on how teachers can use groups to boost young people's achievement Personalised learning under review | Teaching AssistantA new review group has been set up to recommend ways of: Groupwork boosts achievement | Teaching AssistantGroupwork needs a bigger role in classroom practice, according to the findings of the SPRinG (Social Pedagogic Research into Groupwork) project, carried out over five years by researchers at the universities of London, Cambridge and Brighton. Optimising your learning environment | Teaching AssistantWant to inject some freshness into the learning space? Richard Churches and Rogert Terry show to make a real difference in your classroom The Teaching Voice and Classroom Management | Teaching AssistantIs your voice in control? What sound does your voice make? What kind of impression does your voice make? Lesley Hendy explains how the way you move can affect the quality of your voice. You will also discover more about how to use the acoustics of a room to your advantage and how to vary the tone and pitch of your voice to increase your vocal 'tool box'. Classroom seating patterns | Teaching AssistantThere are pros and cons to all seating patterns Managing classroom conflict | Teaching AssistantWin it or lose it within the first three minutes, by Nicola Fahey Asthma - a guide for teachers | Teaching AssistantWhat would you do if faced with a child having an asthma attack? Jo Viner Smith, BAppSc, lays out a quick guide for teachers as explained in SportEX Health magazine Making schools dyslexia friendly | Teaching AssistantSENCOs will find two recent publications helpful for developing dyslexia-friendly schools – one for adult literacy and numeracy skills, the other from the primary national strategy. Most Related:
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