12: Working with Your Teaching Assistant

One of the common anxieties for trainee teachers is how to work effectively with the teaching assistant (TA) in the classroom whilst on placement. Often the TA is perceived by the trainee as being more experienced and as someone who knows the pupils, parents and school well. Instead of seeing this as a threat, trainee teachers should see this as an advantage and work to establish a relationship with the TA, built on mutual respect. Teamwork, communication and clear role assignment are key skills needed in order to work effectively with TAs and other adults in school.

TAs are common place in primary classrooms across the UK and are an integral part of school life. Since the 1990s, there has been a continued increase in the number of TAs in English mainstream schools. TAs encompass a third of the primary school workforce (Department for Education (DfE), 2014). The main reason for the significant increase in TA numbers was to help deal with teacher workloads. In 2003, the government introduced The National Workload Agreement to help raise pupil standards and confront excessive teacher workload, mainly through new and expanded support roles and responsibilities for TAs and other support staff (Sharples, Webster, & Blatchford, 2015). Teachers could not now imagine the classroom without them, saying that they reduce stress and ease their workload (Blatchford, Russell, & Webster, 2012).