CHAPTER 1

Working effectively as part of the whole school team

When you first start in your new job you may be bewildered by the different titles which exist to describe the role of a teaching assistant. You may be known as an Individual Support Assistant (ISA), Learning Support Assistant (LSA) or Classroom Assistant. If you have a higher level qualification you may be employed as a Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA). Although these are all slightly different, ‘teaching assistant’ is the generic term to cover all the different aspects of the role. In some local authorities (LAs), those with different qualifications are given titles according to the level they have reached, but this is regional and will depend on where you are in the country. Whatever your role, it is important that you understand where and how you fit into the school team, so that you can maximise your effectiveness and that of those around you (see table overleaf).

What is a ‘whole school team?’

There have been many models and breakdowns of how school teams fit together, and each school will be different, depending on whether it is a primary, secondary or special school, and how teams are managed within this. However, broadly speaking, all schools will have a governing body and a senior management team which supervises a team of teachers and teaching assistants along with other support staff (see Figure 1.1). Within the different teams, line managers will exist for staff and you will need to know who yours is: as a teaching assistant it is unlikely that your line manager will be the headteacher – it is more likely to be the deputy headteacher, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), or possibly an HLTA.

all schools will have a governing body and a senior management team

Figure 1.1 Support staff are part of the whole school team

Source: Burnham, L. (2007) S/NVQ Level 3 The Teaching Assistant’s Handbook: Primary Schools

The governing body

The governing body will be made up of a team of around ten or twelve people who meet regularly and have close contact with the headteacher and senior management team. They will usually have areas of expertise which may be in the financial, legal or business world and will be from the local community. There will also be staff and parent governors – if you have time and you are interested in becoming a governor, this is worth doing as it gives a real insight into how the school is run.

The governing body will also be responsible for carrying out the headteacher’s performance management interview (the annual review of the headteacher’s professional targets). He or she will report to governors about the running of the school and is answerable to them about all aspects of it from financial management, site management, community cohesion (see page 134) and the curriculum, to employing new staff. With this in mind, the governing body will be split into different committees of around four members and will meet once or twice a term. They will then feed back to the main governing body once a term. Minutes of these meetings should be available to all staff and parents if requested. The headteacher will also produce an annual report to them about what has been achieved during the previous year. Governors may be completely invisible to you but they should really make themselves known to all staff and children and should come regularly into school during the school day to see it in action, rather than just in the evenings for meetings – although this may be difficult in the real world!

The SMT or Senior Management Team

In all schools this team will meet regularly with the headteacher and deputy to discuss priorities in the school and to identify current issues in the school development plan (the school development plan, or SDP, is a document which usually spans four or five years and sets out the overall priorities and plans for the school). You should be aware of who the senior managers are in your school and what their responsibilities are. The team will usually include the headteacher, deputy, SENCO, and year group leaders, but may also include other managers (for example, the Foundation Stage manager, if you are in an infant school). Senior managers will support the headteacher in decisions concerning the school and ensure that information is passed on to all staff.

The SENCO

The SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is responsible for managing the provision for pupils with special educational needs. They will need to meet and liaise with staff, parents and outside agencies and may be your line manager if you are working as an individual support assistant. (For more on the role of the SENCO see Chapter 5, pages 88–9.)

Year group leaders

Year group leaders are found both in primary and secondary schools, and are literally the lead teacher in that year group. They will usually be a member of the senior management team (SMT) and will feed back information to their year group at their own meetings, usually held weekly. Year group leaders will usually be the most experienced permanent member of staff in that team and so will be able to advise and support others in the team. They will also give guidance towards planning and assessment and make sure that resources are available to all (for example, in a primary school where classes in a year group are working on the same topic).

Subject leaders

These are teachers within both primary and secondary schools who have responsibility for a subject area. They will advise and support other staff in the planning, assessment, resourcing and teaching of the subject area. They will also monitor how it is taught in school and may carry out lesson observations or ask how things are going. They may also be useful to identify as you may be able to seek advice from them if you work regularly with a particular subject.

these are teachers who have responsibility for a subject area

As well as giving advice to staff within the school, subject leaders may also be involved in working with other schools at local authority level to develop their subject. They will probably attend termly local meetings to keep up to date with any developments in their subject so that they can feed these back to school staff. Teaching assistants may also work closely with subject leaders if they are specialists in a particular area, as is sometimes the case in secondary schools.

Support staff

This will usually be quite a large group of people and, although you will be part of it, depending on the size of your school you may not meet with a wider group than other teaching assistants. However, support staff are made up of all other non-teaching staff in schools – i.e. office or admin staff, site managers, kitchen staff, ICT technicians, business managers, midday supervisors and others. Support staff will sometimes work part time and you may not know everyone if you are also only in school on certain days. If not, it will help to try to get to know others on occasions where everyone is in school, such as INSET days, or perhaps at more social school events when these take place.

As well as the above broad headings, you will probably find that there are smaller sub-groups, for example midday supervisors, or newly qualified teachers (NQTs), who may meet together or spend more time with one another than the wider group.

Whatever teams or groups you are part of, you should be able to contribute to their effectiveness and work alongside others for the benefit of pupils. You will also need to be able to contribute in your own way to the development of the team through providing support and advice to others. If you are lucky enough to work in a school where all staff members work together positively, you will find this very supportive to you in your role.

Working with others

Working with others will include how you relate to parents, teachers, and other school staff. You may also work closely with other professionals who visit the school. As you will be working in different teams it is worth thinking about how your role fits in with that of others and how you are able to support them.

Depending on your experience, you will bring a unique level of expertise to the school. You may have had specific training and be able to advise others. If you have information or expertise which would benefit others in your team, you should support others by passing on anything which may be useful. In some schools you may be required to feed back information on courses you have attended through meetings, or if you are experienced, you may be working with others who would benefit from some of your ideas – this could also be done more informally.

you will bring a unique level of expertise

You may be less experienced and find that you are in a situation where you need advice and support – do not be afraid of asking for it. There will usually be someone in school who has dealt with a similar situation or who may put a different slant on things.

Working with other support staff within the same classroom

This may be surprising, but you might find yourself working in a class where there are a number of different support staff who have varying roles. An example of this might be in a classroom where there is more than one pupil who has an area of special educational need. Although it is always beneficial for the pupil, it may at times be difficult for adults to know exactly what their role is. It will be necessary in this situation to meet with teachers, the SENCO or the other individuals concerned and talk through how pupils are supported within the class on a regular basis. You should also discuss how much time you should spend with the individual pupil on specific targets and how much time you can spend on group work. This is particularly important in situations where more than one assistant is working with a pupil (for example, if one person is with them in the morning and another in the afternoon).

Working alongside teachers

This really is the key part of your role. You will need to be able to get the best out of the time available with the staff with whom you are working so that you can work together for the benefit of pupils. At the beginning of each year it would be useful to sit down with key staff and plan out whether you will have time to meet, what kind of information would be useful to you and how you might best work together in your particular situation. Some teaching assistants literally have no time to plan with or talk to teachers and walk into class on a regular basis with no idea what is being taught that day – this is clearly not ideal for anyone. In these circumstances it would make sense for teachers to email plans to teaching assistants if time is short – at least then the lesson or support required will not be a surprise on the day. You should also have the opportunity to feed back to teachers on how pupils you have supported have worked during lessons so that they are able to plan effectively for next time – again, if this is not possible in the time available you may consider using feedback forms (see also Chapter 3, page 41).

get the best out of the time available with the staff

Working with parents

All staff working in schools will need to be able to relate to parents. Although the main point of contact for parents will be teachers, if you are working as a teaching assistant you may well have regular meetings or points of contact with them at the beginning or end of the school day. This may be particularly relevant if you are, for example, the school’s family worker, if you support a pupil who has special educational needs, or are working with a bilingual pupil. You should make sure that you stay on subject when talking to parents and that you are mindful of confidentiality issues (see opposite).

It is also important not to take things into your own hands; if you think that the parent has asked something which is more appropriate for a teacher to deal with, you must say so and refer to them. Don’t be drawn into something which you do not feel confident in discussing. If you are a family worker you should have had specific training about how you relate to families and the advice and support you should provide.

Managing conflict

Working with others, in whatever profession you choose, will sometimes be great and at other times difficult, and you are bound to get on with some people more than others. At some point in your career it is likely that you will find yourself having to work with a personality which may be very different from your own. This may be a teacher but it is also possible that you will have to work regularly with another professional, or a parent, particularly if you are supporting a child who has special educational needs. If you anticipate finding them hard to work with it is important to remember that it is probably for a relatively short time and that you may well learn a lot by working with that person. You should remain professional at all times and, where issues arise in the workplace, talk them through with the relevant person, such as your line manager.

You will also need to be sensitive at times to others’ needs – all members of staff in schools will have a lot on their mind and you may not be aware what pressures they are under as part of their job. Many will have families and issues to deal with outside school, which at times can also have an impact on their ability to provide the same level of support. You should also try to be self-aware and think about the way in which you relate to others in your team, as it may be that you do not always come across in the way that you think. If someone is not reacting to you in a positive way, could it be because of something you have said to them?

If you find yourself in a conflict situation with another individual this will need to be addressed as soon as possible. Although rare, these issues do occasionally happen and you may need to have a meeting with another adult present in order to discuss a way forward. Be particularly careful if you are alone with another person – if you are not comfortable, and the other person is being aggressive or abusive in some way, move to a different place or tell them that you are not prepared to discuss the situation without a mediator. If the conflict is more of a low level disagreement and is ongoing, you should always seek additional help and refer to your school’s grievance policy.

As an adult in a school environment, you must remember that you are a role model and are responsible for showing pupils positive relationships. Pupils will witness how adults interact with one another and work together and take their lead from them. If they see adults being considerate and appreciative of others, it is far more likely that they will behave in the same way.

you must remember that you are a role model

Remembering confidentiality

When you start your job it is likely that your line manager or headteacher will speak to you about the importance of confidentiality in school. This is particularly relevant to you as a teaching assistant because, in many cases, teaching assistants are also parents, often of pupils in the same school. The most important thing to remember is not to speak about pupils or staff to those who do not work in the school, and if in doubt about whether you should say something – don’t!

School policies

All schools are required to have a number of different policies which are designed to support the smooth running of the school. These will be divided into curriculum and non-curriculum areas and should be revised and updated on a regular basis. Your line manager will be able to tell you where you need to go to refer to them – probably in the school office, and sometimes they may even be on the school’s website so that parents can look at them easily. Everyone who works in the school should also be aware of where to find them and should have some idea about the content of each. A list of the policies which you should know about and be able to find are given below:

• •health and safety policy;
• •behaviour policy;
• •child protection policy;
• •marking policy;
• •inclusion/equal opportunities policy.

You should also know your school’s SEN policy if you are working with pupils who have special educational needs, the Foundation Stage or Early Years policy if you are working in reception, and so on. If you are working in a specific curriculum area – for example, in the History department – you should ensure that you have read the appropriate curriculum policy. Your line manager will be able to talk to you about anything which may need clarification.