Supporting students in making
progress; narrowing the gap for
everyone through optimising the
use of Support Staff
By
Gareth D Morewood
Director of Curriculum Support, Priestnall School, Stockport
25th February 2013
What is going to happen?
• Give you a context where including young
people with SEND has recorded some
success
• Highlight some of the work we do in
monitoring and benchmarking Teaching
Assistant support & interventions
• Challenge and offer ideas as to how you
can adapt your own provision to meet
modern needs more effectively
Some points to discuss ...
• Is it more effective to deploy Teaching Assistants
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subject-specific or student need-specific?
Record keeping – not enough Teaching Assistants
record keep – should they?
Do you have n understanding how TAs impact on
student progression to analyse whether strategies
are effective?
Is it important to ensure that Teaching Assistants
are used most cost-effectively?
Background
• My own journey
• My current context
• Ranges of needs
• Structure of Curriculum Support
• Provision & Access for ALL
• Supporting vulnerable learners in
mainstream schools & engaging
parents/carers
Does Every Child still Matter?
• Being Healthy
• Staying Safe
• Enjoying and Achieving
• Making a Positive Contribution
• Economic Wellbeing
Evidence from where…
• Success of the young people
• Parent/carer feedback
• Student’s own views and thoughts
• Views of other professionals
• OFSTED – June 2011
• SEF and own monitoring and evaluation
Teachers’ Standards - 2012
Two key strands of wider professional
responsibilities:
• Develop effective professional relationships
with colleagues, knowing how and when to
draw on advice and specialist support
• Deploy support staff effectively
‘One of the major barriers to achievement
for pupils with SEND is being rendered
dependent on adults to help them learn.
Many pupils with cognitive and learning
difficulties lack self-confidence. This results
in an over-reliance on an adult to support
them with their work.’
NS 2005: Maximising progress: ensuring the attainment of pupils with SEN
Ofsted’s view …
Ofsted 2004 – ‘Support by teaching assistants can be
vital, but the organisation of it can mean that
students have insufficient opportunity to develop
their skill, understanding and independence’
Ofsted 2006 – ‘teaching assistants provided valuable
support and many were taking difficult roles’
...however they recognised that pupils in mainstream
schools, where teaching assistant support was the
main type of SEN support, were less likely to make
good academic progress than those who had access
to specialist teaching.
Ofsted 2010 – Barriers to learning which were
observed by inspectors included lack of careful
preparation and poor deployment of adults to support
children and young people. Where additional adult
support was provided in the classroom for
individuals, this was sometimes a barrier to including
them successfully and enabling them to participate.
In too many examples seen during the review, when
a child or young person was supported closely by an
adult, the adult focused on the completion of the task
rather than on the actual learning. Adults intervened
too quickly, so preventing children and young people
from having time to think or to learn from their
mistakes.
Research …
• Howes (2003) found that teaching assistants’
support in class increased the amount of time
pupils spent on task but did not necessarily result
in an increased rate of learning.
• Blatchford, Bassett et al (2009) – ‘The more
support pupils received, the less progress they
made, even after controlling for other factors that
might be expected to explain the relationship
such as pupils’ prior attainment, SEN status and
income deprivation’.
Considering the Pupil Premium …
• Additional adults to simply ‘answer’ the
deficit in attainment is NOT the key …
• ‘Best Buys’ are what works well for you …
• Support Staff are essential as part of a
whole-school approach; not simply THE
answer on its own …
Best Buys…
Overview of value for money
Promising
10
May be
worth it
Effect Size (months gain)
Feedback
Meta-cognition
EY intervention
Peer tutoring
Homework
Phonics
Learning Individualised
learning
styles
Arts
Ability grouping
0
£0
1-1 tutoring
Summer
schools
Parental
involvement
Sports
Performance
pay
Cost per pupil
ICT
After
school
Not
worth it
Smaller
classes
Teaching
assistants
£1000
REMEMBER …
effective support is essential for
students with SEND and other
vulnerable groups to make
progress – additional adults
form an important part of that
support – when used effectively.
Is it more effective to deploy Teaching Assistants
subject-specific or student need-specific?
• Consider your settings – what have you
done/tried?
• What are the pros & cons?
• Think back to research by Lorenz (1998)...
Lorenz, S. (1998) Effective in-class support: management of support
staff in mainstream and special schools, David Fulton Publishers
Old-Fashioned TA styles?
Do they still have a place?
• How many different ‘types’ of TA support
can you think of?
• Are they all ‘good practice’?
• If not what do they still occur?
• Think about training and managing
performance – then you can match TA
skills to different support models ...
Guess the TA style ...
• How many different models can you think
of?
• Lets see some in action ...
Record keeping – not enough Teaching Assistants
record keep – should they?
• Your thoughts?
• What do you do in your schools?
• Why are records important?
• Joint planning and record keeping always
generates debate ....
• So here is what we do ... [and why]
How do you know how TAs impact on student
progress and analyse whether strategies are
effective?
• This is very important but often ‘overlooked’ ...
• A rigorous system of professional development
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and impact analysis must be part of whole
school systems
It is simply not good enough ‘not to know’;
how can you know and what evidence do you
need?
• We have established a ‘Development Record’
for our staff
• This allows for a focus on their skills and
aspirations, but also highlights areas of
development and training
• Providing high quality training supports each
member of staff in their personal skill
development
• When you identify an area for development
you need to offer something in support
Daily Record Sheets
• Joint planning – impossible??
• How can you gauge progress and
successful interventions??
• This is what we do ...
• Make sure there is a positive system linked
into these outcomes – some ideas ...
Positive messages – postcards...
• Simple, yet so effective
• Either send with student's knowledge or
without
• Write the comment and leave for address
to be added later
• Lots available a increasingly cheap rates
from – www.vistaprint.co.uk
Positive messages – letters...
• Don’t forget the impact of a positive letter
or even e-mail
• How do you feel when you receive a letter
in the post?
• Not to mention a positive one
• Don’t forget the obvious...
Positive messages – texts...
www.teachers2parents.co.uk
Used purely for positive messages
about progress and/or achievement,
the trial has seen extremely positive
feedback from all involved.
Our trial was for a specific purpose,
providing positive messages home for
vulnerable learners, all messages were
individual and personalised.
For example:
‘George did an amazing piece of work on Escher in
Art today, ask him about it when he gets home.
Well done George, Mr Morewood.’
Other possible uses of ‘text-home’ systems could be ...
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Reporting Test/Assessment Results
Praising students
Notification of poor behaviour
Reporting Punctuality
Reminding of coursework deadlines/follow ups
Homework
Exam Dates
Detentions
Incorrect Uniform
Equipment
Reminders (parents evening, open evenings, after school classes)
Etc...
Anything positive is helpful...
• Any positive contact is immensely
powerful
• Often schools get into negative spirals
• Establish one or two positive mechanisms
[some at relatively low cost] and see what
the impact is
• Never forget how you feel when you are
praised
How can support be most effective?
• Each school/setting is different, but one
thing is for certain we are all accountable
to balance resources against outcomes
• Evidence is important, as discussed, but
also provision
• See Morewood (2011) Restructuring in
light of budget restraints article & new
revised versions
Consider some of the points – can you
restructure and be more effective?
• Brace yourself for a rapid summary ....
• Schools need to develop 21st Century
models of support
• We MUST consider the ‘modern child’; old
fashioned systems do not meet current need
• Provision cannot be made when required,
with lengthy systems and ‘out-of-date’
process
What is ‘effective support’?
• Let us consider our respective schools …
• What does ‘effective support’ look like?
• Consider developing these ideas within
your own teams/faculties/departments …
Partnerships are key...
• Vulnerable young people cannot be
included in isolation
• Partnerships between home and school, in
addition to specialist advice/interventions
secures a stronger, triangulated approach
• Joined up thinking, and advocating for
strong partnerships are key elements of
the 21st Century skill-set
Using technology
• Text-to-speech software; reducing the
reliance on TA support for access
arrangements
• Text-home systems for positive
reinforcement
• Further screening software developments
and testing
Nurture Group
• Supporting vulnerable young people
develop skills before going to mainstream
lessons
• Creating a therapeutic milieu –
support, structure, repetition
and consistent expectations
Understanding themselves ...
• Peer support and ‘Notions of Self’
• This makes good inclusive sense: it
reduces the need for Teaching Assistants
in ‘outdated roles’, allows for more
creative working arrangements and also
educates peers and others in the
community
Reducing dependency …
• Differentiate the learning objectives, if appropriate
• Brief the teaching assistant on what students are to learn, as
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well as the task they have to complete
Modify/adjust aspects of the lesson to promote independence
rather than using support from the teaching assistant
Find opportunities for students to work with other adults or
peers
Ask the teaching assistant to model a task, answer students’
questions, then move away to allow them to work
independently
Model ways of encouraging students to be more independent
‘Parenthood is the passing of a baton,
followed by a lifelong disagreement as
to who dropped it.’
Robert Brault
When we are in loco parentis at school,
ensuring you monitor and benchmark Teaching
Assistants’ impact on progression will reduce the
risks associated with you being blamed for
‘dropping the baton’ ... Good luck!
Consider 3 things ‘to do’ …
• Write down three things you are going to
do or explore further …
• Try and do something tomorrow … then
another next week …
• How will you measure impact and report
back to colleagues?
Thanks for listening...
Gareth D Morewood
Director of Curriculum Support [SENCo]
Priestnall School
Stockport
www.gdmorewood.com