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How To Make The Best Use Of TAs To Support Children With SEND

Rather than shackling additional adults to a single SEND pupil, it’s better for everyone to have them patrolling the skies, argues Garry Freeman

Garry Freeman
by Garry Freeman
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In 2015, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) published its Teaching and Learning Toolkit for practitioners, indicating which interventions appear to lead to the greatest progress for pupils.

In it, teaching assistants (TAs) scored considerably lower than might have been thought (‘low impact for high cost, based on limited evidence’), prompting a number of authorities and universities to investigate how better use could be made of TA support, under the project heading ‘Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants’ (MITA). The associated website, maximisingtas.co.uk continues to publish guidance and tools to this end – and of course, the same approaches also apply to any other additional adults (AA) you have in your classroom to support learning.

The EEF conclusion was that when TAs are simply used as ‘whispering radiators’ – in other words, sitting next to the same child all the time – not only are they unlikely to improve that pupil’s attainment, their impact often leads to regression, rather than progress. There are various reasons why this might be the case:

Your TA could feel that because the pupil is only making slow/very little/no progress, or is off-task, then it reflects poorly on them, and they should be more active in terms of completing the work with or for the child.

Your pupils could become over-reliant on the TA to guide them through the task(s), tell them what to do next, do their thinking for them or to actually do the work for them. The issue here is that this runs the risk of removing independence from the child’s learning, making them largely or wholly dependent on the adult working with them. Equally, if your TA frequently tells pupils what they should be doing next, without first giving them a chance to work it out or reflect on it for themselves, they are subconsciously denying them the chance to develop metacognitive approaches (thinking how best to learn).

The pupil(s)’ understanding of and responses to your expectations of them do not develop as they should, because they come to expect the TA or another adult to do their thinking and possibly their work for them.

The challenge, of course, is to develop and embed the effective use of any additional adults (AAs) you have in your classroom, in order to enable all pupils to be more independent in their learning. Here are six steps to get you started:

1. Use your AAs as helicopters rather than velcroing them to an individual pupil. Work together with other adults in the room, making clear to them where and how you need them to support learning. Show them how to check pupils’ understanding of their work, how and when to move away and then check back with the pupil(s) every so often to assess their progress and understanding. This approach can have a hugely positive effect on SEN pupils who may lack self-esteem and self-confidence; you are subtly telling them that you believe they can make progress with work on their own.

2. AAs can support pupils in making sure that they understand the most important pieces of equipment/ stationery to have on their table so that there are no distractions from effective learning. Of course, you might need to make an allowance for a pupil who has ASC or ADHD to have a stress ball or similar aid with them, but this should only be after seeking advice from your SENCo.

3. AAs can check that individual pupils understand what they have to do, and what you as the teacher expect from them by the end of the lesson. Ask your colleague(s) to get learners with SEN to explain the task to them to show understanding, and then discuss how they can demonstrate what they have learnt in the most effective way. Once they are satisfied that these children are clear about what needs to happen next, additional adults can move away and check in similarly with other students.

4. AAs are invaluable when it comes to helping pupils with SEN to manage their time effectively, focus on a task and be able to show their learning in the time given in your lesson. They can use online timers, verbal reminders and ‘start’ phrases rather than admonishing learners for being off-task. This is especially important with SEN children – you should always have the same expectation for them as for their non-SEN peers, in respect of how they must be able to show you their learning over a given time period.

5. AAs can help your pupils to practise using dictionaries, internet search engines, glossaries and other resources. Encourage an atmosphere of peer working based on mutual assistance, only initially supported if necessary by an adult. A useful motto to follow here is “Ask three, then me!” In other words, only after your pupil has gone to three other students for help should they come to an adult for support. Most questions will thus be resolved amongst the pupils themselves. This can also help to keep the class focused, and foster group work.

6. AAs can support pupils to reflect on their learning, using Dedicated Improvement, Reflection and Thinking (DIRT) time to improve what they learn and how they learn it. You could show your AAs the ‘Mistake Detective’ approach to share with pupils:

The ‘Mistake Detective’ Method

1 What was I thinking when I made this mistake? 2 Did I get confused in some way? 3 Did I overlook something? 4 What can I do to prevent this from happening again? ____ Concentrate better ____ Read more carefully ____ Write more clearly Make sure I ________________________ Calculate differently: ________________________ Repeat: ________________________

About the author

Garry Freeman is director of inclusion and SENCo at Guiseley School in Leeds, lead SENCo for Leeds North-West and an associate of Leeds Beckett University, where he contributes to the National Award in SEN Co-ordination.

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