EEF: Deployment of Teaching Assistants

Deployment of Teaching Assistants: Reflections on the New EEF Guidance

by Abi Joachim

Institute SEND Specialist

The EEF Deployment of Teaching Assistants guidance is designed to help school leaders make decisions about how to deploy their teaching assistants. It contains five evidence-based recommendations with an explanation of their impact. You can read the guidance online here.

As a leader of professional development for teaching assistants, the EEF ‘Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants’ guidance report has been integral to my work across the Trust, so I felt privileged and excited when I was asked to join the report review guidance panel last year.

 

The new ‘Deployment of Teaching Assistants’ guidance report was released on the 26^th of March and, while the key messages remain the same, there is a greater focus on the implementation process and the role of leadership. The new guidance report has a reduced number of recommendations, with five overall compared to seven in the original report. They are divided into ‘effective practices’ and ‘effective implementation’.

 

The ‘effective practices’ refer to the deployment of teaching assistants to ensure they supplement – not replace – the teacher, engage in scaffolding practices to develop independent learning and deliver structured interventions, where appropriate. The ‘effective implementation’ recommendations then focus on the more strategic aspects of teaching assistant deployment, considering the need for preparation and training and engaging all staff.

 

This new guidance report includes a range of useful tools to consider the application of the recommendations in context and to reflect and plan for implementation. The use of vignettes, and accompanying calls to reflection, offer examples of teaching assistant deployment with questions to prompt thinking and discussion. In addition to these, there are also examples from practice and challenge statements to prompt teachers and leaders to reconsider approaches. Finally, the report highlights some sources of helpful resources and further support.

 

I believe that this new guidance report is essential reading for all leaders and teachers in education.