Making the Most of Your Teaching Assistant is an essential handbook for every SENCo and teacher responsible for managing Teaching Assistants. Based firmly in the classroom and focused on supporting pupil progress it provides clear guidance and practical support in deploying, training and monitoring the effectiveness of Teaching Assistants.

‘Why can’t you just get along?’ This is a question children are commonly asked. But they will usually have a very ‘good’ reason for their conflict – ‘Because he’s always telling me what to do!’; ‘She stole my lunch!’. The fact is that any in social situation there is a potential for conflict. What children need are the skills to manage conflict when it does arise.

For many children, school life is hard. They may have a learning difficulty or problems at home. They may feel left out or have trouble making friends. Other children may be stealing from them or bullying them. However, the good news is that children can form a protective understanding of themselves that can help them withstand life’s adversities. When they are able to see and draw on their own beliefs, skills and support systems in a positive way, they develop self-esteem and an optimistic outlook – the foundations of resilience.

"Every teacher in English is a teacher of English," said George Sampson, one of the early school inspectors, back in 1921. It’s never been truer, or more relevant.
Literacy has a major impact on young people’s life-chances and it is every teacher’s responsibility to help build their communication, reading and writing skills. However, this book isn’t just about literacy; it’s also about what great teachers do in their classrooms, about applying knowledge consistently across classrooms, in order to help pupils to become more confident in their subjects.

Subjects

• Group work in education.
• Team learning approach in education.
• Education, Secondary.