Teaching Assistants CPD Pathway

Teaching assistants (TAs) comprise over a quarter of the workforce in mainstream schools in England. The growth in the numbers of teaching assistants has also been driven by greater inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools, with teaching assistants often providing the key means by which inclusion is facilitated.  Find out how to maximise the impact of your teaching assistants at Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants from EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk).

Teaching assistants play a pivotal part in our school communities through the everyday differences they make to children and young people. Find out more about what our Norfolk children and young people say an ideal teaching assistant is like. To help you employ the 'ideal teaching assistant' for your school/setting you may find these values based recruitment questions useful.

• Teaching Assistant value-based recruitment questions (Word doc) [52KB]

Many Teaching Assistants progress into successful careers within education, including teaching and senior leadership.

TA CPD pathway introduction

The following content provides a recommended CPD pathway for teaching assistants that aim to enhance their skills and knowledge in various aspects of their role. These courses are designed to complement the existing induction and mentoring programs that schools and trusts may offer to their teaching assistants to develop their professional practice and career progression and meet the needs of their school community so that all children and young people in Norfolk can Flourish.

Using this pathway

Wherever possible, the content is fully funded and remotely accessible, enabling flexible approaches to accessing so you can support with independent and group CPD approaches in way that meets your bespoke school or setting needs. This may include:

• Independent self-directed CPD time including assemblies, tutor time etc.
• Whole team CPD as part of an inset session or day

We recommend that where CPD is accessed independently, provision is made within the school to reflect upon and embed the learning. This may include:

• Teaching assistant collaboration on approaches to putting the learning into practice
• Supervision sessions
• Department planning    

We recommend using this Teaching Assistant CPD pathway in the following order, securing a spiral, developmental approach to building skills and confidence:

1. Norfolk priorities
2. Meeting the cohort needs of your school/setting community
3. Inclusion programmes and interventions

Caveat: Statutory training

It is important to note that the recommended training courses do not include any mandatory training for statutory compliance, such as safeguarding, health and safety, data protection, equality and diversity, and prevent duty etc. These are essential training requirements that all staff working in schools and trusts must complete as a priority. The responsibility for ensuring that teaching assistants have completed the mandatory training for statutory compliance lies with the school or trust that employs them. Schools and trusts should have clear policies and procedures for delivering, monitoring, and recording the statutory compliance training for their staff.