Many thanks to all the East Midlands HLTAs who contributed to the national survey conducted by the HLTA National Assessment Partnership (HNAP) in December 2018.
The survey gathered 944 HLTA responses from across the country, of which 236 came from the East Midlands – an excellent representation from our region.
The focus was on three particular HLTA Standards: Standard 31: Advance learning when working with whole classes without the presence of the assigned teacher; Standard 10: Have sufficient understanding of their area(s) of expertise to support the development, learning and progress of children and young people; Standard 7: Improve their own knowledge and practice including responding to advice and feedback.
The purpose of the survey was to produce a report that provides detail of the responses received and what HNAP believe to be the key findings and recommendations for schools from this. It is recognised that the outcomes are not the result of ‘academic enquiry’ and do not take into account the views and perspectives of other stakeholders such as teachers and school leaders. However, the aims are: to provide a voice for HLTAs, helping to gain an understanding of current practice in and across schools and other educational settings; to provide schools with information that will help them to consider the CPD needs of TAs and HLTAs in line with school improvement planning.
The full report, which will prove interesting reading to those associated with HLTA deployment in schools, can be found at: /buff.ly/2GXzYtR ; our thanks go to our partner, Best Practice Network, for publishing them.
Of particular interest, especially to senior leaders is the report on page 46 in Primary School Management found at buff.ly/2XXQWhu and HNAP Recommendations to schools as outlined below:
Whilst HNAP acknowledge that their survey has only collected the information and points of view from the perspective of the voice of the HLTA and not teachers and school leaders, their evaluation of the outcomes leads to the following recommendations to schools, academies and other relevant settings:
Summary of recommendations
| The identification of individual need | |
| Recommendation 1 | Put systems and processes in place to monitor and evaluate exactly where TAs and HLTAs are in terms of their performance and capability, related to knowledge, understanding, skills and behaviours. |
| Recommendation 2 | Use the HLTA or the Teaching Assistant Professional Standards and diagnostic tools to help achieve this. |
| Recommendation 3 | Listen to TAs and HLTAs about their strengths, challenges, needs and aspirations for the future. |
| The effective professional development of TAs and HLTAs | |
| Recommendation 4 | Have a clear plan to help develop TAs and HLTAs to where they need to be. |
| Recommendation 5 | Use a designated leader or team including high quality HLTAs to support and be accountable for, the success of this plan. |
| Recommendation 6 | Provide opportunities for TAs and HLTAs to develop with other TAs and HLTAs from the same school and across different schools, creating networks of HLTAs across TSA, MAT or other school networks to share good practice and solve challenges, including keeping up to date with relevant research |
| Recommendation 7 | Support HLTAs to develop their whole class teaching skills once they have gained the status or are deployed as HLTAs. |
| Recommendation 8 | Think long term to develop an area of expertise for all TAs and to extend the area of expertise for HLTAs. |
| Recommendation 9 | Work with HLTAs to identify progression routes to teacher status for those who wish to pursue teaching as a career. |
| Developing a whole school approach | |
| Recommendation 10 | Match TA and HLTA development to school needs and priorities. |
| Recommendation 11 | Consider how HLTAs can share their area of expertise to support planning and preparation of other TAs and teachers. |
| Recommendation 12 | Evaluate the effectiveness of team work within the school staff structure and, where appropriate, role model and implement developments. |
