What does a teaching assistant do?
Teaching assistants (TAs) are essential – they have been referred to as the eyes and ears of the teacher. They work with teachers, helping with classroom organisation, supporting children with their work and assisting with administrative tasks. Teaching assistants are known by a number of different titles, including teacher associates, classroom assistants, classroom aides, general assistants and learning support assistants. TAs work in primary, secondary and special schools. Obviously their roles vary depending on the types of school they work in, but generally they can be divided into the following four categories: • Supporting children: supervising small groups of children while they work on a task, helping individual children with their work, listening to them read, helping develop their social skills. • Supporting the teacher: handling routine classroom administrative duties, helping to manage pupil behaviour around the school, dealing with minor accidents, playground/lunchtime su
