Everyone who works in a school has a part to play in raising standards and giving pupils a better start in life. Introductory training helps new TAs and support staff to understand their role, feel confident in their work and be effective members of the school team. Longer-serving staff will also find it useful as a refresher to bring them up to date with policies and practice.
The training complements schools-based induction, providing an introduction to important developments in education, such as Every Child Matters, the national curriculum and ways of managing behaviour. The training covers the essential knowledge and skills that all support staff need, and there are targeted separate sets of materials for primary teaching assistants, secondary teaching assistants and other support staff.
Introductory training is delivered by local authorities to those who are already working as a teaching assistant or member of support staff in schools. Support staff who want to enrol should contact their local authority directly.
Introductory training materials produced in 2007/08 won't be revised for 2008/09. If you have 2007/08 stocks of the materials you should continue to use these in 2008/09. Instead, we have developed guidance for trainers, assessors and line managers on how the existing introductory training materials link to the supporting teaching and learning national occupational standards (STL NOS) and other relevant training and qualifications. The guidance is available to download in PDF format.
We have updated the PowerPoint slides referred to in annexes 5 and 6 of the guidance. They are available on these pages. Modules leaders should ensure that they use the versions of the slides on our website, rather than the slides on the DVD.
View the guidance on introductory training for teaching assistants and school support staff (PDF 607KB).
Electronic copies of training materials and presentation slides are now available:
Introductory training materials for teaching assistants in secondary schools
Introductory training materials for teaching assistants in primary schools
Introductory training materials for support staff
Hard copies can be ordered through Orbital Marketing
For further information about training, please contact your local authority.
For information about TDA’s training materials, please e-mail supportinduction@tda.gov.uk.
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