To include support staff in continuing professional development (CPD) provision, schools often began by changing their systems and procedures. For example, Pleckgate High School changed its CPD policy. Previously, it only applied to teachers but now refers to teaching and support staff, full- and part-time staff, and governors.
St Saviour’s Secondary School integrated support staff by giving them equal status with teachers in CPD; all staff now have the same:
- information on training opportunities
- time for training
- procedures for applying for CPD, and
- professional development portfolio; the cover is the same for all staff, but there are slightly different inserts for teachers.
Knightwood Primary School re-wrote its job descriptions to include a commitment to CPD and established a formal induction process for new staff. The process includes work shadowing for a few weeks and an interview after two weeks to see how well the person has settled in. Knightwood also wanted to counter the established perception amongst support staff that CPD meant attending an external course. It produced a professional learning menu, setting out a range of ways CPD can be undertaken and listing 15 different forms of professional learning.
Many schools conducted an audit of support staff to find out what skills and experience they possessed and their views on professional development. For teaching assistants, several schools used the online audit offered by the National Association of Professional Teaching Assistants (NAPTA). This gives a detailed profile of the person in terms of their current qualifications and professional strengths. Caterham High School found the NAPTA audit useful because its teaching assistants often work to different managers on different days. This makes it difficult for a line-manager to know enough about the teaching assistants’ strengths and experience.
An audit at North Hertfordshire Education Support Centre, a special school, revealed that teaching assistants wanted to be more subject-specific. They were given subject responsibilities and now plan and run the provision for pupils receiving additional literacy support.
Castle Secondary School also established an induction programme, which includes an induction booklet, checklist, and mentor for the first term. All professional development opportunities are now discussed at weekly teaching assistant meetings and displayed on a teaching assistants’ notice board. There is a new system for recording training and providing feedback through the weekly teaching assistant meetings. Some assistants are becoming interested in the possibilities of Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) training, following visits by the local authority officer responsible for HLTA training.
At Cranmer Primary School, professional development is now a standard item on support staff meeting agendas. All staff, even part-time lunchtime supervisors, have staff meetings. An agenda is circulated in advance and people are asked to identify any training and development needs that are not being met. This led to teaching assistants receiving training in working with students for whom English is an additional language.
Caterham High School set up a support staff group, comprising the librarian, the office manager, the information and communications technology network manager, the special educational needs coordinator and a senior technician. They meet every term and meet the head once a year to consider professional development for support staff. As a result, they designed proformas for support staff to be used in interviews, a self-analysis tool for use before the interview, and another for reporting interview outcomes.
