When you think of schools you think of the teacher or teaching and rarely do people think about the teaching assistant. They are the backbone of the school and support the teacher immensely. 

Teaching assistants help run the day to day activities that happen in a school and classroom. 

As a teacher the help I receive from my TA has always be appreciated and sometimes lifesaving!! As everyone knows not all lessons go to plan and when there is a quick change of plan it’s great to have that “right hand” to help change and retrieve new resources last minute. 

When teaching the core subjects it is important that children get the full attention of the teacher which can sometimes be difficult when teaching 30 different abilities. Teaching assistants that can take groups and help out the teacher in consolidating understanding of concepts is crucial and students benefit from that small group atmosphere. Their concentration is better and you can pick out the children who grasp concepts and who need more help. 

It really is beneficial to the school that they invest in the development of teaching assistant skills and train people to help the school be the best it can be. 

Training and Development of certain skills allow teaching assistants to develop their knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and how teachers teach concepts to children. It is also important that they keep up to date with the consistent changes and developments that happen in education and programs that can be used in schools. 

It is also very important to train the teaching assistants in the best way to deal with certain behaviours. In a school you can be faced with many different behavioural issues daily, which all need their own unique solution. Developing these skills allows schools to be consistent in their behaviour management so that all students are clear of the values the school upholds.