In October of 2015, we heard that the government had decided not to publish a new set of teaching assistant standards, which had been developed by a panel of experts. It was a surprising decision as schools are aware of the need to maximise the effectiveness of their TAs, and plenty of research-based advice is available to help them, however guidance and support around setting specific standards is needed.

The standards for the awarding of Higher Level Teaching Assistant status have been successfully used as the basis for external assessment of over 50,000 HLTAs since 2003. More than 5,800 of those HLTAs have been assessed by the HLTA National Assessment Partnership (HNAP), since funding from the Training and Development Agency for schools ceased in 2012.

We have produced a guide, HLTA Status and the HLTA Standards: What schools need to know [PDF], to support schools in their decision making when integrating standards into their TAs’ professional development.

To read the full article, please head over to Teach Wire.