Working as an HLTA

Larwood Special School

School No: 609

Jackie Whitaker

Two teaching assistants with HLTA status are paired together as part of an extremely strong teaching and learning team. They deliver the teacher’s PPA time in this primary special school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties as well as having other specific responsibilities.

Background

Jackie, the more senior HLTA, has worked at Larwood School for ten years. In common with many teaching assistants, she helped out at her children’s school before working for a short time at a nearby school. She worked in banking and started training as a nurse before moving into education. She started at Larwood as a classroom assistant before spending two years as part of the Care Team, looking after the pupils in the mornings and evenings before and after school.

In 2004 the school’s deputy head asked all teaching assistants if they were interested in applying for HLTA status. Only Jackie was at that time, so she joined the Assessment Only Route at the University of Luton. Since achieving HLTA status her role has developed considerably.

Alan Whitaker, the head, is clear about the impact of having HLTAs in the school. “They raise the profile of the Learning And Support Assistant team, and have created the potential for all staff to aspire to HLTA status. It gives a progression route within the school which wasn’t there previously, particularly in developing a leadership role. It creates a potential and a resource within the school.”

How it Works in Practice

On Monday afternoons Jackie and Tash provide PPA time for their class teacher, Kerry. It was a management decision to place Tash with Jackie and Kerry so that she got good support while working for her HLTA status. Tash was part of the 7 day Core Module followed by the 3 day Assessment Preparation. The class consists of 9 Year 3 pupils, all with statements concerning their behaviour, all potentially very challenging, and with a wide range of ability.

The first lesson in the afternoon was Numeracy, led by Tash, supported by Jackie. Tash started by asking the pupils to remember what they had done in their last Numeracy lesson, then told them what they’d be learning this lesson. Tash demonstrated on the board then asked one of the pupils to do the same. Individual work in books was sandwiched between the whole class working together using “Education City”, a program on the inter-active whiteboard. This proved to be very motivational, every pupil sitting up and listening carefully so that they got their go. Tash was careful to differentiate the questions according to the abilities of each pupil.

Tash and Jackie clearly have very high level positive behaviour management skills, and they work very hard to establish and maintain a calm, purposeful atmosphere. All staff at Larwood receive initial 5 day Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training, as well as on-going refresher courses. This gives them a common language and understanding which means pupils experience a very high degree of consistency from all staff in the school.

Certainly this was very evident in both Jackie and Tash, who were clearly using the same strategies and vocabulary. Thus considerable efforts were made to avoid any potential flashpoints. They made sure that pupils who needed support knew that it would be forthcoming as soon as possible, and pupils were often warned before a sanction was imposed: “I am going to have to ask you to go back to your desk.” Where possible requests were made rather than instructions given, and actions were often checked with pupils: “Is it OK if I mark this?”  Inappropriate behaviour was ignored where possible, and considerable efforts were made to support pupils to ignore one boy who was trying to distract others. I was particularly struck that both Jackie and Tash moved in a purposeful but relaxed manner, so that even their body language had a calming effect. When one boy became agitated when moving his chair they immediately worked as a team to calm him, one concentrating on the child while the other removed the cause of the problem.

An Art lesson followed Numeracy, this time led by Jackie. In a previous lesson pupils – and the staff – had made sculptures out of clay. As a starter Jackie showed the class some slides of sand sculptures, and used them well to stimulate discussion: would they work better if the sand was dry or wet, what would have happened to the pupils’ sculptures over the last week, and so on. All pupils contributed in a relaxed manner, and were appreciative of the complexity of the sand sculptures, twice bursting into a spontaneous round of applause. The main part of the lesson involved painting the finished sculptures, which was achieved to a high standard.

The Last Word

“HLTA status has definitely given me more confidence. My role has developed and other staff look at me differently. Although we’ve got defined roles we all work as a team. I’ve learned a lot from the teachers. In somewhere like this the best way to learn is on the job.”