Working as an HLTA

St Luke's School

School No: 635

Jane Foster

Jane joined St Luke’s, a school for pupils with moderate learning difficulties, as a teaching assistant attached to Technology and French. After working in the school’s autism base for three years, Jane applied for and was appointed to the post of Learning Facilitator, one of two in the school. Jane and her colleague provide most of the cover when teachers are on courses or absent through illness. This provision is geared to meeting the needs of St Luke’s pupils, who respond well to staff that they know and who have specialist skills.

Background

Jane worked for six years at a primary school, latterly in their Speech and Language base. She knew St Luke’s as a number of children from the base transferred to the school, and when a vacancy occurred she applied and was appointed. When autism provision was opened at the school Jane, wanting to develop her skills, applied to work there, following a 10 week, accredited training course on autism. She was also supported by the school through the Foundation degree at the University of Hertfordshire, and subsequently HLTA status.

Jane was part of the school’s Workforce Remodelling Working Party. The school has always been forward-thinking and open to new ideas, and puts a high priority on staff development. After considerable discussion, it was decided to advertise for two Learning Facilitators to provide cover when teachers were away from their classrooms. Jane applied for the post – the school is careful to provide equal opportunities for all staff – and was one of two appointed in 2005.

Jane and her colleague have a great deal of autonomy. Between them they keep a central diary of the cover required, be it for courses, visits, illness or to give teachers extra time at certain points of the year, for example Review Weeks. Teachers phone them direct if they are ill, and they decide which lessons they are each going to cover. Although both Learning Facilitators are able to cover across the curriculum, they each have areas of expertise – in Jane’s case PE, Dance and English. Teachers plan the work, but Jane and her colleague deliver the lessons.

If there are too many vacancies for Jane and her colleague to cover, they will call in supply cover from approved agencies, and they are responsible for the supply budget. All the agencies they use visit the school to see at first hand what the requirements the school has, and guidance is given to all supply teachers. Helen Harding, the School Manager, says not only has provision improved but the supply budget has dropped from £40 k to £10k.

John Warwick, the deputy head, has “no doubt that this system brings less disruption – which is important to the pupils in this school. There is a particular need for pupils to sustain on-going relationships with staff, and for staff to know how the school operates. The pupils are now quite happy to see our Learning Facilitators appearing in class.” 

Features

• When teachers are absent for any reason disruption to pupils is minimal
• Cover is provided by permanent, dedicated Learning Facilitators whose aim is to progress learning
• Teachers are happy because they know that the work that they leave will be delivered to a high standard
• St Luke’s has delivered the requirement for teachers to cover “rarely”
• The system is extremely cost effective

How it works in Practice

Jane’s professionalism meant that she had prepared her group for my visit very carefully, telling them how “lucky” they were to have a visitor, and that I had come to see how good they were at PE. Although there were only three pupils in this class, it was easy to see that, although very pleasant individuals, they all needed very careful handling. Throughout the lesson Jane was patience personified, never once raising her voice, modelling a very calm manner, and heaping praise on the smallest achievement.

Her knowledge of the pupils meant that she was careful to warn them that “when I open the store-room door there will be a bit of noise”, not something that somebody new to the school would necessarily have known to do. Frequent use of pupils’ names clearly served to help them focus on the task in hand. It was also very noticeable that Jane was prepared to wait for individual pupils to be ready to learn before encouraging them to take on the next task.

The lesson was extremely well structured, following a careful pattern of warm-up, skills practice that got progressively harder, and finishing with a small game of tennis.  Each step built on the last and was challenging but achievable. Not only did Jane develop the pupils’ physical skills, but she worked hard to teach them appropriate vocabulary as well, especially “balancing” and “bouncing”. This careful and frequent repetition and revision of key words meant that all three pupils were able to describe what they had been doing by the end of the lesson. Changing from PE kit into their school clothes at the end of the lesson was also clearly part of the learning experience for these pupils.

The Last Word

“HLTA does give you status – it’s external validation that I can do this job – it says I’ve gone the extra mile. It makes the difference. I love all parts of my job, though getting to know all the children in the school, not just some, is probably the best bit. The variety is great. The only tiny problem is that, now that teachers are happy with the provision when they are away, there is more demand from them to go on courses!”