Support staff 'can bring benefits'

October 12 2009

The use of school support staff and teaching assistants can help in a number of ways, a report will claim.

According to the Times, a new report to be released later this month will show that standards are rising in schools thanks in part to the role played by support staff.

Head of the Training and Development Agency for Schools, which commissioned the report, Graham Holley told Sian Griffiths of the Times: "Early findings suggest that support staff ... have a positive effect on pupils' learning and behaviour. I am convinced this is the reality in most schools in England."

The newspaper notes that since Labour came to govern the country in 1997, close to 200,000 teaching assistants have trained and taken up roles in schools.

Despite Mr Holley's belief that teaching assistants do have a role to play in schools, the support staff do have their critics, with some arguing that schools use them as cheaper alternatives to teachers.

There are a range of different roles that support staff can fill within schools.

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