Sustainable support: a case of the role and deployment of teaching assistants implementing a unique early literacy intervention

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe role and deployment of teaching assistants (TAs) (paraprofessionals) have changed significantly over the past decade; TAs in England hold greater responsibilities in terms of their wider role in classrooms and, specifically, in relation to their support for children with literacy difficulties in a primary school context. The impact of their role has been both questioned and challenged; nevertheless, in relation to literacy support, their role is widely valued by schools, and evidence exists that there is a positive impact on attainment. This paper reports on a case study of an early literacy intervention implemented by TAs which, it is argued, provides a positive model of TA deployment and literacy intervention implementation. It is also argued that this model of intervention offers a scaffold to the TAs themselves, who are then far better placed to scaffold the literacy learning of children with individual needs.