COBIS Conference

Published on April 30th, 2013

The Teaching Assistant College will be heading off to London in a couple of weeks to attend the 32^nd COBIS Annual Conference. The COBIS Conference is a key event for the team as it is a fantastic opportunity to speak to delegates attending from schools all over the world.

Eva Cartwright and Claire Preece will be joining the delegates from the 11^th to the 13^th May, and are looking forward to representing the TA College as Supporting Members. The Teaching Assistant College will be located at stand 25 during the three day conference, and would be happy to discuss the training needs in your school.

BSME Conference

Published on February 28th, 2013

Eva Cartwright has recently returned from the British Schools of the Middle East Annual Conference. The conference was held in Jordan from the 5th – 8th January and was a huge success, with our new launches for 2013 being very well received. Eva would like to thank all the delegates who took the time to discuss the training needs of their teaching assistants.

Update from The Thinking Child

Published on February 5th, 2013

Please read Sue Dixon’s blog on her experience of using e-learning to deliver a short course.

http://www.thinkingchild.org.uk/anytime-anywhere-discovering-the-opportunities-and-benefits-of-e-learning/

The short course is available now!

New Short Course!

Published on November 27th, 2012

Supporting Reading: The Essentials

 Written and delivered by Sue Dixon – experienced educator and founder of Thinking Child.

 A rewarding, interactive e-learning experience that provides core and critical understanding about reading.

 In three easy to follow sections, doing interactive and interesting tasks, you will understand more about:

• How we learn to read.
• The range of cueing strategies needed to be a successful reader.
• Different ways of teaching reading.
• Purpose and motivations for reading: often the key to unlocking reluctant readers.

Suitable for KS1 and KS2 – anyone teaching and supporting children’s reading.

 

Coaching and Mentoring

Published on September 27th, 2012

Schools are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of coaching and mentoring. With proven track records in improvement in results and attendance it is now becoming an increasingly popular role for teaching assistants, as well as learning mentors, to be involved with alongside their day-to-day role. 

So, what makes great coaching and mentoring practice? We could look at coaching and mentoring as an integral part of the Assessment for Learning process. To support children in understanding their individual learning styles and helping them to understand that they are responsible for their own learning is a good starting point. Motivating children to take control in their own future and personal outcomes can be a powerful tool. Real change can only take place when children and young people take ownership for their learning.

Great coaching and mentoring takes place when positivity is central to the discussions. Teaching assistants and learning mentors need to recognise that it is good practice takes the child’s lead. Through quality questioning and active listening a meaningful conversation can take place that focuses on the child’s current skills and achievements as well as looking at areas for improvement.

In my view no discussion should involve the adult imposing their ideas on the child. It is proven that people are far more likely to perform an action themselves if the idea is their own, you only need to think of the days that you’ve tried to persuade someone to carry out a household chore to confirm this! Through developing questioning techniques it is possible to lead the child down the discussion path that you want to go down, whilst all the time allowing them to generate the answers and solutions that they need to develop for themselves.

This same technique can be used for discussing improvements in behaviour, participation during activities, raising self-esteem, motivation to take responsibility for their learning and general focus. By the end of the session the child should have generated a set of one or two goals to focus on and feel motivated to achieve them.

Through regular coaching and mentoring there should be a reduction in frustration, an increase in confidence, an improvement in the learning process and a better understanding for the child that the adult cares about their thoughts and feelings, and their future. Coaching and mentoring is all about the bigger picture. It will help children to become lifelong learners who are interested in personal development and have a desire to reach their potential.

 

Top Tips

-          Coaching and mentoring should be child led and a positive experience

-          The child should enjoy the coaching and mentoring sessions

-          Sessions should be a way of recognising and focusing on the child’s strengths and how to use their strengths to help them develop

-          Answers and solutions should be found by asking questions

-          The child should come up with the solution, not the adult

-          Desired outcomes can be reached through carefully leading the child through a series of questions

Maximise your learning experience and engage with other candidates using a SPARK!

Published on August 21st, 2012

What is a SPARK?

A SPARK is a question, thinking point or idea that is a starting point for a discussion within the Teaching Assistant College forum. Each SPARK will be created by a tutor or member of the Teaching Assistant College team. We will send out the invitation by email for you to join in with a SPARK, you can then participate in the discussion as many times as you like.

There are no right or wrong answers it is your opinion that matters. The person leading the SPARK will then interject with additional thoughts and ideas to develop the discussion further.

Each week in this newsletter we will provide an update on how the current SPARK is developing and indicate when a new SPARK is due. To join a SPARK simply log onto the TA College website and click on the apple icon and enter the discussion forum. Click on the advertised SPARK, read some of the comments made and type in your thoughts, experiences or opinions. By regularly revisiting the SPARK you will see how others have reacted to your views and you can add more entries in the forum as many times as you wish.

 Joining in with a SPARK is great as it make you think about different perspectives and more critically without even considering it to be learning. Links to theory and practice will help you to use your ideas during your course. You may find that some of the ideas discussed in a SPARK can be further developed to support the work you are producing to cover the criteria.

Will your qualification be accepted by Employers?

Published on May 4th, 2012

Have you just completed a qualification as a Teaching Assistant?
Or at least you thought you had until you went for a job or maybe taken your certificate into school!

The Teaching Assistant College is increasingly hearing from students who have completed a qualification with a provider only to find it is not subsequently accepted by schools and thus not worth the paper it is written on.
It is most disappointing for us to hear of people being offered qualifications that are so called, ‘equivalent to this’, and ‘equivalent to that’, only to find they achieve nothing at the end of their studies.

We know how important it is to gain a recognised qualification and as an approved centre with CACHE and City and Guilds you can be assured that the only certificates we hand out, will have been issued by those proper Awarding Bodies and that schools and Education Authorities will recognise it and you will have a qualification to proudly display on your CV.

It is imperative when making your choice that you ensure the course is a QCF qualification that you are applying for.
QCF stands for the Qualification Credit Framework.
Without a qualification being on the QCF you can almost guarantee that it is NOT going to be a valuable one as it absolutely essential that any new qualification is from this framework.

The Teaching Assistant College has heard such statements as ‘I have just completed a qualification, it’s through a certain training provider and I have just found out, to my horror, that the Certificate is not worth the paper it is written on’.
Another advised they were so angry that they felt the wool had been pulled over their eyes by the training provider in offering a qualification that just simply isn’t meaningful.

Please remember if you do a qualification that isn’t on the QCF, then at some point in your career you will need to do a different qualification to the one you have taken.

With regard to Awarding Bodies that accredit the courses to QCF standard these include: CACHE,  City and Guilds, OCR, EdExel and NCFE.
We are tending to find that the preferred Awarding Body is CACHE. (Council for Awards in Children’s Health and Education). They are an outstanding Awarding Body that Schools in the UK and worldwide recognise as being a great provider of qualifications.
It is therefore ideal if you can complete a qualification in line with the QCF and with CACHE, you can then be absolutely sure that your qualification is exactly what it needs to be.

Here at the Teaching Assistant College we feel extremely strongly about these issues and we want to help counteract all the wrongs that are going on in terms of people being sold qualifications that are misleading and are not meaningful.
We want you to receive the very best information and guidance when choosing a qualification so we are offering you an ‘obligation free service’  regardless of whether you decide to study with us or not.
We invite you to give us a call to establish if a course you have found is actually accredited and worthy of the paper it is written on.
Please call the Teaching Assistant College at anytime, We are usually open between 9:00 am and 5:30 pm, sometimes a little later.
If you do so we will be more than happy to help you find the qualification that is meaningful, and right for YOU.

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The TA College to attend the COBIS Annual Conference

Published on April 26th, 2012

The Teaching Assistant College will once again be exhibiting at the COBIS Annual Conference held at the Park Plaza in London from the 12th – 14th May. The theme of this years conference is ‘Unity in Diversity’, if any schools would like to discuss the training needs of their support staff then please come to talk to Patrick at stand 51. We look forward to seeing you there.

First TA Training Resource File Delivered!

Published on February 23rd, 2012

We are pleased to announce that Taipei European School based in Taiwan have received the first copy of the Training Resource File for Teaching Assistants and Learning Support Assistants. The File is a complete Training Package for Schools which can be delivered by can be delivered by a Teacher, Senior Manager or lead TA and includes everything you need to teach lively and engaging training sessions. The topics covered are:

• Raise Standards in the Classroom
• Consistent understanding of the job role and expectation
• Strong Managers of Behaviour
• Focus on teaching & learning that is engaging and recognises pupils as individuals
• Promotes Reflection through Group Activities and discussion
• Encourages reflective thought processes

 

Education Show

Published on February 21st, 2012

Come along to visit our stand at the Education Show held at the NEC Birmingham, the show runs from the 15^th to the 17^th of March, you will find us in all Hall 4 on stand H61!

The Education Show is the UK’s leading education event for the promotion and development of all learning and teaching. The event offers a selection of free CPD seminars, workshops and training.