My teaching assistant undermines me!

NQT Caroline feels undermined by her teaching assistant, but feels too embarrassed to say anything. However, she has a right to express what she wants from her TA, says Sue Cowley...

Before …

Caroline is a newly qualified teacher with a Y2 class. Her teaching assistant, Sandy supports her three days a week. Caroline is really struggling to manage their relationship. Sandy has been at the school for 10 years and knows everyone and everything. She has made comments about Caroline’s methods and how she ‘doesn’t teach them like Mrs Thompson did last year’.

When Caroline is whole class teaching, Sandy often chats with a child at the back of the room. Caroline feels too embarrassed to say anything directly to Sandy about this. Sandy currently works mainly with low ability groups, but Caroline wonders whether this is the best way to deploy her.

The makeover

Timetable regular meetings, and get your TA’s input into planning.
By meeting on a weekly basis, Caroline can make Sandy feel valued and clarify their roles in the classroom. At these meetings, she can explain what her learning objectives are, how Sandy should support these, and ask her to read through plans and resources before lessons begin. She could ask Sandy about her subject strengths and encourage her to help plan for these areas. She might also ask her to lead an activity with the whole class in her favourite subject.

Boost your TA’s self-esteem, whilst clarifying the respective roles.
It can be awkward managing other adults, especially when you’re new to the profession and they are ‘old hands’. Rather than reacting defensively, do what you’d do with an awkward child. Caroline should find ways to reward Sandy when she behaves as she wishes, while at the same time gently making it clear who is in charge. She could involve Sandy in modelling her expectations of behaviour – ‘As you can see, both Miss Baines and I are waiting for you to fall silent.’ She could also ask her to act as scribe and write on the board for her while she’s teaching.

A great rule of thumb for working with both adults and children is: ‘Be reasonable, but don’t reason with them.’ Even though Caroline is new to the job, she is the qualified teaching professional and has a right to express what she wants from her TA.

Encourage a team approach towards managing behaviour, and
towards the expectations that you have of the children.
It’s understandable that Caroline feels awkward telling Sandy directly that she mustn’t talk during whole class sessions. Instead, she could try telling Sandy how she personally finds it a struggle to get silent attention from the children. She could enlist Sandy’s help in getting the class completely silent. This should hopefully send Sandy a subtle message about Caroline’s key expectation, and make it very awkward for Sandy to continue talking over her.

Use your mentor as a sounding board.
Caroline should definitely have a chat to her mentor about the current situation. One of the key strengths of the NQT/mentor partnership is that you have someone to ask about those awkward questions.

Consider how best to deploy your TA: don’t automatically put him or her
with the low ability children.
Working with children who struggle to learn is tricky, and requires professional expertise. So often, teachers will instinctively use support staff with the low ability groups. We would advise Caroline to work with these children herself, to ensure that she gets to know their needs fully. She could deploy Sandy to work with the highest ability group for a while, which would have the added benefit of boosting her self esteem.

After …

Caroline met with her mentor and chatted about the situation. From their discussion, she discovered that the previous Y2 teacher had also struggled in working with Sandy. Her mentor gave her several tips about how best to manage her TA.

Caroline and Sandy have timetabled a weekly teacher/TA meeting. Caroline has asked Sandy to deliver part of an art lesson for her, and to work with the high ability groups for a while. Sandy appeared very pleased when Caroline asked for her support in getting the class silent, and she has given her several strategies that are working well with the children. The focus on silent attention has made it clear to Sandy, in a subtle way, that she can no longer chat while Caroline is teaching.

Whilst Caroline has accepted that she and Sandy are never going to click all that well on a personal level, she has managed to clarify their relationship. This has boosted her own confidence at the same time.