A study published today by the Education Endowment Foundation has found that intensive support from teaching assistants with small groups of reception and nursery class children boosted children’s vocabulary, listening, narrative and conversational skills.
The foundation argues that this research, and that of five other successful interventions it has funded using teaching assistants, shows how schools should use them best in the classroom to have a positive impact on learning, particularly for disadvantaged children.
There are around 240,000 teaching assistants working in schools in the UK and 10 per cent of the education budget is spent on employing them each year.
Previous research has show that the ways teaching assistants are used, for example as substitute teachers, does not help children's learning.
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