School support staff are adding theory to practice and becoming teachers thanks to some innovative schemes. Mary Evans reports
Faced with a growing shortage of teachers, local councils across the country are being encouraged by the Government to develop innovative schemes to combat the schools' recruitment crisis.
A range of programmes has been devised to attract people from other walks of life into education, with bonuses for graduates switching professions and grants for postgraduate training. However, authorities like the London borough of Newham have set up programmes focusing on existing school staff by enabling teaching assistants, with few academic qualifications but plenty of experience of life at the chalkface, to train as teachers.
Another pioneering body, Lancashire County Council, has won national recognition for its Graduate and Registered Teacher Programme, empowering nursery nurses and classroom assistants to undergo teacher training without giving up their jobs. The county does not actually suffer from a shortage of teachers, but the council runs the scheme so it can capitalise on the expertise and experience of dedicated classroom support staff.
At Newham there is a constant demand for teachers. Jill Holmes, who manages the training centre for the programme, says, 'Newham has a very mobile teaching force. We have young teachers who qualify and want to "do London" and they work here for a few years but when they want to settle down they tend to leave and move away.
'The enormous benefit with this scheme is that we are using our teaching assistants and developing a home-grown teaching force. They are people who live in the area and understand Newham, and hopefully they will stay on and teach in the borough - if they are not poached by the surrounding local authorities.'
The course, which began two years ago as a Diploma in Higher Education, has been translated into a two-year Foundation Degree. It was designed by the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College as a route into higher education for people who have experience of working with children but who lack the traditional A-level qualifications normally needed to embark on a degree and who want to study while still working.
A career structure for classroom support staff operates in Newham, so that people can join and work as classroom assistants and then train as teaching assistants. Mrs Holmes adds, 'When they pass their teaching assistant's training they get a small pay rise, and often the course whets their appetite to go on and study further.
'There are 42 people who have gone on and are now in their second year, and another 38 started the Foundation Degree last September.
'The vast majority are women aged 35 and upwards, but a few are younger and there are two men. Most of them are parents and have their feet firmly on the ground.
'This course offers these people a second chance. We realise that a number of people screwed up earlier in their lives and did not get qualifications, but this course gives them a chance to do
so now. They are working alongside a teacher in the classroom and can see that with some training and support they could be teaching too.
'The support that the schools give the students is vital. A great deal of the child development work that they do on the course is carried out through projects with the pupils they are working with.'
The Foundation Degree consists of 12 sections, each involving 30 hours of tuition plus independent study and covering topics such as concepts of education, growth, development and learning, and behaviour management, as well as learning to be literate and learning mathematics. Successful completion gives the graduate 240 higher education credits - 120 at Level 1 and 120 at Level 2.
After finishing the Foundation Degree, the Newham candidates will go on to a two-year postgraduate scheme through the Registered Teacher programme or attainment of qualified teacher status.
Further information
- Visit the Foundation Degree website www.foundationdegree.org.uk or contact the national learning advice line, Learn Direct, on 0800 100 900 or at www.learndirect.co.uk
- For more information on the Graduate and Registered Teacher Programme visit www.canteach.gov. uk/info/grtp/
- Contact your local authority to check any plans it may have to introduce a teacher-training scheme for classroom support staff.
Case study
Michelle Hector, 42, who has been a teaching assistant at Altmore Infant School, Newham, for five and a half years, began the Foundation Degree last September. She says, 'Most of us on the course are like-minded. We are in the same position and are working towards a common aim. For various reasons we didn't do a degree first time round, or don't have A-levels or GCSEs, and now we have this chance to better ourselves and we are taking it.
'Working in the classroom and looking at the teacher, I thought I could become a teacher too. I realised I had the practical knowledge, but what I hadn't got was the theory. I felt I needed to be doing something more, but I couldn't just leave my work and go off to a college somewhere to take a degree. I need my pay packet at the end of the week.
'This degree course is the way someone in my position can get into the profession. Some youngsters go off to college and get into debt and the pressures get so great they drop out. I could not have done this course when my children were younger as I would have had to pay for childcare.
'I know the course is more intense this way. It is very different having to write academic assignments and to read for a reason, but we all support each other. There is always someone you can phone.
'In a way what we are doing is on the lines of early years learning. We have learned about child development and education in a practical way, in the same way young children learn, and now we are doing the theory side.
'I find the course fascinating but it is tough. I do four days a week in school and one day at the training centre and an evening session there twice a month. Also I am doing my maths GCSE. Five of us are doing a maths class one night a week. You have to be very structured in how you organise your time. Good time management is very important. Unlike full-time students, you cannot spend ages on an assignment.
'The school has to recommend you. They are very helpful. I can always go to one of the teachers if I want an essay proof-read.'
NVQ evidence gathering - C5
Follow our pointers to help you gather evidence for NVQ Level 3 Unit C5 - promoting children's social and emotional development. Read our advice in conjunction with Level 3 standards Early Years Care and Education.
1. To help children settle in a new setting, it is important that you know how to spell and say their preferred names.
- Prepare a badge for each child, checking the spelling with parents. Make a display, perhaps a fruit tree, to which the badges can be attached like fruit. Encourage the children to identify and put on their badges as they arrive.
2. Social development requires activities rich with interaction between children and adults from a variety of different backgrounds.
- Set up an imaginative play area that encourages children to interact with others. Try a supermarket using boxes and packets of many different foodstuffs. Sell plastic fruit and vegetables, including tropical fruit and more unusual vegetables. Talk to the children about goods for sale.
- Extend the activity by discussing what food each child likes to eat. Discuss the homes that the children live in, and how many people are in their family. Talk about similarities and differences.
3. Consider the opportunities during the day in which children can be encouraged to relate to others.
- Keep a record of examples of co-operation in the daily routine. Note instances of when children help one another, what activities require turn-taking, how group tasks are carried out, and what happens in circle time sessions.
4. Developing children's confidence, self-reliance, and self-esteem is an aim of all early years work.
- Draw a spider chart with self-esteem at its centre. On each of the legs identify a self-help activity that will develop confidence in the child.
- Introduce opportunities for children to decide what they do or do not do. For a week, record in your diary the circumstances in which children have been able to make decisions and take responsibility for their actions.
- Make a list of the different ways children can be rewarded for appropriate actions and behaviour.
5. Young children are learning new words and ways of expressing themselves every day. Consider how you can help them recognise and deal with their feelings by giving them opportunities and words to express themselves.
- Select a storybook with an emotional message. Tell the story to a small group of children and take time to discuss its themes.
- Set up a nursery theatre with a variety of puppets, either commercial or home-made. Talk to the children about what the characters may say. Give them a situation to act out using the puppets - for example, how to help a friend when they are sad. The assessor can observe these activities.
6. Children for whom English is a second language may lack confidence in expressing themselves.
- Devise a programme for a reluctant communicator. Identify opportunities for the child to relate to other children, activities and games to encourage speech, and one-to-one sessions with an adult. Include a home link in your plan, as bringing items from the child's home to nursery will enhance the child's status and confidence.
7. Help children develop their own identity and personality using resources that are not stereotypical.
- Make a list of the resources in your setting that are not stereotypical and look through catalogues to identify other such resources. Discuss the list with your assessor.
8. Use local resources.
- Plan a visit to a local fire station to show positive role models. Include in your plans ways of using the experience when back in the setting. 9Find out what the procedure is in your setting if a child is having emotional difficulties.
10. Moving to a new setting can be distressing for a young child.
- Using small-world figures to allow the child to address fears of the unknown in a safe environment. Be supportive and join in the game. Record the experience as a reflective account to include in your portfolio.
