The time is ripe for this book. Over recent years there has been a vast increase in the number of people who support children's learning in classrooms and other educational settings, both as employees and as volunteers. Using stories of successful practice and ideas for improving collaborative work, Working with Support in the Classroom explores and maps the development of the roles in relation to children's learning that can be played by people other than qualified teachers. The work of teaching assistants, learning mentors, classroom assistants for children with special educational needs, student teachers, nursery nurses and parent and community helpers are all illustrated in the chapters of the book, which focuses on the whole range of educational settings from the early years through primary to secondary classrooms. Between them the editors and contributing authors have a wide range of experience of working in schools and early years settings with teachers and support workers, including experience in special educational needs and in work with multilingual children for whom English is a second language.
Anne is Professor of Professional Learning at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Introduction - Anne Campbell and Gavin Fairbairn Valuing Diversity: The Role of Support Workers in the Early Years - Wendy Bignold Making the Most of the Teaching Assistant for Special Educational Needs - Wendy Hall Learning Mentors in Primary Classrooms and Schools - Pat Hughes Partners in Mathematical Learning - Sue Cronin and Christine Bold Working with Support to Enhance the Use of ICT - Sue Crowley and Mike Richardson The Teacher and the Nursery Nurse: Building the Partnership - Ann-Marie Jones Making the Most of an Extra Pair of Hands: Teachers and Student Teachers in the Classroom - Deborah Smith and Deirdre Hewitt All Different, All Equal: A Case Study of Support at Temple Primary School - Anne Campbell Peering into the Future: Two Conversations with Headteachers - Anne Campbell Developing Successful Practice with Support Staff - Anne Campbell
'Through working with teaching assistants on courses I know that the balancing of relationships is a central concern. This book will provide a valuable opportunity to extend this experience during Initial Teacher Training. Readers at all levels of experience will be able to reflect on how to develop creative and constructive paths leading to a partnership of professionals, and to make teams work in a way that really benefits the learning of children in their care.' - Min Wilkie, School of Education, University of Leicester 'The publication of this book is most timely. As the plans for the remodelling of the school workforce begin to take shape, further complexities surrounding the area continue to be exposed. This book addresses many of these and does so in an accessible and thought provoking way. Simplistic answers to how best we can work with support in the classroom are not provided, but different ways of approaching the question are. By reading about, and engaging with, fictionalised accounts, case studies, stories and vignettes, the reader is transported across the whole range of educational settings, exploring the myriad definitions of classroom "support"' - Dr Iris Keating, Manchester Metropolitan University
