Reply To: Weekly meeting with teaching assistants

[Della]

Hi, I started as a new SENCO in a new school in September. I organised fortnightly meetings with all support staff. Part of the meeting was used to share good practice, either feedback from any CPD staff have attended or I led some training linked to a relevant focus, eg speech and language. The other part of the meeting was a change for support staff to share any worries or queries they had. Things that came up were issues re: lunchtime rotas or misunderstandings regarding medical procedures when on duty.

Attendance varied as some HLTAs were covering classes and some LSAs could not leave their 1:1 child due to the level of need, however the feedback from those that attended was very positive. This term I am cutting it back to monthly meetings as the feedback was that every two weeks was too often and too much time out of class. Also, there often weren’t enough updates or CPD opportunities to share so some meetings ended up being very short and not a productive use of time.

Hope that helps!