UNISON welcomes a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research called A Long Division -closing the attainment gap in England’s secondary schools, published today.
The report notes that pupils from rich families tend to do better at school than those from poor families – a phenomenon it calls the ‘attainment gap’ – and calls for more ‘individual interventions’ within schools to address this.
UNISON head of education Jon Richards said the union supports the institute’s quest “to tackle the unacceptable attainment gap between rich and poor pupils”.
But UNISON takes issue with the report’s discussion of the role and effectiveness of teaching assistants, noting that the IPPR draws on comments from other research, which represents an oversimplification of its findings.
It says the evidence quoted, which suggests that teaching assistants have little impact on pupils, is taken out of context and is contradicted by the professional experience of school leaders, who continue to employ teaching assistants in increasing numbers.
“The suggestion that teaching assistants do not improve pupil attainment is counterintuitive,” says Mr Richards, noting that “issues about the proper deployment and training of support staff have been identified in other research.
“Well-trained teaching assistants working closely with teachers play an invaluable role in improving attainment and enriching struggling pupils’ lives, as evidenced by Ofsted and others.”