WARRINGTON’S Bruche Primary School has received a national award recognising the role its teaching assistants play in supporting teachers and pupils.
Assessors from the Best Practice with Teaching Assistants Award (BPTAA) visited the school earlier this year and noted the strong leadership of the school’s BPTAA co-ordinator Chris Gould who, with the support of Bruche’s lead teaching assistant Alicia Dignan-Smith, had “driven forward the strategic development of TA practice” at the school.
Working towards the award’s requirements helps schools develop clear systems of induction, appraisal, and professional development for teaching assistants which the BPTAA says will better support teaching assistants and boost their impact on pupils.
The assessors said: “The BPTAA has been a positive framework for change, both as a celebration of existing practice and as a framework to develop this even further. This will be sustainable through the continuation of clear systems that are in place to ensure the maximum impact of TAs.”
They added: “Whilst the learning and progress of all children is recognised as the overall responsibility of the teacher, the TAs are an integral part of driving teaching and learning throughout the school.”
Chris Jones, executive headteacher at Bruche Primary, said: “Every day our teaching assistants play a key role in supporting the teachers to ensure that our children get the maximum benefit from teaching and learning at school.
“At Bruche our teaching assistants and teachers really do complement each other’s work and provide high quality experiences for all of our children. We are really proud of our teaching assistants and the impact they make to children’s lives. Each one is a role model and we are very lucky to have such skilled people, who all know how our children need to develop and learn. We wanted to achieve this award in recognition for all of their hard work at Bruche.”
Bruche Primary is part of Warrington Primary Academy Trust (WPAT), a community of over 1,900 children aged 2-11 in six primary schools and a teaching school, employing the equivalent of 202 full time staff. The trust was formed in 2016 and quickly developed a national reputation for excellent standards.
Earlier this year the school was awarded a national award for being in the top 10 per cent of primary schools nationally for pupil attainment, just four years after it was declared one of the lowest performing schools in the country.
Pictured: Bruche Primary School lead teaching assistant Alicia Dignan-Smith (centre) and the school’s TA team with the award.
