ABSTRACT
As lunchtime supervisors you are often in an excellent position to build relationships with children. Unlike teaching staff, you have opportunities to play with and talk to children during less structured parts of the day. If you succeed in developing positive relationships with the children, you are more likely to mange their behaviour constructively and to become an important person in their school life. TAs who undertake lunchtime duty are likely to already have close relationships with, and know a great deal about, many of the children. The lunchtime period, however, enables you to interact with a wider range of children in a very different setting. In this chapter the necessary skills for building positive relationships will be explored,
including: ways to gain children’s trust, how to listen, how to be child-centred and how to
help children cope with their emotions. It will also discuss ways to find the correct balance between fun and firmness, how to become a positive role model and the factors that interfere with building positive relationships with children. There will be a number of practical activities to develop your thinking and skills.
