ABSTRACT
In this book we have described and then discussed results from the largest study yet conducted on support staff in schools. Over the last decade, in the UK and other countries, there has been a huge increase in the numbers of support staff, particularly those in classroom-or pupil-based roles, whom we have called teaching assistants (TAs). We saw in Chapter 1 that this increase was due to several developments: national curriculum initiatives; the introduction, in 2003, of the National Agreement, which aimed to address teacher workloads and raise educational standards; and the increase in the numbers of pupils with SEN in mainstream schools.
