ABSTRACT
Your role in supporting pupils is crucial. Mastery of the skills of English is essential for pupils if they are to succeed in other curriculum areas. TAs commonly help with English skills in the primary school literacy hour which followed the directions of the NLS. The hour is organised into three parts: a whole class teaching time, a period for group work and a feedback or plenary time. Such were the demands made upon teachers for purposeful group work that many schools redirected their existing TA workforce or appointed new TAs to work with teachers during this time. Classes became timetabled and TAs matched to fit these timetables in order to staff the groups as fully as possible. This pattern of the three-part lesson is becoming more common in secondary schools where the Key Stage 3 strategy has taken hold. In practice, good teachers always had a shape to their lessons, but the NLS suggested a much more rigid compartmentalising of the time than most teachers were used to.
