ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the development of a working team that starts in classroom partnerships. They foster staff development in classroom contexts and what is learnt within them may often be shared with colleagues in the wider team of the primary school. This activity offers the opportunity to consider the features that exist in successful learning partnerships, using the personal experiences of the staff in the school as a starting point and drawing on this to develop further ideas. The chapter provides the debate and discourse about the most effective ways of managing, supporting and training learning support assistants in their valuable and indispensable contribution to the work of schools. It also aims to consider what has been learnt in and about classroom partnerships between teachers and assistants in the school; the balance that exists within them of challenge and support and the ways in which what has been learnt could be positively built on throughout the school.
