Modernizing the roles of support staff in primary schools: changing focus, changing function

In this article we describe the ways in which primary schools involved in the 'Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project' in England addressed the opportunity to restructure their working practices. The Project was established in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) primarily to help fund pilot schools to make interventions into the ways in which they were resourced, managed and organized-interventions that have often affected the whole school's workforce, and in particular the focus and function of the work of their support staff. Here we concentrate on the evaluation of the Pathfinder Project with particular reference to the changing roles of teaching assistants in primary schools, although we draw upon evidence gathered from all the schools involved in the Project. The range of different initiatives introduced to change the work of support staff is explored, as well as the resultant impact on the workloads of teachers within the schools. We discuss how the Project has facilitated innovative practice in remodelling the work of support staff and place this within the context of the changing policy agenda on workload in English schools.