Maximising Support for KS1 Writing – a workshop for TAs

Develop your subject knowledge of the KS1 writing curriculum and gain strategies to support pupils with their written work.

When Teaching Assistants are involved in supporting groups and individual pupils with their written work, it is important to employ the most effective approaches to maximise the support.

Rooted in the National Curriculum and drawing on the latest guidance in the DfE’s recently published Writing Framework, as well as the EEF guidance for Teaching Assistants, this course is designed specially to provide TAs with an understanding of the KS1 writing curriculum and its associated subject knowledge, as well as to explore strategies and approaches for scaffolding pupils’ writing to develop independence and confidence.

Suitable for Teaching Assistants working in KS1, as well as KS2 TAs who are supporting pupils to learn and apply KS1 writing objectives.

Participants will:

• understand the national curriculum requirements for writing in KS1 and the associated subject knowledge and terminology
• explore strategies, activities and resources for supporting pupils when writing
• consider approaches for scaffolding writing for pupils who struggle with writing, with a focus on promoting independence and confidence

NB: Teaching Assistants working with KS2 pupils who need further support with KS1 writing objectives may find it helpful to join this session to gain practical ideas for how to scaffold writing as the foundation for KS2 expectations.

Suitable for Teaching Assistants, English Subject Leaders / SENDCo’s supporting TAs in developing their role. Primary focused but suitable for secondary/specialist settings delivering primary curriculum objectives.

About the facilitator | Susie Spolander

With over 25 years in education, Susie is an experienced teacher, leader and English consultant, working with schools and organisations both nationally and internationally. Drawing on her comprehensive understanding of curriculum, assessment, and effective teaching methodologies, she guides school leaders, teachers support staff and governors in developing their strategy and practice to improve pupil outcomes. Having served in a variety of educational roles, including as a Local Authority School Improvement Consultant for both Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, Susie specialises in designing and delivering tailored training programmes and projects to address educational priorities, working with individual schools, academies, trusts and partnerships, as well as collaborating with institutions such as Oxford University Press, Hachette Education, BlueSky Learning and Edge Hill University.

Susie is passionate about inspiring teachers and engaging learners. Her face-to-face and online training is of high quality: rooted in the curriculum and providing evidence-based practice coupled with creative teaching and learning approaches. She believes in a bespoke approach to school support, working alongside school leaders, class teachers and support staff to develop practice through a range of leadership and classroom-based strategies, always precisely tailored to the identified needs of the school.

As an English Consultant for the OUP Professional Development team, Susie leads training, consults on product development, and collaborates with teams as a contributor to educational projects and publications. Susie has more recently taken up the role of School Development Lead for English at West Berkshire.

Accessing the online event

Following registration for this event you will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your place. If you do not receive the email within a few minutes, please check your junk or spam folders and check that the correct email address was provided at the time of booking. If you did not create an account at the time of booking or someone else booked on your behalf, you will need to create an Eventbrite account. Open your booking confirmation email, select ‘Claim Your Order’ and then choose a password. Make a note of your email address that was used to make the booking and your new password – you will need these to access the Eventbrite page containing the link to the event.

A minimum of 48 hours before the event begins you will receive another email from Eventbrite containing a direct link to the event and to the Eventbrite Online Event page. Login to Eventbrite, using the same email and password you used to create your account. You will now have access to the online event link and any pre-event materials. This link must not be shared with other people.

Please test the link the day before the event to make sure you can connect. If you need help please email info@otsa.org.uk or call 01865 647999 in good time before the event begins. We will be unable to help during the event itself. Please note, if you unsubscribe from Eventbrite before the event takes place you will not receive any further emails from Eventbrite and therefore will not receive the email with the link to the event.

We do not provide refunds if you are unable to access the event due to technical issues that are beyond our control.

Participation in online events

In all cases, at the beginning of the session to confirm your identity please ensure that your camera is on, your username matches the name you registered with and that you register in ‘chat’ with your first name, second name and organisation. This is for security and registration purposes and we may remove, without refunds, participants who have not confirmed their identity as described above.

Our online events aim to be interactive and at times you may be expected to have your camera and microphone on during the session, although usually your microphone should be muted.

We may use ‘Raised Hands’, ‘Reactions’, ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’, shared whiteboards and shared screens during the session. We may also use ‘Breakout Rooms’ to allow you to work in a smaller group.

This event will not be recorded for copyright and privacy reasons.

Payment

Payment is required at the time of booking by credit card, debit card or Paypal. Unless otherwise stated, a ticket gives admission to one person at face-to-face and online events. In the event that you share an online event link with other people who then attend the event, including sharing your screen, or you arrive at a venue without a ticket and we are able to admit you, we will invoice you or your organisation for additional tickets retrospectively.

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.95% plus 0.59p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue invoices for payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out ‘event ticket insurance’ which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.

Technical difficulties

Should an online session encounter any technical difficulties we will do our best to continue with the session; this may be on a different online platform. In the event that we are unable to do this we will rearrange the session. If you are unable to attend the new date a full refund will be given.

Restriction on AI and Automated Participation

Our online training sessions are designed for human participants only. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) bots, automated systems, or any non-human entities to attend, participate in, or interact with the training content is strictly prohibited. We reserve the right to remove any unauthorised participants and take appropriate action if this policy is violated.