Maximise the impact of teaching assistants at your school today

Written by Kim Nuske, Teacher & ATAPS Facilitator, Australian Teacher Aide

What would your classroom look and feel like if your teaching assistant had the knowledge and skills to truly support and make a difference in the classroom? At Australian Teacher Aide, we believe that teaching assistants can have a profound impact on student learning when they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to support learning and teaching. This article will explore how Australian Teacher Aide’s offerings benefit school leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, and ultimately – students!

Australian Teacher Aide

Here at Australian Teacher Aide (ATA), we have a strong focus on the development and delivery of evidence-based resources for professional learning, and we boast an extensive range of online resources for teaching assistants in Australia.

Our mission is to 'empower educators to help students succeed', and this underpins everything we do at ATA. We offer:

evidence-based monthly live web events
the Australian Teaching Assistant Professional Standards (ATAPS) framework
an expanding professional development library
our commitment to an awesome member experience!

Professional Learning for Teaching Assistants

Over the past decade, the role of the teaching assistant has evolved, requiring them to have a deeper knowledge and wider skill set to meet the additional needs of providing in-class support to teachers and students. The importance of ongoing professional learning cannot be underestimated in equipping teaching assistants with what they need to know and be able to do to provide effective support.

Professional development for teaching assistants is a win-win concept: it improves the teaching assistants’ professional capability, reduces teacher workload, and enhances the support students receive!

ATA intentionally seek experts and create evidence-based learning opportunities for teaching assistants, enhancing the knowledge, practice and engagement of teaching assistants in the school environment.

Each month, ATA offer targeted, evidence-based professional learning for teaching assistants. We are thrilled to share the following line-up of free web-events for teaching assistants in 2025:

Each webinar is delivered by an expert in the field, with opportunities for teaching assistants to have Q&A time with experts they may not otherwise have access to. Our webinars offer teaching assistants opportunities to engage with the material, record their learning on customised worksheets, and receive personalised certificates of participation for all professional learning events. In addition to this, members have access to the online PL Record tool , as well as many more resources!

Can’t make it to the live event? That’s ok, we know that fitting professional learning into busy schedules can be tricky, so each of our monthly live web events are recorded and are available for viewing in the member portal.

ATAPS: Australian Teaching Assistant Professional Standards Framework

A key resource for all schools across Australia was published in 2024 by ATA, and we know you will find it so useful for enhancing the impact of teaching assistants in your school. The Australian Teaching Assistant Professional Standards (ATAPS) is an evidence-based framework that supports the performance and professional growth of teaching assistants.

Here’s what some early adopters are saying:

“The implementation of ATAPS will allow us to raise the status of our ESOs, facilitate their reflective practices, target their professional development needs, acknowledge their experience levels and support their career aspirations.” - Ros Sullivan, Deputy Principal, The Sycamore School QLD

“We will use ATAPS to create a high-performance culture and to give our teaching assistants recognition for the hard work that they do every day.” - Joyce Clements, Assistant Principal, Tallowood School, NSW

“The school intends to use ATAPS to enhance the role of Learning Support Assistants within the school, and as a framework for staff development and professional learning.” - Tim McNevin, Principal, Galilee School, ACT

“The standards will help LSO staff to move away from being general classroom helpers into a more focused and targeted role which in turn will improve outcomes for students. The standards also give teachers a better idea about the skills and knowledge our LSO team possesses.” - Lynsey Price, Leader of Learning Inclusion, St Francis of Assisi Primary School, Baranduda, VIC

“I applaud your team for creating an incredible framework that equips each tutor with the opportunity to have personalised strategies, goals, and milestones for effective professional growth.” -Abbie Gilchrist, Tutor Mentor, Katherine School of the Air, NT

School Leaders & Teachers

The ATAPS framework is set to help school leaders effectively deploy and use teaching assistants in their school setting, as well as providing a clear path to effectively support their professional growth. In addition to providing consistency and clarity in how teaching assistants can support learning and teaching, ATAPS offers a common language and framework for performance reviews, training and goal setting, as well as highlighting the valued, professional role teaching assistants hold in our educational settings.

Our resources at Australian Teacher Aide not only benefit teaching assistants, they also equip school leaders with the resources to manage and develop their staff. Resources such as our 'Guide to Building Stronger Teaching Teams', Professional Learning Record, and ATAPS Leadership Course are all created to support leaders in taking their teaching assistant team to the next level!

While we target our professional learning resources to teaching assistants, teachers across Australia are also taking up the opportunity to attend our monthly webinars to gain evidence-based knowledge and skills. ATA's professional learning resources intentionally direct and encourage teachers to build a collaborative, effective working relationship with their teaching assistant. When this happens, the whole classroom benefits!

Affordable and Accessible Professional Learning

With a range of membership options, Australian Teacher Aide has something for every educator across Australia; from city to rural, we have your covered:

Subscriber Account: Join our community using a free subscriber account, and join the monthly, live web events!

Individual Membership: This affordable subscription will gain members a range of benefits including: invitations to our 10 monthly live web events, on-demand access to one webinar recording each month, certificates of participation, a personalised portal for accessing resources, access to worksheets, a CPD diary for recording professional development, subscription to our monthly newsletter, and more!

School Membership: In addition to all that is available for individual members, a 12-month school membership will enable your school to link an unlimited amount of school staff members to the school account, providing each of them with on-demand access to our extensive resource library, including access to our exclusive professional learning series: Effective Teacher Aide Practices for Schools (eTAPS), as well as the ATAPS Companion Guide and ATAPS Professional Growth Map. School memberships are calculated on school size, so this affordable option allows schools to provide customised professional learning for their teaching assistants, to build their capacity to effectively support learning and teaching.

ATAPS Partner School: This 'All In' level of membership equips school leaders with the knowledge, skills and resources to effectively implement the ATAPS framework in their school by walking them through the "ATAPS Partner School Leaders Course" and providing a vast selection of resources to support successful implementation.

Australian Teacher Aide of the Year Awards

Australian Teacher Aide (ATA) proudly sponsor and host a national awards programme, Australian Teacher Aide of the Year, and lead the 'Teacher Aide Appreciation Week' initiative , to celebrate and recognise the contribution teaching assistants make in classrooms every day. Each year, school leaders and teachers are invited to nominate their teaching assistant and teaching assistant team for the highly esteemed Australian Teacher Aide of the Year awards. This exciting initiative highlights the profound impact teaching assistants are having in classrooms all around Australia. Read more on our Awards page.

As thought leaders and major contributors to the education sector, the Australian Teacher Aide team is excited to be sponsoring and presenting at the National Education Summit in both Brisbane and Melbourne this year!

If you would like to take the first step towards building the professional capability of your teaching assistants, or you want to know more about how a membership with Australian Teacher Aide can support your teaching assistant team to have a profound impact on student learning, we invite you to visit our Australian Teacher Aide booth and learn more!