Origins of the Study

This section describes a research project into AAS developments on three very different sites—a Church of England primary school in the suburbs of a prosperous market town, a PRU on an industrial estate on the outskirts of a small city, and an inner-city girls’ secondary school. It compares the differing staffing structures, management approaches and societal expectations in each site. It suggests that there were divergences of understanding, both within and across the three schools. These were related both to issues of perceived professional status and the identity of the school. In the primary school, for example, some teachers saw AAS as way of managing the behaviour of specific ‘naughty’ children, whereas teaching assistants had a much more holistic view. In the PRU, although there was a more consistent relational approach from all staff, those working with primary-aged children were initially more comfortable about adopting the new approaches than those working with the secondary age range, although this changed markedly during the fieldwork period. In the secondary school there was a clear management direction about the initiative, although this was to some extent frustrated by pressures on staff as a result of Covid, online learning, external pressures such as GCSE assessments and issues within the local community. One common feature of all three schools was the clear identification of AAS with improvements in learning, even in the primary school, where some teacher views had changed from initial scepticism to positive support during the course of the research.