A charter designed to help schools and academies retain teaching assistants was officially unveiled at Teach Portsmouth's latest jobs fair on Thursday 1 May 2025 at Central Library.
Mike Stoneman, deputy director, education and Councillor Nick Dorrington, from Portsmouth City Council joined delegates to reveal the seven principles set out in the charter.
The charter has been developed using feedback from a survey completed by 179 teaching assistants and a focus group attended by school staff. Using this information, a draft version of the charter was co-produced and shared with stakeholder groups for feedback.
Councillor Nick Dorrington, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education at Portsmouth City Council said:
"Teaching assistants deserve to feel valued and heard. The charter has involved this group from the very beginning, capturing their views.
Councillor Nick Dorrington
"By introducing this charter, schools show how serious they are about retention, using the seven areas as a basis for engagement with their staff. This specific activity is part of other items that are designed to keep teaching assistants in our schools and academies after they are recruited."
The seven principles include access to accredited training, transparency around pay, flexible working arrangements, wellbeing, feeling valued, career progression and building communication and trust.
A primary and secondary school in the city will now implement the charter as part of a trial. This will enable Teach Portsmouth to gather feedback from senior leaders and teaching assistants.
Over 80 delegates attended the Teach Portsmouth Support and Teaching Assistant Jobs Fair to discover careers in the classroom.
Each session began with inspirational talks from school staff who shared their experiences from the classroom alongside training providers who discussed routes into the profession. Afterwards, a Q&A panel followed with local experts answering questions.
Delegates could then meet eight exhibitors with jobs and opportunities and sign up to taster sessions. This scheme helps individuals build confidence before applying for a job, offering supervised school visits, a chance to meet staff and to learn more about vacancies.
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If you want to start a career helping children, young people and families, visit the supporting page of the Teach Portsmouth website.