[senco-forum] Positive attitude

Yes my response 'taken at face value' was probably far too harsh.

Don't you have staff inset where the importance of positive attitudes  
is stressed for ALL staff with ALL children?  Could you  ask TAs how  
they feel it is best shown with SEN children eg SPECIFIC praise,   
certificates, whatever?  If they all contribute ideas,  it may dawn  
on negative one what she should be doing.  If she comes out and says  
it's a load of rubbish then you wheel on senior management as David  
suggested.  Is it only to the students that she has a negative  
attitude or is she generally isolated/ depressed?
In any case,  I think sharing ideas on positive attitudes is always  
valuable and enables you to adopt a positive attitude to the TAs'  
work as well.  They are in the best position to observe what works  
really well with their student and debriefing them could inform the  
IEP.  You've probably already done all this!  Jill
> Yes my response 'taken at face value' was probably far too harsh.
> Furthermore one must not only comply with current employment
> legislation, one must also be aware of the effect a tough approach
> might have on other TAs and school staff. However there is no getting
> away from the unpleasant fact that ingrained negative attitudes are
> often extremely hard to change in the longer term.
>
> Furthermore if the manner in which this TA currently supports students
> is at detrimental to their progress overall -- in other words they'd
> be better off without her -- then perhaps the best course of action
> might be to; (1) have her spend time shadowing and hopefully learning
> from a more experienced TA who has a far more positive attitude; or
> (2) explore the possibility of redeploying her elsewhere within the
> school where she has little or no contact with SEN students.
>
> Two things you can't afford to do are 'nothing' and pussyfooting
> around rolling out a group training programme that's inappropriate to
> the needs of all the other TAs in the school, simply because you don't
> want this one highly negative TA to "feel excluded". If you take
> either of these approaches you'll most likely alienate all of your
> TA's!
>
> Perhaps you can arrange for a senior school manager, one whom you
> trust, to first broach the subject of her negativity with you present
> as well -- preferably a manager she doesn't often come into contact
> with. If they spell out the problem then you can explore possible
> solutions with her ...the "hard and soft" approach. This might
> incentivise her to work with you on improving her attitude, rather
> than perhaps polarising the situation were you were to broach this
> problem with her on your own.
>
> Hope this is helpful.
>
> David Bowles
>
>> I think David's advice is way too harsh but he does have a point -
>> If you provide the training for all your TAs, how will you get the
>> message home to her specifically? I would expect that they could
>> model and reinforce your message (that a positive attitude is
>> essential) but she may not realise that she isn't being positive...
>
>
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