Based on results from the authors' pioneering research project, the 'Deployment and Impact of Support Staff' (DISS) which, for the first time ever, studied in detail the impact of Teaching Assistants on pupils and teachers, this highly relevant Handbook addresses and discusses a key period of change to the educational landscape with regard to the increased use of support staff. Drawing extensively on the DISS findings but relating them accessibly and practically to everyday classroom practice, the authors highlight the central problems and argue that it is not individual Teaching Assistants that are at fault, but systemic school and classroom factors within which Teaching Assistants operate and over which they have little or no control. This insightful Handbook provides essential practical information and tools to allow schools to conduct a fundamental review of current practice and provide a framework for reforming methods of support staff deployment. As a pressing need emerges for clear, well-informed guidance on effective ways of deploying and preparing Teaching Assistants and teachers, current methods are also re-evaluated in order for school managers to realise and unleash the huge potential of Teaching Assistants working in mainstream schools.