I work in a secondary school with 11-18, we teach Raising Achievement groups, Entry Level maths and Literacy lessons. We mark work, write reports etc for these lessons, but not other subjects.
Qualified Peer Support Worker (2017)
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Awful, just awful! I needed a TA when I was in school (Primary school I had a TA and special classes) and for a fair bit of my secondary school life I was in a special needs class with fellow students with special needs and if we didn't have TA's that class wouldn't have been possible because if I remember right, over 50% of the staff in that class were TAs to help us.
Lol the NUT jumps on all of Goves stuff,they havent been this enraged for a long time!
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
You have to remember that only 20/30 years ago any student with mental illness, disability or behaviour problems were put away in institutions. So it is pretty new to have TA's and Gove does not understand this and never will because he hasn't done it. I was a TA and a Teacher in the UK before I moved to Oz. Without TA's you will find less teaching happening because even when you walk into a classroom and you have a TA tidying up the classroom while the kids sit down and listen to the teacher doesn't mean they aren't educating the students because if it wasn't the TA doing it then the teacher would be and the kids would have to be doing something that didn't require much supervision (depends on age of kids but that doesn't happen lol).
I was a Special School Support Assistant and on paper it looks like our class was over staffed 1 Teacher, 1 HTLA, 4 SSSA's and 8 kids, however according to the statements we were understaffed and we felt it. We had 6 students who would 'kick off' and it most of the students took at least 2 members of staff or up to 5 to calm them down which meant very few left with the other students. Gove is looking at what it looks like on paper and on paper it does look like there are too many TA's in schools. But behaviour has deteriorated and that isn't due to teaching it is due to society so unless he has plans on changing society then he will have to deal with the amounts of TA's in schools.
There is no life for us apart from the ones we make for ourselves!
So get making!
At no point in my schooling did I have a teaching assistant in the room. In primary my class was large and so was split (with another teacher taking one group) for maths and English, but that's all. My secondary had specialist teachers who were there for those pupils who needed extra/special support.
Maybe the schools need to look at how their teachers are managing their time and what their duties actually consist of.
They spend their time planning lessons, differentiating each lesson plan for assorted special needs, following up on punishments such as detentions, following up on particular children for whatever reason, collecting and probably hauling around eqipment for the next lesson, usually writing some reports for someone and an assorted other things.
When in the classroom they are trying to ensure everyone of the learning styles are covered and that each child with their individual needs understands the tasks, stopping little tim from bouncing off the walls due to his adhd, little janey who is crying because barry said something to her, helping lizzy with her work becuase she has down syndrome, make sure jess's work ia challemging her because she is "gifted"
In 'my day' it was the teacher who had to do all the differentiated planning.. In great written detail, all justified. Times, they changed. And looks like they'll change back.
Yeah....in every class Ive worked with I have never done lesson plans, any teacher that is making a TA do lesson plans is doing the wrong thing!
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
I had TA's/LSW the various names they go by, in college. Without them work would have been a lot more difficult.
They are assets to schools. My friend is a TA and works with challenging children. If it wasn't for her, they'd be worse off.
I don't know what this government is thinking of..
They spend their time planning lessons, differentiating each lesson plan for assorted special needs, following up on punishments such as detentions, following up on particular children for whatever reason, collecting and probably hauling around eqipment for the next lesson, usually writing some reports for someone and an assorted other things.
When in the classroom they are trying to ensure everyone of the learning styles are covered and that each child with their individual needs understands the tasks, stopping little tim from bouncing off the walls due to his adhd, little janey who is crying because barry said something to her, helping lizzy with her work becuase she has down syndrome, make sure jess's work ia challemging her because she is "gifted"
So on and so forth
I know what teachers do, my point was rhetorical, and/or meant to provoke thought. Maybe there needs to be better time-management. If schools could work without TAs less than ten years ago (like mine), what has changed so much that they are now reliant on them? Would smaller class sizes work better, or would the same problems crop up again?
What has changed is that there has been a sharp rise in the amount of children with special educational needs being educated in 'normal' primary schools. If you are a teacher on your own without any help for these children it is very likely that these children would either be overlooked or lessons would overrun.
Lesson planning takes up way more time then it did 10 years ago because of the rise in needing differentiation and hitting targets.
Teachers are also expected to run lunchtime and after school clubs,10 years ago there were a lot less of these clubs and people from outside of schools would run them.
Smaller class sizes wouldnt make much difference because class size wouldnt affect workload apart from maybe a little less marking.Smaller class sizes wouldnt be feasible in England for the most part as now most primary schools are dual intake and still schools are so over subscribed that a huge amount are being built just for the class sizes now.
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
The fact that there is a free dedicated 24:7 telephone counselling service alongside an email life coaching service for teachers shows how things have changed.
