HLTA covering two whole days every week?

[SuperSange]

Hi all; I've just found out that a HLTA in my daughters school is taking the class for two whole days a week. (Y3) we were told at the induction meeting that she was full time, but she has a full day PPA and another day for 'study', perhaps for an additional qualification, I do t know. I didn't know PPA was a full day, and surely they shouldn't have the TA for two full days? I'm minded to ask the school, but I'm not sure how to approach it with the head. Is it a common state of affairs, or is it worth asking?

Where are you going to get these specialist teachers from? I don’t know about the other subjects, but the standard number of applicants for a science vacancy is zero

In my previous school we were so short of science teachers that it was standard practice to lay out exam tables in the hall, put the whole of year 11 in there (approx 6 classes doing two different courses, each at 2 different levels) and throw in 2-3 science teachers and a caretaker who effectively functioned as a bouncer

we could only dream of having a TA available to leave one of the classes with 😂

Our local schools can’t get decent applicants for TAs, MTAs, Admin, caretakers etc. People used to be queuing up for these jobs, not any more

Is this secondary or primary? Primary here has people queuing but secondary doesn't. They have readvertised a term time admin job 4 times now with no suitable applicants each round. They might have to start paying a wage that reflects the work rather than rely on the fact many people seek term time work to fit around their children and have historically settled for crap pay.

@Artwodeetoo both. Problem is school budgets don’t allow for higher salaries

Yes i know, it's very much a government problem not a school level issue.

I would definitely be asking the school what they are doing to ensure your child is taught by a qualified teacher.

I assume the HLTA is deemed to be covering PPA etc not being treated as a job share, so the class is being taught by a qualified teacher

It’s not being taught by a qualified teacher though is it, for 40% of the week.

I know, but I assume the school's argument will be that the HLTA is covering for the teacher. I bet they are not doing it for shits and giggles, it probably is the only way round budget constraints

That doesn’t make it acceptable though.

Parents should be complaining. If the school says that they have tried desperately to hire a 0.4 teacher (they may not have bothered and could do with a reminder that an HLTA is not supposed to be long term cover) but couldn’t find one, then kick off at your MP.

Political parties currently don’t have education as a priority because they think the public don’t give a shit about it. On current evidence, they don’t.

I'm not saying it is acceptable @noblegiraffe, but a lot in education is not acceptable at the moment, and most of that is not down to the staff or schools. As you say parents need to be complaining higher up

I know, but the parent in the OP was asking whether it was something that should be queried. Yes!

Drives me mad how many parents will come on here and say ‘oh yes this is fine’ instead of fighting for better provision for their kids.

Schools and teachers aren’t allowed to kick off about the terrible state of education, parents need to step up.

@12Thorns You get those subject specialists by making teaching an attractive career. Yes, it's not going to happen with our current government, as they won't provide the funding necessary to make it attractive. But it's what we need to do if we actually want to improve our education system.

@SuperSange The salaries and respective workloads aren't my concern; that's on the head, not me.
And sadly this is the all too common view which means that government after government can underfund education and give our children a poorer start in life than they deserve.

Of course the way the schools resource is organised is the heads responsibility? That they are hugely underfunded is the government's responsibility. Not the school. I'm not responsible for any of it, other than how I vote. Which is not Tory. So what do you suggest I do? I've contacted my MP, who's a Tory so probably couldn't give a shit.

So come on-what's your suggestion @Philandbill ?

I think the OP's point is that it isn't her job to worry about that. As a parent we want and expect a qualified level of teaching within schools.

Not that I want to speak for anyone else, but I think it was worth pointing out that the salary and workload of the teachers in your school isn't really down to the Headteacher. They have very little control over salaries, and budgets often limit the salary increases that they do have control over. Workload is very much tied into those budget restraints, when everyone is asked to do more with less, workload increases. Yes there are some school policy changes that could help, but even in the schools with good policies that try to consider work-life balance, there are some unavoidable pressures, things can only be reduced by the government. It's a common ploy of the Tories to try and blame others, to state that if only the public sector was more efficient, if only it was run better by managers etc, that the funding that is provided would be more than sufficient. It wouldn't. So maybe you don't vote Tory, but some people reading this thread will do, and it's worth pointing out that the responsibility for the failure of our education system lies squarely with this government. We can't recruit and retain enough teachers because of choices made by this government. It's not within The gift of one Headteacher to fix that, school leaders are trying their best in very challenging circumstances. They are not listened to when they point out the issues and suggest improvements, if anything the government just keep on making things worse. The DfE's response to Covid being a case in point.

@Harridan1981 then there's a disconnect between what people want and expect, and how they vote. If the British public want decent pubic services, they need to vote for parties who prioritise that. If the British public want and expect schools fully staffed with qualified teachers, why do they vote for a party that underfunds schools? Why not demand that it's mandatory that teachers are qualified? Unless you haven't noticed, the Tories solution to this problem has been to remove that regulation. When we went to school, schools were 100% staffed by qualified teachers, as that was the regulation. Then the mass expansion of Academies, which is a key Tory policy, did away with that as Academies can employ unqualified teachers. If qualified teachers are a priority for parents, that's completely at odds with government policy. The Tories don't want schools full of qualified teachers, they want schools staffed with cheap workers who will teach from a standard, MAT provided PowerPoint. It doesn't matter if they have any actual teaching skills, they're not interested in attracting high quality people through pay and conditions. Some MATs even exclude qualified teachers in the job advert, they advertise positions on the unqualified teacher pay scale, so that's all they get applying. As long as the applicants are cheap and willing to stand infront of 30 students for an hour, delivering the mandated material, then it's all gravy according to the government. The problem is, we can't even recruit on that basis at the moment!

I guess the question is, why are parents surprised that schools are increasingly staffed with unqualified teachers, when it's been government policy for over a decade? In my experience schools don't like to admit they use unqualified people to teach regularly, but maybe if they did, parents would be more aware, would vote differently, and we'd all be better off.

@Janie576 thank you for answering so eloquently. I agree with all that you have written.

No probs, sorry it was a bit of an essay!