Staffing crisis in schools - teachers/school staff, what's your school like?

[noblegiraffe]

Discussions with fellow teachers about the current crisis in school staffing has raised the issue of whether parents know how bad it is. I guess they won't know if we don't tell them?

My school - struggling to recruit teachers. There are subjects at A-level where students are currently teaching themselves, and with no prospect of a teacher on the horizon. Last year we had similar issues, pupils went into exams not fully prepared, and coursework was a huge problem. At GCSE where we couldn't recruit, there was a teacher in front of the class, but not qualified in that subject and pupils complained about the syllabus not being taught.

TA provision has been cut to the bone. There is only in class support if a child has an EHCP, this support is then spread to other children who need help. Due to backlogs with EHCP applications, and applications routinely being rejected (the assumption is automatic rejection, then appeal) some very needy children get no additional help in class. In addition, we have bigger classes due to leaving teachers not being replaced, so teachers are spread even more thinly.

There are huge concerns about teacher recruitment for next year as the number of trainees on local PGCE courses has collapsed.

And I know my school is in a relatively good position compared to others.

So, it's OK for TAs to deal with poor behaviour then. Just beneath a teacher?

You do realise TAs are also leaving?? They can work in Tescos for better pay, les stress, less fulfilment perhaps but fewer responsibilities.

You's have to hire more TAs for this cunning plan to work! And would presumably pay for these zapped in lessons?

I need to see your costings.

But, yeah, if I could just sit at home and not worry about any of the kids, whether they were behaving, understanding, passing exams etc, never have to deal with parents,no meetings or marking (not clear on that bit of the masterplan?) and just take the pay cheque --- where do I sign?

If they won't sit there and use the online resources then they will just have to leave the class and be dealt with just like disruptive kids are now.
What about if they can't access the online resources...would they get their own TA?
Oh and those disruptive kids who are having to leave the class, where are they going? Who is supervising them?

But we would be able to pay TAs more if we did not have to pay qualified teachers.

You're talking about cover supervisors. These things already exist.

More TAs hazey! They are EVERYWHERE...

HazeyjaneIII Yes, and what if a child doesn't understand something in the pre-recorded lesson? Is the £10 an hour TA supposed to be a specialist in every subject so they can explain? Not to mention the recent press reports that TAs are leaving en masse too.

But if all the kids are learning at their own pace with online resources (with headphones on), the disruptive students won't be disrupting the class.
Tell me you've never been in a lesson in a computer room without telling me you've never been in a lesson in a computer room.

I haven't had time to read the whole thread but I'd like to confirm that things are less than adequate in my primary school too. Last year we had to make TA and teacher redundancies and now have large classes with little SEN support.

I don’t think it’s that more children have SEN, it’s that it’s recognised and diagnosed better now.

I think this is true but at a EYFS and KS1 level the increasing need is quite scary. In our state primary (not SEN school) We have had to set up a special SEN class because we have so many children coming through with complex needs and no additional support. They could not cope within a normal classroom setting. Unfortunately this costs the school money that it doesn't have; so money has to be diverted from other areas. Hence we have large classes, few TAs and can't order essential resources.

Do you really think that kids sitting behind computer screens everywhere is

a) good for them physically?
b) makes them automatically behave
c) is the optimal way to learn

Really??

You haven't been inside a school yourself since the 80s.

Come and examine our average school's computer facilities and you will see the flaws.

Anyway, this won't solve a funding crisis. This sounds prohibitively expensive.

But if all the kids are learning at their own pace with online resources (with headphones on), the disruptive students won't be disrupting the class.

Learning on what? Let me guess, the school has saved enough on hiring TAs instead of qualified teachers that it is able to afford massive banks of computers?

...just to say, TA recruitment isn't exactly through the roof now, and it seems to me that the Great Remote Learning Scheme would need an awful lot more to cope with all the roaming disruptive kids, the fact that children are going to need different presentations depending on how they access the curriculum and all the... 'miss, my headphones don't work'.

And don't get me started on the non-existent "catch up money".

I don't know is a recurring phrase in your posts rainbows. Reflect a bit on that.

Are you Liz Truss? Sam Freedman said whilst in the DfE she had madcap , totally unworkable ideas.

How does learning at their own pace work for exam year students?

So, now we need to purchase new office furniture!! Honestly , it gets better!!

If not Truss, are you trialling a plot for a new dystopian sci fi perhaps?

I am looking forward to the bit where the zombified teens rise up against their TA overlords.

Yes, I don't understand why more people aren't bothered that their kids went through a pandemic, schools were closed, and the government has not put in any extra funding to support them in mental or physical health recovery, and the educational catch-up plan got outsourced to a Danish HR company because it was cheapest, which ended in disaster.

Kids went through a pandemic and schools are in a worse state than ever.

What happens to the teachers who don't want to leave the profession??

You really how no idea how hard it is to get a child to leave a school. We need to PEX several for the safety of the others: it's simply not that easy.
There is nowhere else for them to go and, in any case, they deserve an education.

Of course it would take a lot of initial investment, but it is much cheaper than paying teachers' salaries and their final salary pensions in the long run.

You're suggesting that abandoning children who can't learn effectively by accessing online videos to no education will be cheaper for the country in the long run?

Are you sure?

Right, now that it has been effectively shown that teachers cannot be easily replaced by a video, we should probably start thinking about investing in schools and a properly qualified teaching workforce.