Opinions Please

[treas]

This morning I went to the early bird swim session at the local pool.

On completing my 2 mile swim, [hark at her], pupils from my dd's school were sat on the side waiting for the start of their lesson. These were children from my dd's yr but not her class - she will swim in January

The pupils were v. v. well behaved when suddenly there was a buzz of chatter as the message "Miss is getting in" passed around the group and I turned to see a woman in her swimming costume walking down the side. She then told the group "No I'm not!"

Anyway! Once I had finished changing I had to go back on poolside to get my googles and saw "Miss" swimming lengths while the children were taught by the hired swimming teachers.

AIBU to think that "Miss" who was in charge of the class should not have been having a freebie swim and should have been keeping an eye on the children in a behaviour rather than swimming teaching capacity?

So really I'd like to know:

1/ How would you feel if your child had been in this lesson?

2/ If IANBU should I raise the issue with the school?

Lol @ Maryz - 'you sound like a pompous arse'!!

Maryz - could you just help me out a little by finding the quotes where I 'repeatedly' said 'I know I am right', 'as a teacher I am right', 'everyone else is wrong and doesn't know what they are talking about '...because all I can find are:
'that's fine and of course your opinion'
'IME' (in other words not a universal phenomenon)
'I wouldn't deny that in your LA teachers do not go with the children'
Oh and I have also stated some documented facts about the teaching profession which are simply that - just facts about contracts which we can't get away from.

HTH

I think I can help you out there ken...

"And apart from health and safety...this is a PE lesson and the teacher should be watching and recording notes in order to be able to assess the progress of the children!! How on earth can proper feedback be given to parents either verbally or in school reports if the teacher hasn't bothered to watch the swimming lessons?^

"I have certainly never 'sat in the spectator area reading a book and having a coffee'!"

"It's no different to walking out of school in the middle of the day and heading off to McD's for a quick burger."

"Well you might not agree bruffin but unfortunately you are not able to deny that within the LA I work in it is not the case that teachers stay behind at school"

"Obviously the health and safety guidelines and the risk assessment that absolutely should be in place for every school trip off-site, swimming pool or otherwise, are completely passing some posters by. Incidentally I only ever post on threads where I feel I have adequate knowledge to contribute. But you can of course ignore the opinions of a long qualified and very experienced teacher!

(All my italics)

I don't know about the 'arse' bit, but that definitely sounds pompous to me.

How many members of staff from the school were also present.
The TA CAnnot be the only member of staff there.
So it doesn't really matter what she was doing because there would be other staff from the school to monitor the students.
Maybe the staff take it in turns to have a swim.

ihearsounds - actually she was the only member of school staff staff their.

The other swimming teachers are brought in from outside the school - therefore, the TA is the school's only representive.

Bollocks - representative

Just to add to the debate - our local school employs people solely to escort DCs when travelling between off-site destinations and school, and they are not required or paid to supervise the DCs while at the off-site location.

Swimming lessons is a classic example of when this happens - the DCs are escorted by the paid escort to walk there, the escort then leaves, returning to escort the DCs back to school an hour later.

So, perhaps 'Miss' was swimming in her own time?

Treas, do you KNOW that? Could it be possible that another member if school staff had popped to the loo? Or was talking to the sports centre manager? Or had stepped outside to take a phone call? I would be surprised if only one member of staff had gone on the bus- I teach secondary and we have to have more than one. AFAIK, the accepted ratio is 1:10 for that age group. We have to have 1:15 for KS3 kids, 1:20 for KS4/5.

Then perhaps that is a problem, treas, because:

• Only a level 3 TA is allowed to be in charge of children without supervision (and most schools don't have many level 3 TAs any more).
• Teachers and management staff, not TAs, are responsible for doing risk assessments.
• Pupil:staff ratios vary according to activity and LA, but I have never come across one that accepts fewer than 2 adults with any group on a trip outside school.
• Many schools are varying and reducing the contracts of TAs, so that they are not contracted or paid for breaks or for non-contact time. It is perfectly possible that she is only being paid to supervise the kids to the poolside, or even just to the building.

So if you really feel YANBU to talk to the head teacher about staff supervision at the pool, I think you should take your focus off this individual incident and TA, and ask some questions about the more general issues.

How many students were at the group?

Also, if say there was a serious accident that required student to go hospital, there would be serious problems. How could she represent the school and go hospital with the student leaving the rest of the group unattended? So the real problem is not about her swimming, but about the wrong ratio for visits outside the school.

My point too ihear... :)

Thank you for making my points again for me flow - I couldn't have put it better myself! .

Still haven't quite managed to find the quotes attributed to me by Maryz though have you?

Anyway - life is too short to be embroiled in this debate any longer. My final thought is that despite needing some exercise, I certainly won't be having a quick dip during swimming lessons this week as without a doubt my HT would suspend me.

Treas - good luck with finding some answers if that is what you decide to do

It's good to hear you are so clear about the terms and conditions of your employment, ken. It's more than likely that this TA is too. :)

Sorry - I've missed the bit where the OP confirmed this was definitely a TA

I thought that it was an adult the OP didn't know who the DCs referred to as Miss, and who was partly fulfilling a role previously carried out by a TA that the OP knows.