To think that five year olds should not be used as TAs

[ReallyTired]

When children work quickly the teacher gets her to help the other children. One of the children that dd has been helping had a statement for a full time one to one. There are two TAs in the classroom so there should be enough adults to help the class. Even a very able five year old has insufficient numeracy and literacy skills to make an effective TA. They might teach the concept incorrectly. Dd's spelling is still very phonics based.

I feel the teacher should have extention work for children who finish early. Children who need additional help should have the right to help from someone who has completed their education and is over 18!

What sort of help, exactly?

While I agree that there should be extension work for the more able there is also a huge benefit to helping others and not just to the person being helped.

It makes you think about the technique you are using a lot more.

It is a method I used when I taught judo

She should have extension work.

Ds has had lots of help from his classmates and it's nothing out of that the child knowledge.

I think it's done great for Ds and the other child likes to do it.

A child I know at school is occasionally asked to "help" other children when they finish work early. It can help with self-esteem, social skills and keeping them occupied if they're prone to disruptive behaviour, rather than being used as a TA. The child in question has some very specific needs but is astoundingly bright, so for them it really helps with communication and understanding of others.

I know on a personal level that my 9 year old loves feeling that he's helping his 4 year old brother. It can be rewarding for children to feel that they've something to offer others.

It's a common teaching technique. Fab for self esteem, brilliant for making sure concepts are ingrained( in the child who is helping) and children often love to do it.
Nothing to do with staffing issues!

If a child had flown through the work and got it all right then surely further reinforcement us not necessary. If a child is used a TA on a regular basis then surely that is a sign of insufficient planning.

My daughter loves working with the other children. I am sure it improves her communication skills, but I don't see how it helps her maths. I think that mixed ablity planned group work is an excellent idea. That is very different to using a child as a TA because they have run out of work.

You are over thinking.

You need to lose the "using a child as a TA" thing.

Why don't you go in and discuss it with the teacher?

Yanbu

Shame your dd and others with the same ability can't get stretched even further within their capabilities.

No, children should not be used as TAs.

However. Peer support and peer marking is an incredibly valuable technique that helps both children.

Happened to me loads as a child, as where I grew up, there wasn't much concept of extension work (you did the work for your year, and passed the year or not).

I was quite far ahead, and one of my earliest memories of school is other children coming up to me and asking me to read things to them. In maths I was often sent to practice number bonds or times tables, or to correct work. I read out spelling lists. None of it was things that I was at all unsure about myself, and didn't need to consolidate or understand it better by explaining it to someone else.

I think it taught me patience, and to see how others might struggle with some things, and I enjoyed it on the whole, as I was a very adult-pleasing sort of child.

Socially, it was a bit of a disaster, as I didn't have normal relationships with peers as a result. I was seen as a bit of an 'older sister' - well enough liked, but on a different level than others in the class. I was treated as being a bit apart - someone that they would go to for help, advice, praise, etc, rather than someone who would have an equal and reciprocal friendship, somehow. I didn't really learn how to have that sort of friendship as a result, and it affected me throughout my school days.

Beyond middle school, when we were in different classes for different subjects, and this wasn't something that happened in the same way any more, I still enjoyed it and took part in an organised peer tutoring program; I also enjoyed working with younger children. I very much took on board the idea that that was my role. By high school, I'd sort of fallen into a stereotypical caretaking/teaching viewpoint, and assumed that is what I should want to do with my life. Sometimes I wish I had been encouraged to extend my own academic skills more at an early age, before I had lost confidence/learned to assume other roles. I also wish that I had had more chance to just be an ordinary child in the primary classroom, without the others seeing me as somehow different/older/other.

Mostly I preferred it when I was just allowed to read if I finished early. Or got to do filing or cutting out displays.

So I think it's a mixed blessing - can be some positives from it, when it's done well and it's clear that it is benefiting both parties, but there are also some notable disadvantages that are frequently overlooked because they are so subtle.

I don't think you know what a TA actually does...

I wouldn't say she is being used a ta.

Surely being encouraged to help others is something you would want?

At secondary I was often paired with sn/struggling children as I sailed ahead academically.

I would just say that it needs to be done in the context of also providing work of a correct level to your dd.

You can tell half term is nearly over can't you?

Massively over thinking this op.

And as a person who is a qualified higher level TA your post is a bit patronising really.

You may not rate TAs but a 5 year old, even a really able one, couldn't quite do the job.

Helping others, teaching things to people less able than you etc. are all great skills to learn, and a lot more valuable than most other stuff.

YABU.

YABU

It is a good way of consolidating learning.

Quite honestly given the complaints the OP has about education I don't know why she doesn't home educate or train to work in the field herself

and FFS she is not being used as a TA.They are trying to occupy her productively and recognise her achievement in the area. Why is that a bad thing?

I think the problem is that there are two distinct situations:

• child wasn't already secure on material, but finished fast: explaining to someone else likely to be useful consolidation;
• child finished fast because material was too easy, having been mastered before: explaining to someone else likely to be adding insult to injury.

I'm sure the best teachers are well aware of both possibilities. I can't help noticing that the children to whom this is done are overwhelmingly (though not exclusively) girls. This is of a piece with encouraging perfectionism in girls while only really challenging boys, which is a real problem.