to want to know what parents can do about the teaching crisis?!

[BrightRedSharpie]

I'm in Scotland, btw, but I know there is a similar problem in England.

My DD's school is really understaffed. The P1 teachers have both been off all week, which has caused absolute havoc. They have had different teachers for mornings and afternoons because there are also no supply teachers available. P7 had to be split up for a teacher to come and take the little ones.

2 classroom assistants are also off on maternity leave, which either isn't or can't be covered. That's left 3 classroom assistants for around 300 children.

I know the school are doing their best. I've written to my MP and MSP. Is there anything else a concerned parent can actually do?

But how does being evasive, concerning the progression of an individual child's needs, in order to cling onto their individualised funding, benefit the rest of the class?

The ones, who in the short term, might benefit from resource assigned through another child's individualised funding, are having their additional needs met through borrowed funding. If their needs are significant enough to require individualised funding through a Statement or ECHP, this is what needs to be acquired, in order to ensure their needs are met in the future.

If a significant enough portion of the nominal budgets are not used for meeting the additional needs of pupils without individualised Higher Needs funding through an ECHP or Statement, because the resource is instead being borrowed from other pupil's individualised funding, then funds the contained in nominal budgets are diverted elsewhere. In order to ensure a significant portion of the funds, contained in a school's nominal budgets, is put aside to cater for additional needs then using pupils' individualised funding, for anything other than to benefit them, needs to stop.

It is fine to be responsive, in the presence of progressing and developing needs, but this should be done 'by the book', that is discussed amongst all the stakeholders, including parents and detailed in the reports. Otherwise the perception of a child's additional needs is distorted and consistency in approach goes 'out of the window'.

So, as I have pointed out in this and earlier posts, being anything else than completely transparent, regarding how a child's individualised funding has been spent, benefits neither that individual child or the rest of a class. Integrity, honesty and transparency, in this respect, is not only required by law but it is the only way to do right by all the children in a school.

With the greatest respect, capsium, you have derailed this thread. You clearly have a major issue with your child's school and I think I've seen you post about that on here before. But this thread was supposed to be about supporting teachers and I don't think your situation is relevant to that.

The thing is that if you talk to teachers, the main reason for wanting to leave has little to do with the parents, and nothing at all to do with the students - the issue is poor working conditions and micro-management by weak/ incompetent managers.

I don't know a single teacher (and I know lots) who wants to stay in their job long term. Many would leave immediately if it were financially feasible.

Many would leave immediately if it were financially feasible.

Absolutely.

clam as I posted earlier, this thread was derailed from the first page, when it became about how parents don't support teachers instead of what parents can do in order to support teachers. I initially posted in response to these comments, in order to provide an explanation as to why parents are often forced to behave in a way that is not perceived as being supportive of teachers.

Regarding support, there needs to be an understanding of the exact nature of what is problematic within education, in order to understand how best to support teachers in their role. So at the very least, I think my posts have given some insight into this.

I don't agree that it was already derailed, as an understanding of how some parents don't support teachers is a starting point for dealing with it. I expect some have no idea how their actions might be undermining an already precarious situation.
Your situation is very detailed and very specific and therefore taking us away from what could have been a very useful thread.

clam so you are saying my comments do not provide any insight into the motivations behind those parents' actions which are perceived as unsupportive? Because my situation is too specific?

And yet, posters on this thread have attempted to defend the kind of action taken by teaching staff and schools, they have said they take these kind of actions themselves. This suggests there is, at the very least, huge potential for the problematic situation I experienced with my child's education to be perpetuated. This thread is full of similar experience experiences:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/1862438-Teachers-do-not-adhere-to-Statemented-1-to-1-support-do-not-believe-in-sub-levels-make-APP-assessments-up-How-much-of-what-parents-are-told-by-schools-about-teaching-is-a-box-ticking-exercise

There are many similar experiences detailed on the SN boards. Sadly, my experiences are representative of many parents whose children have had some additional needs.

If nothing is done to prevent these type of negative experiences of education it means more parents' actions towards teachers being perceived as 'unsupportive'. Don't get me wrong, I believe in remaining professional and polite when dealing with schools and their staff, however I would stop short at voicing support for actions which are detrimental to my child and essentially illegal.

I don't know if I am one of the derailing parents being referred to

The direction this thread has taken illustrates my point perfectly. It has been largely derailed by a few posters whose children are more important than anyone or anything else.

I really don't think my child is more important than anyone else, I have 3 children at 2 different school, I volunteer when I can, I make sure homework is done, homework diaries are filled in, my children are polite, work hard and are kind (honestly!)

...but.....the situation I described about ds, is something that has meant I have had to be that parent. He has an EHCP that states exactly what must be provided by whoever is his TA and that has not been fulfilled, and that has been detrimental to his health and his learning.

Capsium's particular situation, may be specific to her child, but it is not a unique situation to see the resources specified for a child being used for other children, to the detriment of the child that they are intended for (there is a thread at the moment about just such a situation happening with a child's calm room)

I'm sure Capsi that illegal actions on behalf of staff are very, very uncommon.

If however you would call what I described up thread as illegal then....

However in practice in a classroom situation it may work for the child not get one to one all the time and that is down to the teacher's professional decision. It is the teacher's decision to decide on needs as and when, as long as the resource is provided to the child when they need it and it continues to have a positive impact.

Yes, but 10 -15 minutes of the TA working with someone else who is struggling when the student who has the provision is clearly getting on by themselves quite well is fine.

lurked these actions are not illegal in themselves per se, however they have potential to be illegal. If at the Statement or ECHP documentation reviews any change in need and subsequent provision, has not been noted, this would be questionable legally - as the provision that is laid out in the Statement/ ECHP would be claimed but would not have being provided. If the TA's attention ceases to be given to a child they have been assigned to work with, on a 1 to 1 basis, through a Statement/ECHP, as the first priority, this would be questionable legally.

As I said, derailing the thread!

clam if talking about actions, taken by parents, which are unsupportive to teachers is relevant, as you claim, then explaining the reasoning behind some of these actions is relevant. This needs to be done in order to analyse how to prevent the necessity in taking them.

Of course you can dismiss everything I say but in doing this, the type of situation, I described, necessitating these resulting 'unsupportive actions' from parents, will be perpetuated.

Take them out of state schools and go back to full time work and fund school fees. 500,000 of us put the nation first by not wasting a state school place. Many others could with a bit of sacrifice of holidays, lifestyle. If 500,000 more children left the state system there would be less pressure on it.

Take who out of state schools?

all the children I think??

Of course that is the answer. No children would make for a very easy days teaching!

The same principle could apply to hospitals (just imagine nurses and drs - no patients to mess up your day!)

Capsium
It is also worth considering why these situations are happening in classrooms. Why are resources allocated to a particular child age being used to provide TA support for other children?

This is happening because of situations like the OP has described, a lack of teachers, support staff and problems getting cover for sickness etc. It is not always teachers taking advantage of an extra pair of hands but more of a needs must situation due to lack of resources. It's not right at all but as more teachers leave I fear there will be a lot more if this.

FarAway when my DC was small, just started Primary, I felt pressurised into volunteering a lot. This wasn't so much 'giving back' because we hadn't received much of anything at that point - my DC was only offered part time schooling even though there was a newly employed fully funded full time TA provided through my DC's Statement, in addition to the class TA and teacher.

I did volunteer regularly but the need to was not that always apparent. What was apparent was that parents were persuaded to volunteer, rather than the school do proper detailed risk assessments, so children with additional needs could be truly included and catered for. It seemed the school was a bottomless pit for resource, at the time.

This level of resource may not be present now. This was some years ago.However this is what can happen when resources are plentiful.

I'm not saying the school was all bad either, my DC had some fantastic teachers, and learning experiences. My point is more about abundant funding not being everything. I think some of those initial teachers had gone into teaching when additional needs were not something they expected to have to deal with. There weren't so many assessments or targets, in the past, either, so the children had a bit more leeway to mature and learn at their own pace.

It is not an entirely sad story, my DC progressed and is happily doing well. However it was a very difficult set of circumstances to deal with, on top of the impact of the additional needs of my DC, at the time. When I hear parents criticised for merely questioning a teacher's actions I cannot help but remember how difficult having to do this was.

Capsium
It sounds like there was some poor leadership at your DCs school but I'm glad that your DC has progressed and is doing well.

In todays classrooms teachers are expected to do more with less, kids are data fodder expected to follow a certain line on a graph. Teachers are now results focused and data driven with little room for anything else but remember this is not their choice.

Well, children were 'data fodder' when my DC started school, although resources were less stretched. I think the fear of this certainly did increase some of the school's staff's fear of additional needs in general and in particular the additional needs of my child. My child's needs were not even that severe, but the LA had effectively reduced the entry requirements for a Statement by reducing the AWPU funding because so many schools were applying for Statements. Having worked with children in more deprived inner city areas, myself, I have to be honest, it seemed like a lot of 'pearl clutching' to me.

I can see why, though, when professional practise has been severely lacking, there is a temptation to increase accountability with more data and targets. Funds are finite, there is no room for the 'wastage' that happened years ago.

I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand the problems in our education system.

"Many others could with a bit of sacrifice of holidays, lifestyle."

'when professional practise has been severely lacking, there is a temptation to increase accountability with more data and targets.'

Really? I could equally say that when parental responsibility is lacking, we are receiving cohort after cohort who lack basic skills that the majority possessed 25 years ago, and that having to cover areas that were previously taught by parents is putting pressure on the time available to teach other things.
Why do governments continuously change the criteria, the levels, the expectations from one year to the next? There is no time for material to be embedded in schools or the curriculum before it is superseded by the next new initiative.
Accountability was brought in across the board, and it was a one-size must fit all demand. Then when the little sausages managed to perform within expected parameters, they were changed, and again and again.
But what will happen to all the odd little sausages? The quirky, the under-performing, the also-rans? Those that don't sit on the C/D boundary but are way below?
Resits? Special classes to catch up? Who will be left to teach them if pay and promotion are linked to results and some children never make it to a C in the Brave New World being carved out?

Many private schools have entry requirements, and with all the money in the world, a number of children won't pass. My siblings and I all had to take several exams to get into our schools.
Private schools also love their small classes and freedom from Government control. If the majority in State opt out, those classes will soar in numbers.

Capsi u had sympathy with you until you started in about professional practice being lacking. Not even school will be in the situation yours was in, stop viewing he world through this prism and give the teachers a break. You are in danger of being that parent

Capsium you are not derailing anything your experience is very relevant.

I said 500,000 more out of state schools, not all children and there are huge numbers of private schools which take children who aren't bright. Every urban area has academic privates and then private schools for those who are not at all bright so there would be no problem in gaining entry. if all those mothers went back to full time work too then we would be generating a lot more tax too so it would be win win all round and the 500,000 lucky winners would benefit from their mother's choice to work as well. Then state schools would have another 500,000 fewer to teach so small classes alll round too.