AIBU that there’s one teacher and no TA

[Tunsey]

So went to DS parents evening. Teacher really lovely. DS loves reading but was told that DS reading will not be checked regularly as teacher has no TA. There are 26 children in the class. In previous years DS had one teacher and one/two TA/s. AIBU to think that my DS (and other children) are at a distinct disadvantage because teacher has no TA support. I know there are shortages but IMO that doesn’t make this situation right.

I wouldn't be without my ta, she's amazing and children make fantastic progress with her. Sadly she's being made redundant at the end of term as the school can't afford any TAs.

I had TA's in every single one of my classes in Primary school (90s)

My DS has always had TAs. He's in Y2.

It's a shame they don't, as it can be such help for the Teachers who already have huge amounts of work to do and not enough pay !

I’m secondary. I could cry with gratitude when I get a TA - about 3 out of 20 lessons a week.

Otherwise - despite differentiating the crap out of everything- I know there are students unable to access the ridiculously difficult government imposed curriculum.

It’s shit.

I do completely agree that badly utilised and under supported TAs are a waste of money, but so are badly utilised and under supported teachers.

Firstly I would say Ta’s have done some amazing stuff . One per class throughout primary.

My Ds has Adhd and was very easily distracted , a Ta to get him back on track improved his work but also meant he didn’t distract everyone else.

There are more children with Sen’s in school. Not all including my Ds get funding for TA .

Yes I think for a long time teachers have been coping with cuts now it is actually becoming visible.

I'm a TA in Y4. My teacher has very little time to hear children read individually. I have a little more time, but could only just get though the whole class in a week, so we have to prioritise. The children who are reading at the expected level for Y4 only get heard once a half term. I then have a group I try and hear weekly, and a group I try and hear daily (usually averaging 3 times a week) for various reasons - 3 new arrivals within the last month being just one of the reasons!

However, we do whole class guided reading and can hear everyone read in that every week. Without a TA in the class, they would only be heard in guided reading, and I guess the teacher would have to prioritise the three new arrivals if she had time in assembly or occationally during topic/RE lessons.

My (Junior) school still has a TA in every class. However, they've had to make sacrifices in other areas to be able to afford this - but in the area we're in (high levels of deprivation, lots of parent disengagement so little support at home, very transient population, lots of new EAL arrivals - my year group is 58% EAL, with 9 of those having arrived in the last year with little or no English).

In reception and year 1 we spend a lot of time reading, the expectation by year 2 is that most children will be able to blend well enough that reading at home is enough. We have a TA in every class at my school, year 2 are still not listened to reading regularly because there is so much else the TA's need to do as well as support children who find reading harder, or don't have anyone at home able/willing to listen to them, there just isn't time to hear everyone regularly.

I'm a TA. I do, mainly, interventions with children who have dyslexia.

OP, so long as you're reading with him at home, his reading level doesn't really matter. Make sure you challenge him and he'll be just fine in the long run.

From a purely financial viewpoint, it doesn't really make sense for the tax payer to pay for a TA to listen to a child read, shouldn't the parent be doing that at home? Although of course this isn't the only thing a TA does, and doesn't apply to op. I just think rather than blaming government cuts, some parents should take more responsibility for their dc than they currently do.

It's funding.
Most schools can only afford TAs if a child has an identifier need, e.g. statement. And even then they are required to pay the first £6k of that TAs salary. Therefore having a child with a statement costs the school money.

In my area we get v low funding per child. It doesn't even cover half of the required £6k. We were due to get more through fairer funding but the government pulled the plug on it because they were worried about losing votes . If ypu live in a Tory safe seat outside of London you will have some of the worst funding.
Funding was based on what your council decided to spend when budgets were devolved to councils. They didn't rely change once they were centralised. Labour councils traditionally spent more than conservative councils. This was just adopted as is by central government.
The latest reforms were about distribution. This was shelved the day after brexit and a fudge has been put through. (Funding is likely to get worse after brexit).
The government won't tinker with funding now because why give money to a safe seat if it means taking money away from a marginal seat.

If only the just didn't redistribute but did a proper piece of research about how much it costs to run a school.

Sorry I'll get off my soap box now.

Sorry for the typos!

Schools are funded (broadly) on a certain amount for every pupil. Ergo you have a year 2 class, who need a classroom and furniture and a teacher, but if there's only 26 pupils the school has less money to fund it than a 'full' class of 30. Schools need full capacity of pupils for the most funding, which is where small village schools or those with competitive catchment struggle.

In my school we have part time TAs in all classes. They are marvellous and make a great difference to children's progress.

My TA in particular, has a degree, she reads up on education issues and takes on board new intitatives. Shemakes me a much better teacher. We are a team.

She hears readers in small groups, teaches phonics groups, works with intervention groups and is an amazing asset to the classroom.

It's all very well saying that we coped in the 80s without TAs, but the system was different then in terms of inclusion. Significant numbers of children with additional needs were educated in specialist schools rather than in mainstream education, so the need for learning support for children in mainstream was much lower then.

When inclusion policies in the 90s opened up mainstream schooling to children with additional needs, huge numbers of special schools catering to those children were closed. Schools were assured that the funding would follow the children to ensure that their needs were provided for. To the surprise of absolutely no teachers, that funding is now essentially non-existent, and children with complex additional needs are in mainstream schools with no support.

Schools put in huge amounts of effort to secure funding to support children with disabilities and additional needs (and even when they get it, they have to pay a significant proportion of costs from their SEN budget). With the right level of support these children are able to cope and even make progress. However, if the children do cope and make progress with support, then they are deemed by the LA to not need the support, and the funding is taken away. It's horrific.

TAs (when there is one) don't always teach the lower ones, I'm a TA and we have found it better to get the teacher to teach the lower ones and I teach the higher groups. We also 'team teach' maths especially, by both being at the front and I have been known to take over the class sometimes.

From a purely financial viewpoint, it doesn't really make sense for the tax payer to pay for a TA to listen to a child read, shouldn't the parent be doing that at home?

TAs do more than just listen when they read with children.

Much as it would be lovely to think all parents will one day do the best for their children, a large role of state education is to level the playing field for those children whose parents won’t bother.

TAs make little difference to attainment

What a rubbish starwment!!

DS has one to one time due to dyslexia and can go in small quiet groups to concentrate and learn. If this wasn't available he'd be dusrupting lessons due to lack of focus. That would drop the attainment of the other 32 students

The difference in funding per pupil varies between the best funded and the poorest funded by about £3.5 k per pupil.
Therefore the best funded schools could receive approx £105k per class more. a one form entry school ( and there are still some in London - pimlico) coukd receive £735k more than the equivalent but poorer funded school. Even given deprivation differences, London weighting etc that's still a lot more funding.

The best funded primary in the country has the highest ratio of adults to children and consistently get some of the best results.

We don't have a TA, but we do have a rota for different 2 hour slots where parents can volunteer to come in and read with the kids.
You can also come in and help with arts and crafts, and there are small reading groups elsewhere for the kids who are struggling with reading.

Can you suggest something like this?.

Goodness me, I must be getting old! We had 40 in our class when I was at school and one teacher!

This is not just a current funding issue. There was massive overspending which is now having to be adjusted to account for schools being given money that LAs could not sustain.
TAs are incredibly worthwhile within a classroom although as a pp rightly says, they should not only be deployed to work with the most complex children. Children go to school to be taught by teachers and TAs should not be expected to take the role of teacher to the extent some children never have teacher input.
Reading at home with an interested parent is by far more important than reading for 10 minutes a day with an adult, even if that adult is a teacher. Your input outside of the classroom will make a significantly bigger impact as long as the teaching within the classroom is rigorous and of high quality.

Your children are being disadvantaged. Don’t vote Tory.

My local primary school has the accelerated reader scheme meaning that 30 minutes every day are scheduled in for reading. The class of 30 gets divided up so the teacher & TA (if lucky enough to have one) listen to a child read and then ask questions to check comprehension.

The accelerated reader scheme means that when they finish a book they have to sit a comprehension test on it and if they pass 3 books they move up a level.

We have found that this really helps push children to firstly finish a book and choose books that they wouldn't normally pick. OP just keep listening to your child read, ask questions about characters, what do you think will happen next/why does he feel that way/what would you do in this situation/what do you think this word means/do you think X is a good friend? In later years we ask about sentence structure like embedded clauses.

I volunteer in the primary school. I am a qualified TA but just give my time for free. If all I did was listen to children read my life would be very easy. But I love what I do. Having worked in the school for a few years I am trusted with intervention work, working with small groups or 1 to 1 for maths and literacy. I mark work as they do it or later to help ease the workload of the teacher. I make cups of tea at break time and staff fall over themselves with gratitude.

I think it would be helpful if parents did volunteer into a class. I had to undergo a course first to cover policy such as first aid/safeguarding and DBS checked before starting but I think some parents just think teachers teach. They don't see lesson planning, behaviour management, marking, assessing, differentiated work.

Yes, Woolly. And I bet you didn't have any children with identified additional needs in that class and I'd also bet any of those children with dyslexia would have been written off as stupid and have left primary unable to read adequately.

A retired friend of mine goes into her village school three times a week to listen to children read, chats to them to gauge their comprehension and hopefully inspires them to read more.

She does this on a voluntary basis as the school has no money for a TA in each classroom. She also buys books for the school library as they can't afford to buy many themselves. She's happy to do this but it's shocking that it's a necessity.