To ask if a class should be staffed by teaching assistants

[ladybirdsarelovely33]

So DS is year 2 and his teacher has been away for 4 days. I only found this out. The school told me they had a supply teacher in but when pushed, they (secretary) admitted it was only for one of DS's class lessons. The rest of the cover had been by TAs or by a student teacher. DS told me most of the time wasn't doing formal learning but playing. The supply taught them music.
I do not feel this is acceptable but the head who I can't get hold of isn't as easy fish so I am asking here what is allowable and what I could say to her eventually.

he's year 2 - it's been 4 days - I really couldn't bring myself to fret over that!

If it was a perm arrangement you would have a point but it sounds like temp cover towards the end of the year

I think you have to trust them to spend their money the best way they can. If they pay for supply then that is resources or experiences that the children won't get somewhere else.
Some TA's are more than capable. Some aren't.

A student teacher at this point in the year should be perfectly capable of teaching the class with minimal supervision.

First of all I wouldn’t believe a word your DS is saying. A lot of things kids view as ‘play’ might actually be a structured activity. Secondly why not ask the secretary if the old teacher left a class-plan / schedule. If they have then it’s possible the student teacher is following that.

It should be pointed out that ‘Student teachers’ can sometimes be more qualified in some subjects than the teachers they are replacing. The student teachers at DN’s primary school are nearly all STEM graduates (with industry experience) and are taking post-grads in teaching. They all take it in turns to teach their speciality to my DN’s year and since then I have noticed an improvement in her maths / science / computer knowledge.

At my nephew’s reception class it’s the opposite. The existing teachers are all graduates with post-grads and the student teachers are studying the full teaching course at uni; so they are more experienced when it comes to learning techniques.

Well it's only been four days and they've just done SATS so I wouldn't be too worried. Many TAs are very well qualified and know the kids well so I wouldn't be bothered about them running the class sometimes.

Is it a TA or a HLTA? HLTA's are allowed to teach and a student teacher should be more than capable this time of the year to teach. Would you rather they got in a supply who possibly didn't know the children?

I do not feel this is acceptable but the head who I can't get hold of isn't as easy fish so I am asking here what is allowable and what I could say to her eventually.

I’m afraid you need to get a bit of a grip. The TA could actually be a HLTA, which means they’re trained to take over a class when needed. Whilst it doesn’t work long term, there are plenty of instances where a non-qualified teacher can run a class - someone who works as a cover supervisor for example only really needs a C in Maths/English GCSE to work a job a substitute teacher would do (I think they’re more Secondary School territory though).

You’re going to come across this a lot in your children’s school lives, there’s nothing to ‘bring up’ with the headmaster here.

Ok so DS is very aware of what goes on in class so I do believe him. The teacher is away on an 'emergency' and the school does not know when she will return. So she did not leave a plan.
The TAs who are very nice do not set the children work.
I am pretty disappointed in the school overall (as are most parents in our year group) but we are stuck there.

However I can see the general consensus seems to be to leave it.

Schools can take out insurance for staff absence and nominate when it kicks in. Often 2 weeks. The school has made arrangements from existing staff to save money because the supply teacher’s pay would be on top of the normal teacher’s pay. Some schools have former teachers who come in and do a bit of supply at short notice but others manage from existing staff. It is of course the run in to the end of term and I wouldn’t fret too much at the moment. If it went beyond 2 weeks I would want to see a better solution.

I do think DC know what they are talking about in y2. My DC certainly would have noticed a change from routine. Having said that, they didn’t have toys in y2. So, what does he mean by playing? With what? How? Is it quizzes and fun things? Is it sports day practice?

Are reading books still coming home? Spellings (if that is standard homework)? If not, I would be tempted to ask why not? Are they doing any maths? A bit more probing might help you feel reassured. Hopefully the teacher will be back soon and they will have a lovely end to the term.

Most schools Ive worked in require basic plans to be uploaded to staff drive in advance, for exactly this reason. The cover person can then use the teacher’s plan if they’re ill or whatever.

I don’t agree with TAs, even HLTAs, being used for cover regularly/long term, but sometimes short term they are a better option that a supply. A student teacher is almost certainly better than a supply in this situation - in a month they’ll be qualified and in September teaching their own class.

Problem is, at this time of year it is likely there is NO spare money. A supply will cost the school upwards of £200 per day. It is likely the school doesn’t have a grand lying around. You can thank government cuts for that!

School budgets start from 1 April. There is always money now!!! Allocated to the supply teacher budget. Far less in February and March if you have spent it earlier in the Financial Year.

I would have loved it if my son had done 4 days of music in year 2!

Way too much testing and English and Maths these days.

Unless the funding crisis is resolved your child will frequently be taught by TAs, supply teachers etc during their school life and there's little you can do about it.

In my experience the best 'teachers' in Primary are the ones who engage with the children well, earn their respect, clearly have a vocation and make learning fun as well as challenging. Whether that's the teacher with 30 years experience or the TAs and a parent helper doesn't bother me one bit.

And while I agree that in the main it's better if the teacher knows the class, both my kids have had supply teachers here and there who have been absolutely brilliant.

School budgets start from 1 April. There is always money now!!!

That money needs to last. It would be poor practice to chuck money at a low priority now and then have nothing later in the year.

Most schools with funding issues want to avoid supply teachers like the plague! That’s a hugely expensive model. Using HTLAs is cheaper. Having full classes of 30 ensures maximum income and also using HTLAs judiciously helps the well being of staff. Some sickness is inevitable but long term sickness is very difficult to cover. Budgets rarely have much to do with sickness in staff. Where I am a governor we have a non timetabled member of staff who covers every time a member of staff isn’t there for whatever reason.

What are the other problems with the school? Perhaps they're colouring your response to this. At DC's school I'd be fine with the TA's taking the class sometimes - especially at the end of the year. I'd be more than happy for them to do some less formal learning too. If she's going to be away indefinitely obviously there should be a plan in place to cover her absence with someone who is qualified to take the lesson.

I suspect this is a budget issue, like others have said. The sad fact is it comes down to doing what is cheapest rather than best practice.

In our school there would absolutely be a substitute teacher brought in, but it’s fee paying so slightly more money in the pot to play with. I would not be happy in your situation OP but until more money is given to schools I guess this will remain a common issue.

I am not saying you check money at everything now. Having had 30 years experience of school budgets I was merely correcting the notion that budgets were £0 in June. I explained about insurance and of course schools take a view on when and how they spend the supply budget. However right now, the supply budget won’t be £0.

Best practice is rarely to get a supply teacher in for week 1 of absence. The existing staff can often cover and a supply teacher who doesn’t know the names of the children isn’t best practice. If the HTLA and student teacher have the lesson plans then they can teach. This is best practice. It’s also the summer term after Sats.

It’s incredibly common because there is literally no money. None. No money!

It can be a serious issue or it can be the best thing and really depends on the individual staff. I don’t think it’s very fair on the TAs, even with the HLTA uplift they are (hopefully!) getting.
My advice, either donate £160 a day towards supply or give the TA a box of chocolates.

How do you know the teacher didn't leave a plan? I can't imagine anyone at school telling you that, even if it were true. The medium term plan would usually have been done for the term, most schools have them stored electronically so any cover can pick them up easily. It would have been done well ahead of this emergency leave.

Getting a good supply teacher is not easy. I'd far rather have suitably experienced TA or student teacher who knows the children than many of the qualified supply teachers agencies send.

The student will be "the" teacher for a class somewhere in 4 weeks time. A yr2 class is really not going to suffer for that, they'll probably be better off having a new enthusiastic teacher, especially if the teacher has been struggling with something that is the reason for her absence.

I also agree with PP that even with all the money in the world it's much better to have experienced student teachers of TAs who know the class and are invested in the school than to have a short term supply teacher who doesn't know the kids. Obviously things change if the absence becomes more long term.

At his age and at this time of year I really couldn't get worked up over this.

A student teacher should be more than capable of teaching the class at this stage, they probably were doing so about 80% of the time anyway. I'd be less happy if it was TAs only for a longer period of time but I'd wait a bit before talking to the head if that becomes the case.

I'm not sure how advanced your 7yo is but it seems highly unlikely that he'd understand the educational purpose behind all the "play". It could just be that the stand ins have got him better engaged so he's having more fun while he's learning. IME a lot of schools are starting to move toward end of term activities now anyway, especially if the end of year testing is done.

When DD was year 3 the head went on long term sick. Deputy head stepped up and left DD's class fully staffed with a TA. It was about a month before we twigged there was no actual teacher for 90% of the time, finally getting confirmation from the school after I caught DD sneaking a book into her bag to read in class because in her words she was 'bored'.
In her case it wasn't working. I had a few other issues anyway so that was final straw and I pulled her out. The next Ofstead inspection there was woeful so it seemed to confirm my decision.

Keep an eye on things for now.