....to think my daughter's class has a right to a qualified teacher?

[pokemeinthemorning]

So we had a message tonight on the system to explain what is happening in my daughter's year 5 class. Apparently, their teacher will now be teaching another class because one teacher left two weeks ago and they have said they have 'dispensed of any supply staff'. Basically the TA will be teaching the class for the foreseeable future.
I know there are many dedicated and wonderful TA's who could make great teachers BUT we are not qualified to teach classes on a regular basis.
On questioning my daughter I found out that from the start of this year she has her teacher in class 2 days a week and the rest is taken on by the TA. We were not told about this.
As a TA myself, I know that they often cover classes but this is on a regular basis for a prolonged period of time.

I feel that this is very unfair and they should at least be employing supply teachers in the meantime.

@Benjispruce5 and @Abraxan - those expectations sound quite fair by comparison. I am expected to plan, mark and upload statement data too. As well as run our own after school clubs, and provide lunchtime cover for the MDS that they have decided to dispense with. We barely have ten minutes to shovel a sandwich some days. Often work a ten hour day - all for the princely sum of £70. It’s an absolute joke, and schools are certainly taking the proverbial pee…but I’m not doing it for the money, and if I felt inclined to complain, my card would no doubt be marked for reference day.

Blame the tories not the school. They have trashed the education system. The majority of academies are a joke, as are the budgets. The grants for encouraging people to train as teachers have all but disappeared too. and still people vote for them?? Dont understand it myself.
People forever critisising schools and GP's and police etc....seemingly oblivious that the problem with all of it, is lack of funds and red tape.

@cateJW agree

I really don’t think most people have a clue how poorly funded schools are. The latest is that reading books have to be fully phonically decodable or Ofsted will give you a damming result. Of course, most schools have reading books schemes that have been developed and added to over the years that will now need to to be replaced at their own cost, with no government support! Replacing a book scheme can cost thousands. It’s a joke.

No, I'm on two other threads at the moment where people have posted stuff 'oh schools should be able to do this' that made me think 'bloody hell, you have no clue what state schools are in'.

@noblegiraffe us teachers hide it from parents because we know they will blame our schools rather than the government. It’s very sad.

I now some amazingly capable TAs they are just not paid enough to replace a teacher.

@noblegiraffe
In July the government accredited 14 phonics schemes, one of these must be used. Previously we used a system that was not accredited ( but worked perfectly well, we regularly achieved 90% phonics check levels) so we had to change. But there needs to be complete fidelity to the scheme, so books, displays, flash cards etc all need to follow the same style, characters and layouts. Everything had to be changed, it cost us over £10000 and we have more to buy! We were OFSTEDED recently, they checked that the wall friezes showed fidelity to the scheme we used and that we didn't have any of the old ones still hanging around! A complete waste of money but one we had no control over.

@spanieleyes exactly what we are trying to do now. It’s gutting because in 5 -10 years someone at Westminster will decide that we need to cater for all the different ways children learn to read and fail us for not having enough range in our books.

And it's funny that all the accredited schemes seem to be tied in to a particular book publisher, funny that!

Of course schools could do with more money, but they could also be a lot better at managing it.

I have a friend who is a school business manager at a primary school. She moved to a new school recently and in her first couple of weeks discovered all sorts of longstanding errors, including in relation to utilities bills. She dealt with this and the school has just had a refund of several thousand pounds from its gas supplier.

That is just one example, but she has been genuinely shocked at how badly the schools she has worked in have managed their budgets - and how reluctant the headteachers have been to tackle some of the underlying issues.

@Fifthtimelucky that’s not a teacher’s responsibility but the Bursar’s.

Of course. I'm not suggesting for a minute that the financial issues are the responsibility of any teacher - other than the headteacher who should act to tackle important issues that are flagged up by the bursar/business manager.

[quote Benjispruce5]@spanieleyes exactly what we are trying to do now. It’s gutting because in 5 -10 years someone at Westminster will decide that we need to cater for all the different ways children learn to read and fail us for not having enough range in our books.[/quote]
Searchlight model, anyone?!

Exactly.

@Fifthtimelucky

Of course schools could do with more money, but they could also be a lot better at managing it.

I have a friend who is a school business manager at a primary school. She moved to a new school recently and in her first couple of weeks discovered all sorts of longstanding errors, including in relation to utilities bills. She dealt with this and the school has just had a refund of several thousand pounds from its gas supplier.

That is just one example, but she has been genuinely shocked at how badly the schools she has worked in have managed their budgets - and how reluctant the headteachers have been to tackle some of the underlying issues.

Two thirds of LA maintained schools here have a deficit budget, ranging up to £450,000. I don't think that is caused by overpaying the gas bill @Fifthtimelucky!

No but it all adds up and it's symptomatic of a wider carelessness/lack of control. She has also discovers other discrepancies including in relation to staff pay (some underpaid and some overpaid).

In a previous school she turned round a deficit budget of around £300,000 - and no she didn't cut staff, she actually employed more.

I'm not saying that schools don't need additional money. What I'm saying is that schools also need to spend what they have wisely.

Lord Agnew already sent round gov bots to schools to find ways to advise them how to save money. They came up with gems like serve the kids smaller portions of lunch, to save money on supply teachers by sticking them in the hall with three classes instead of one, to replace qualified teachers with unqualified staff and to cut courses at A-level.

Given that it was his job to root out this money being wasted in schools and he came up with a load of bullshit that would be of detriment to education or have other issues, I'm not at all convinced that schools being profligate is the real issue when we know funding has been cut massively.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/nov/27/ofsted-inspections-headteachers-quit
Read it and weep.

@Fifthtimelucky

No but it all adds up and it's symptomatic of a wider carelessness/lack of control. She has also discovers other discrepancies including in relation to staff pay (some underpaid and some overpaid).

In a previous school she turned round a deficit budget of around £300,000 - and no she didn't cut staff, she actually employed more.

I'm not saying that schools don't need additional money. What I'm saying is that schools also need to spend what they have wisely.

Oh come on @Fifthtimelucky - £300,000 can only be saved by cutting the biggest expense in the budget....staff.

This thread is about a children deserving a teacher, rather than a TA - perhaps your friend is the business manager?

No. I don't want to go into details but she realised that the school had been wasting huge amounts of money buying in a service that could be much more efficiently provided in house.

She also increased the school's income from the LA by persuading the head to accept more children into its nursery, which had far more staff than it could justify for the numbers. All classes, including the nursery, retained their qualified teachers and were within the necessary staff/pupil ratios.

Those were the big things but there were also lots of smaller savings.

My friend is not the business manager in this case

It’s you isn’t it @Fifthtimelucky? You know so much detail about your friend’s job.

No. Not me. But we have been friends for over 50 years, know each other very well, and are very close (though not geographically).

You said she was the business manager.

My friend is not the business manager in this case

You were literally just talking about your friend that was the business manager?