How many TAs/Classroom Assitants does your school have

[Lucyputyourshoeson]

Hi all, DD is due to start primary one, got talking to a parent at the school and I'm not sure about the staffing. This parent is on the Parent Council so knows all the staff.

The set up is as follows, Primary 1 and 2 have a full time TA in the class most of the day other than her lunch break and is with them at break/lunch.
Primary 3 has a part time TA she is there in the morning until lunch is over.
Primary 4 and 5 share a TA as do Primary 6 and 7, they will go in during reading to hear the kids read.
Then there is a floating TA who is responsible for the library and helps with kids who need a little help reading but she is part time (Tuesday-Thursday, finishes at lunch).

The TAs are the only staff available to the kids at break and lunch time. So 2 days a week for 175 kids 5 TAs cover all the playground and lunch hall, 3 days it's 6.

I don't know why but this seems really low? Is this legal? How many TAs/Classroom assistants does your school have?

Why do you think it might be?

Think it might be low?

Well when DS was in school (now 15, went to school in England)

They had one TA per class all day, plus some midday supervisors.

This school has 2 playgrounds (one which is for ball sports and only so many kids are allowed each day, usually done by class) so what happens if someone gets injured on that play ground, surely they must have 2 TAs there.

Which leaves 3, the dining hall will need to be staffed for slow eaters all through lunched meaning 2 TAs on the big ground for 140 kids + ?

Surely it should be one per class at a minimum + a midday or two to cover injuries?

In our school (3 form entry Juniors, so years 3-6 inclusive) we generally have 1 per class but not all are full time. Almost all are 1:1s but are often asked to cover in the class teacher's absence. They are also running intervention groups and covering playground/dining hall.

The numbers you describe do seem low.

When I was first a SENCo, in a secondary school, I was responsible for an onsite specialist provision, two part time teachers, 25 TAs and a couple of SaLTs. Now the school has more pupils, no specialists and 8 TAs.

Budgets are stretched and I imagine it’s the same in Scotland, where I assume you are, as it is in England.

I've been teaching for 11 years and classroom TAs have been on the decline due to funding. Apart from in EYFS, the rest of the school have no class TA allocated (so only teacher in the room) or 1:1 TA for children with an EHCP.

Lunches are staggered across the school. Some of the lunch hall staff will go out onto the playground at lunch as midday assistants to support the TAs. It there is a day where we are very low on staff, teachers are asked to go outside for 15 minutes each to help out.

There’s no statutory requirement for primary schools to employ TAs. From Reception upwards, the law simply says that there must be one teacher for every 30 children. Some schools have sufficient budget to employ TAs, others don’t.

Juniors so years 3-6. No TAs unless it's a floating TA for interventions. My dd has a full time 1:1. Looks like she would do better in a SEN school so if she leaves, the TA in class will stop.

2 TAs in Reception, 1 in every other class, 1 ELSA and 1 that floats around doing cover.

I think you might be mixing up teaching assistants and general supervision at lunchtime - sometimes TAs are used for lunchtime cover, and other times schools employ specific lunchtime supervisors, or teachers may do "lunchtime duty", or a mix of all three.

Is your main concern the number of adults who are supervising children at lunchtime, as opposed to the educational support from TAs in class? There isn't a specific law that says you need X number of adults per Y number of children during lunch and breaks, but schools should complete a risk assessment that will say how many staff they need in what capacity. So you could ask the school what theirs says and how it all works.

It seems odd to have no "dinner ladies" op, surely a staple of primary education? Most classes in infants have at least one, often two. Year 3 has 1 but she's brilliant. Ours has two but one is officially a 121 and it's a hard class. Lunchtime supervisors are separate, working 11.30-1.30 backed up by rotating staff. Nursery have their own teacher in the dining hall.

The dinner ladies will be in the kitchen the whole time apparently!

I dont know if scotland have this, but in england there is a service called GIAS and the financial benchmarking lets you compare schools. Staffing levels is one of the charts.

I work in more than one school. School 1 has 175 pupils and 7 FTE teaching assistants (this includes SEN TA and class TAs. There is 6 classes.

School 2 has 125 pupils and has 5 FTE TAs. Again this is a mix of SEN TAs and class TA.