TAs does your primary school have them?

[dhlihdhb]

Apparently our primary school has decided they wont have any TAs next year other than those with a one to one. Is that the norm? Have to say am pretty disappointed but not sure how widespread that is.

I think quite a few schools are managing their budget by natural wastage, so not replacing wherever possible if someone leaves, or replacing with someone cheaper

I'm looking at job roles post the academic position I'm in now. Given the cost of living I've pretty much entirely discounted returning to being a TA given the low pay. The other big issue is being unable to take term-time holidays- this can make a difference of 1,000s of pounds in prices.

5 years ago if you put an advert out for a TA role where I worked you would get over a 100 applications, now 1-2. There needs to be a big look at how much these roles are paid and schools need to be given the funding to pay for them.
Staff were reminded how lucky they were to have jobs that fit around their children and honestly it made the management feel like they could treat them badly. Now there are better options.

@elliejjtiny you can find the % of EHCPs schools have here. The most recent data is from 22/23.

Thank you so much. Apparently there are 4 children including my ds4 who have an ehcp at his school.

Our School has TAs in each reception class. Then all TAs throughout the rest of the school are 1-1s except for a team of 5 HLTAs who cover PPA and run interventions for everyone else with SEND without 1-1s. It works well but it is a big primary

Not necessarily, schools have to jump through tonnes of hoops to access funding for 1-1. Most children will spend at least the first year of schooling without funding unless their previous provision/nursery was very good. I have had a non verbal austistic girl in my class for a full year with no funding who cannot be left without eyes on her for a second who has taken my general ta as her 1-1. I have been left with 29 other reception children, indoor and outdoor provision to manage myself Once they get funding, the school still has to fund a proportion of the ta wages (the first 6000) plus all recruitment costs. If your school has many children needing 1-1 then that takes up all TA support and a huge chunk of the budget

This is contrary to the legislation, and is discriminatory.

@Squidrings is right. You can't wait for the money to come through for
DCs who need 1:1. My former school was a small village school with a tight budget. In the last couple of years we have had a few dcs joining us who have needed 1:1 from day one for their own safety. There has been no time to wait for funding to come through to recruit extra staff, if indeed it ever comes. This has come from pulling TAs from other classes and has meant dcs with less immediate needs such as dyslexia or speech and language problems haven't been getting the support they need.

We were lucky throughout primary years to have amazing TA's. I'm not sure how teachers would cope without their help with 30 younger years in one class. They are under paid and worth their weight in gold. Three cheers to all the great TA's!