Back to school plans for TAs lack of teachers?

[feelinghappy]

So we had our back to school plan shared with TAs today and I've seen the letter sent to parents.
There will be 6 bubbles (two for each year group due back). There are only 4 teachers leading bubbles - we have 9 teachers in school. There are 9 TAs out of 11 in these bubbles (two adults per bubble). One of the teachers is shielding but there was no mention of the others (I'm guessing they're part of a union and refusing to take part in plans?) It feels like an awful lot of responsibility is being put on our shoulders - we will be in charge of keeping 15 households safe & teaching plus we've been given the bubbles least likely to socially distance - y1 & Yr. The behaviour policy is being amended to take into account the changes to the school and we've been told social distancing "is an expectation". Cleaning staff are cleaning twice a day in full PPE we've been told that TAs will be responsible for the rest of the cleaning. I've asked whether we will be responsible for explaining all these changes to the pupils. Am I being unreasonable to expect that if there are teachers employed by the school they should lead the bubble with a TA supporting? After all they are qualified teachers?

NB TAs being in charge of bubbles was not mentioned in the letter to parents

*workers'

I also read that it's in the government guidance - it just feels like a huge responsibility at the moment. Like any change it'll just take me time to adjust to 😊 I'm going to raise my concerns tomorrow - this has helped me put them together in a more measured way and see it from the other side. I'm going to say that I would feel less anxious if I were supporting a class teacher or in a bubble with another TA in y6. I'm also going to ask if we can have more support with social distancing at breaktimes.

As a separate note, join a union! You should not be in a classroom without, at the very least, the legal protection they provide.

I'm just an MDS. Our school haven't even decided if they're going back. Apparently a decision will be made this week and it'll be all hands on deck to get the school ready next week. I work in a massive school so we've got room and the staff at the moment, but moving forward we think only 30% of children can be in as we it's a three class year with over 30 in classes.

This sounds shit. No, you absolutely shouldn't have to take on that responsibility at your pay grade, and if there are teachers available, they should be ahead of you in the queue. However, I also believe that teachers shouldn't be expected to do this either. If Social Distancing is still required in wider society, I just do not see how schools can re-open (in a wider sense) at the moment.

@feelinghappy

Hmm. I think I could go along with the extra responsibility until school is out. However, if they were still expecting "extras" come fall, I'd start making noises about the pay.

Do they do emergency teacher licensing there? We (the States) have it for people working in schools that are desperate for teachers (mostly lower income). You need a college degree - but it does not have to be in education. Everything else is is on the job training.

That doesn't seem like something you are interested in, but I was curious. I'm betting that some schools in my state might be "teacher-poor" come fall.

@Damnyankee

There's no emergency licensing in the UK, essentially because teachers aren't licensed.

A qualified teacher is one who has completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Education or equivalent course, and then served as a teacher for a year (I think this has recently increased to two years).

But our schools get around it by not requiring people to be a qualified teacher to teach, which is less than ideal!

Maybe the ‘spare teachers’ that are not going to lead a bubble are being kept back to lead other bubbles when the government expand and bring other year groups?

In our school level 3 TAs have to cover up to 33% teachings for teachers although realistically it's always more. We are having 2 adults per bubble some a mixture some 2 TAs.