‘Flexible use of support staff in keeping lessons face to face’

[Skinnyfrappewithmilk]

One of the points made by the education sec for return to school this week.

Are they planning on paying a decent wage for support staff then?! I’m a TA and having to claim UC as my wage is so poor, quite frankly it’s an insult.
I’m so angry reading that…our pay and conditions are already awful, I can’t quite believe the cheek of it.

And also I’ve offered myself as a volunteer to our local school but they’re not interested. They don’t want more people in school.

I’d happily do a day a week so that schools can stay open. I’m happy that the quality will be much lower. It’s so important for lots of families that children are in school. It’s too much for children to be at home 247.

@user1471509171
So will this be HlLTAs and level 3 TAs or will even lower paid level 2s be expect to cover too?
It will be all levels - basically it’ll just be one a free babysitting service, not education.

I did it last year . Often on my on for full days with proper teaching (and marking going on ) . I had to send a child next door to ask someone to watch them just to have a wee because I was with them all the time, including lunch. Oh but it's just the keyworker group they said. Sure, 17 kids and all our SEN's in . Teaching was ok... behaviour was ok... marking was ok, but straddling that line nearly broke me. Not to mention I then went home and marked the online work . Not a penny extra. Barely any support until I had a meltdown towards the end, but then things went back to "normal" so they could pretend it didn't happen.What happened is that the school lost a lot of good will from my part. I'm not doing it again. I love the kids but I don't have the skill, will, training or wage to be their teacher , which is why I AM a TA.

At my school support staff get an extra £30 for covering a class.
The thing that really is unjust, is that for this 'princely' sun they get to be the teacher and ta at the same time!!

It’s the lie about lessons though isn’t it? It’s not, it’s childcare. I used to be a TA before going into teaching. Schools couldn’t survive without TAs but they aren’t teachers. Some TAs are teachers because they left the main job because of rubbish work conditions, most aren’t.

Facts are, they aren’t trained teachers so misconceptions and how to unpick them, things like that. They are paid appallingly, most TAs I know have a well off partner or have multiple jobs. They work exceptionally hard and they are expected to teach, administer medical/personal care and hold up classes.

We had to combine classes into the hall with TAs teaching it wasn’t.

It’s also a myth nowadays that every class has a TA. Most schools don’t and those that do, it’s often mornings only.

Those are the issues. It’s like asking the ward cleaner to step up and be a nurse. Which I think they are basically asking. Using staff flexibly for bedside support is what they are touting.

They’ve messed up, big time.

Parents need to understand that if worst comes to the worst, there wont be an teaching going on. It’ll just be any school staff in front of a class.

I think parents understand. And they're very grateful for this.

Omicron cases have started falling - hopefully this wave falls as steeply and quickly as in South Africa.

@toomuchlaundry

I can’t wait until we get to the situation that the caretaker will be taking the initial phone call from the OFSTED Inspector. Do you think at that point the Government will admit there is an issue and put Inspections on hold?

Better idea. Let my y11 Bob do it. "Who the fuck are you? Nah. Ain't happenin' mate"

Many parents do understand. They need to work. Just like you ( maybe) and many other teachers they can’t afford to lose their jobs. They know it’s temporary and I think parents have to and will mostly accept tgis

This is a crisis situation

Right.

Well, in that case Ofsted need to stop inspections whilst the crisis is taking place.

The pressure of potentially having inspectors turn up in your school the next day to interrogate staff with a geography ‘Deep Dive’ and to criticise you for the font in your reading books being different to the font on your display boards (yes, this is happening) is simply one that heads and teachers could do without in a crisis.

@user1471509171

So will this be HlLTAs and level 3 TAs or will even lower paid level 2s be expect to cover too?

You imagine that the government has considered this in any detail! They won’t have, they have worked out there will be a problem and have made a statement to sound reassuring to anyone who hasn’t a working knowledge of school staffing. Heads will get an email advising them to do all they can to keep schools open and be left to get on with it. I predict that there will be partial closures, can’t see any other solution if we get the sickness levels predicted. My kids school was 80% closed the last 2 weeks of term, if there aren’t enough teachers there aren’t enough teachers.

Maybe your Y11 Bob could take a class @MrsHamlet. What could go wrong

Our inset tomorrow is geared towards Ofsted planning. We will have them in this term as 1. we’re overdue and 2. All the other schools in our area have been inspected last half term.

I will gladly stand up and supervise 200 Yr 11s in a hall but if I’m then judged on my ‘shit’ teaching it’ll be a kick in the balls.

And to non teachers who think that won’t happen - it will. Last half term a head wrote a post on Twitter about asking for an Ofsted visit to be deferred. She was at a funeral, she had multiple staff out due to Covid. Ofsted refuses and said ‘Covid isn’t a reasonable excuse’.

@toomuchlaundry

Maybe your Y11 Bob could take a class *@MrsHamlet*. What could go wrong

I think Y11 Bob probably has more chance of getting the children to listen than our caretaker or midday staff.

Seriously, if you think 'Everyone is expected to muck in,' as though it's some kind of camping experience, you are deluded.

This isn't the Blitz. It's an entirely preventable scenario - brought about by a government incapable of planning because they are in a hostage situation. Johnson is in thrall to the hard-right ERG/CRG faction.

It irks me that we are being called upon to make sacrifices basically because of a crazy group of unrepresentative ideologies.

And they won't be making sacrifices.

It's beyond cynical.

The Ofsted thing is so engaging it's beyond belief. I don't think anyone who doesn't work in a school had the faintest idea just how demoralising it is, day in, day out, every single month/term/year to have that dangling over year. It's the worst part of the job, excepting the govt treatment of schools during the pandemic.

However, we have to try and put that to the back of our minds (and, yes, part of our school training day will be Ofsted readiness ..)

Level 3 TAs or HLTAs aren't really a thing in secondaries. It'll be caretakers, admin and pastoral staff and/or collapsed classes. Plus year groups sent home in secondary. Maybe schools with sixth forms could put sixth formers in charge of year 7 classes?

@toomuchlaundry

Maybe your Y11 Bob could take a class *@MrsHamlet*. What could go wrong

I'm up for that. I taught our new site manager and I think it's time he did too. He was a Bob.

Also I think people think as a TA I will be up front teaching/babysitting a group of 30 children I can see the picture in my mind. Reality; who's then dealing with the 4 children that need a 1.1? Who's going to take the 2 children out that need a brain break after their 10 mins allocated classroom work time. As said above most teachers require support. But a TA doesn't. It's a joke. Give me a top up on my £900 per month please

@thecatfromjapan

Are we all making sacrifices, though ?

Really?

Because it seems to me that these 'sacrifices' are very unevenly distributed.

Indeed, I feel that these 'sacrifices' seem to fall disproportionately on the low-waged, the insecurely employed, and in the 'caring' sectors.

Haven't noticed government ministers making too many sacrifices .

I'm so pissed off today it is unreal.

TAs are not teachers and this guidance is a desperate attempt to cover up the fact that Johnson has gambled again, lost again and now we are all facing another shitshow in schools.

I’d rather teach my children at home alongside my own full time role than have some of the TAs at their school ‘teach’ them. Some are excellent and underpaid, granted. Others have been there for years and wouldn’t get a job if they were interviewed now.

As an aside, it’s not for the TAs and cooks to step in. It’s for the government to find a solution. They’ve had enough time. Just cancel all Ofsted inspections, use those so-called experts to cover and Bob’s your uncle (as well as teaching in his spare time).

@Headingnorthwoste

This happened in the 1980s during the Teachers strikes. Multiple classes being taught by SLT in school halls.

We didn’t have the luxury of TAs back then. Just volunteer parents.

Needs must and all that. Everyone is going to have to muck in over the next while.

I’m non clinical NHS admin and have been asked to vaccinate in mass centre. I don’t mind. This is a crisis situation and it won’t be forever.

I'd far rather be vaccinating a compliant, largely house trained populace rather than being expected to stop 60 year 9s from running amok around the premises or the year 10 fight that ended with one trying to put another's head in with a fire extinguisher and another producing a fuck off big kitchen knife and needing to be talked down before he used it on his attacker (referring to a previous employment that I would never, ever go back to).

Well, in that case Ofsted need to stop inspections whilst the crisis is taking place.

Absolutely!
Is there a petition about this or if not can someone start one quickly.
Ofsted inspectors need redevelopment immediately as bank teachers.

@thecatfromjapan

Seriously, if you think 'Everyone is expected to muck in,' as though it's some kind of camping experience, you are deluded.

This isn't the Blitz. It's an entirely preventable scenario - brought about by a government incapable of planning because they are in a hostage situation. Johnson is in thrall to the hard-right ERG/CRG faction.

It irks me that we are being called upon to make sacrifices basically because of a crazy group of unrepresentative ideologies.

And they won't be making sacrifices.

It's beyond cynical.

Totally agree.

And forgot to mention how bl freezing cold it is with all the doors and windows open. Rant over

I really hope OFSTED inspectors are made to come in and teach. I will happily observe their lessons and give my feedback. Let's hope everyone uses the correct pen to mark and has underlined their title.

I would rather schools are open and that my DC are socialising, maybe getting some exercise or doing something creative, than sat staring at a computer screen doing home learning. I don't think that's an adequate education to just be somewhere all day long term, but I am more concerned about my children's social education at this point than their academic education. You can retake exams, it will never be my biggest concern. I am so much more concerned about the effect of taking away their social world. The impact of social isolation and loneliness on mental health is massive. We are social creatures. Children used to play out all evening years ago, now their extra curricular activities and fun days are cancelled and really their only consistent social opportunity is school. My DC have become much more socially anxious and I can see the skills they are short on and they aren't about reading or times tables. They are about the most important work of childhood, their ability to play is suffering. One DC is so excited for school and seeing all their friends, the other has dreadful anxiety that school won't go back again. Both for the same reason, that spending time with their friends and peers is the single most important thing in their lives. I get that, I feel that too. That actually the cost of being alone stuck in a house staring at a screen all the time is a high one not to be minimised.

Kids don't just play. Play is their lifeblood. It is their motivation in all things once their most basic needs are met. If schools become just social places and places to play for a while kids will be ok. Because they find their own ways to learn. You get a group of children together and they drive their own learning. It doesn't matter who is facilitating that.