‘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.

I’m an HLTA that has covered my class full time for two weeks recently because of teacher illness. I resent the implication that I provided nothing but childcare when I worked my arse off doing extra hours for free to make sure I was prepared to deliver half decent lessons to make sure the children kept up. Obviously it was far from ideal because I’m not a teacher. The interventions and therapies that I usually do didn’t happen, other teachers lost their PPA time because I wasn’t available along with everything else that had to be sacrificed, but the alternative was shutting the class completely and a whole class missing out on everything at school, not just their own teacher.

😂😂😂😂😂 sorry, but that has given me a much needed laugh. I shall look forward to my bottom set year 11s leading their own learning. Might involve a police visit shortly after if their previous googling history is anything to go by.

The point they miss spectacularly is that TAs are just that - teachers assistants.

They are in class to support trained and qualified teachers to deliver the curriculum.

It's far too much to have expectation that they take a class alone without a TA - even more so combined classes.

I'm a TA. I'm actually higher than an htla and paid as such and will take classes to cover teachers with their normal support staff in place. But I get paid for this level of responsibility and it's usually when they are short of the hltas who would usually cover.

They wonder why they have such a problem with recruitment and retention.

It's mainly because they expect - and vast numbers of the public expect - TAs to do a teachers teaching job for low pay without the same conditions teachers get and if they say "hang on" get accused of being woke union lefties who don't care about children a education and want schools shut.

No one ever considers that it's because someone who supports small groups under the direction of a teacher for interventions or specific subjects doesn't feel trained enough to take a whole class of 30 everyday for 6.5 hours alone.

What I meant was it IMO it is preferential for children to be in school under less than ideal circumstances than at home under less than ideal circumstances and I am all for anything that can facilitate the continued learning and socialisation of children, so long as safeguards are put in place for their safety, but I'm a bit flaky before my coffee sorry 🙌🏼 hands up, I surrender to the hive mind and have re-evaluated my naïve opinion.

@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.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@Cuddlemuffin

Unlikely they are thinking of children's education at all and just keeping the economy and productivity afloat by having parents working full time rather than home schooling. Disgusting to rely on support staff for teaching when the pay is already unforgivably low for what they do for our children. Same as most public services, government rely on people's goodwill because of the kindness of the people on these jobs. It's awful.

It's not just the economy, it's food workers, transport, police, carers, hospital cleaners. They'll also be suffering up to 25% staff shortages. There's no real answer but it's not as simple as everyone happily staying at home.

I would hazard a guess that "children driving their own learning" is how we have ended up with so many pupils now being so far behind, and needing such an intervention for catch up. Too many parents think children are naturally equipped to drive their own learning.

@LethargicActress

I’m an HLTA that has covered my class full time for two weeks recently because of teacher illness. I resent the implication that I provided nothing but childcare when I worked my arse off doing extra hours for free to make sure I was prepared to deliver half decent lessons to make sure the children kept up. Obviously it was far from ideal because I’m not a teacher. The interventions and therapies that I usually do didn’t happen, other teachers lost their PPA time because I wasn’t available along with everything else that had to be sacrificed, but the alternative was shutting the class completely and a whole class missing out on everything at school, not just their own teacher.

I'm sore you did a great job however many schools don't have TA's spare time do that at all. As I said we are all on 1:1 now. There's no one to borrow, there are no groups any more that can be stopped to free up a TA. There are dc in my class that can't cope or are unsafe either to themselves or others and need removed or breaks from class regularly. My teacher struggles when I leave the class with a certain child and absolutely could not manage if I (or someone else) wasn't there at all and if she can't manage I certainly couldn't.

@Spikeyball

I hope they are not expecting schools to use children's 1:1s.

That wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Until the end of last term, I was 1-1 in the morning and 2-1 in the after noons.. Both children are Autistic. I've been with the morning child since Reception

To be fair, when I have to, I can hold a class together for 10 mins or so if the teacher/ta has to pop out the room, but I'm not happy with any longer than that.
Also not paid enough to do so...

We have one TA between three classes. That's it and it's not enough at the best of times, let alone now. She does specific intervention work which in EHCP focused and does not, cannot and should not have to cover but she will end up doing so. That's what years of underfunding and denigration of the education sector has resulted in. One TA for 96 kids.

No-one is happy to stay at home @KangSaeByeok. However, if successive governments had not vilified and then decimated public services, there wouldn't be recruitment and retention issues with teaching staff, doctors, midwives, care workers etc would there?

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.

Kids will be ok. Teachers on the other hand will still be subject to the pressures and expectations of Ofsted and SATs. As a KS1 teacher I continue to be performance managed on a certain (unrealistic) proportion of my 6 and 7 year olds who have yet to complete a full year in school achieving the expected level in the end of year assessments, which will include SATs papers.

I am currently working as a TA. I refuse to cover because they're absolutely taking the piss trying to get TAs to provide cover while still paying them like crap.

@Andtheyalllookjustthesame

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.

If the government were honest that this is basically what we are offering I think most parents would feel the same.

But instead it's exams as normal, ofsted as normal and all this whilst having the caretaker with 3 different subject gcse classes in the hall.

The government are completely gaslighting the country again and when kids don't do as well in exams etc they'll blame the teachers - again.

I was a TA for two 1:1 children (both FT hours, but only one of me). Before Christmas I was being used to cover the whole class. No extra money, I was only a level 2, and that meant both of those children were without a 1:1. And that was before the official advice was to use support staff to cover classes. I feel very, very sorry for those children who need additional support - they are going to suffer.

@EtInTerraPax

No-one is happy to stay at home *@KangSaeByeok*. However, if successive governments had not vilified and then decimated public services, there wouldn't be recruitment and retention issues with teaching staff, doctors, midwives, care workers etc would there?

Absolutely not. The shambles we are in is entirely due to the decimation of the public sector, the refusal to look past the next election plus the huge distraction of Brexit. But that doesn't change my point that 'the economy' is also society. It's a shitshow alright, but parents are as desperate as teachers.

*If the government were honest that this is basically what we are offering I think most parents would feel the same.

But instead it's exams as normal, ofsted as normal and all this whilst having the caretaker with 3 different subject gcse classes in the hall.

The government are completely gaslighting the country again and when kids don't do as well in exams etc they'll blame the teachers - again*

Yes, big difference between infant and junior school pupils with many years left of schooling to catch up having some extra play time and more relaxed learning.

Less acceptable for GCSE and A level students who have been told the marking/grading will be harder than ever this year (to make up for the past 2 years of 'grade inflation') and that exams won't be cancelled nor content removed and that universities will be giving out fewer offers and having even increased the grades required at higher end universities.

But let's send everyone INTO school for their LFT tomorrow/Wednesday morning, not knowing if they have Covid or not, so they can be tested IN school and those who are positive get the opportunity for mass transmission.

It would obviously be better to test AT HOME before bringing the Covid-positive pupils into school. But no, all parents are lying cheats and so all the kids have to be exposed to the Covid-positive cases so someone is able to verify/validate/witness their negative test.

This is really stupid way to start the term and I can't believe schools are agreeing to this. It will kick-start transmission and lead to even more teacher and pupil absences right from the get-go.

Just trust that the majority of families will test at home and the minority who would not have done will still be sending their children in for your witnessed LFTs anyway. So there will be no reduction in transmission

*I’m a teacher 4 days a week and have volunteered a day a week recently at my local school to keep it up and running, so parents can go to work and kids can keep learning/socialising.

Of course there is a wider issue wrt standards of teaching/safeguarding etc. But what’s worse? Kids being (not) taught at home? Kids escaping safeguarding all together? Look at the results of that so far…

I’m not saying it’s ideal but imo, keeping schools open is the priority.*

I think this sounds reasonable. And we have to remember that this current omicron wave probably won't last more than another 3-4 weeks if South Africa is anything to go by.

Let's just get through the next month

Less acceptable for GCSE and A level students who have been told the marking/grading will be harder than ever this year (to make up for the past 2 years of 'grade inflation') and that exams won't be cancelled nor content removed

That's not true though. This year's A level and GSCE grades are still going to be higher than pre pandemic, and exam content will be removed. That's my understanding anyway.

@toomuchlaundry

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

Y11 Bobs are often surprisingly good at crowd control. They know all the tricks and won’t put up with any nonsense.

Someone, somewhere decided that the line was ‘cases don’t matter, only hospitalisations matter’ and people lapped it up.

And now are trying to pretend it’s fine that their kid might be supervised in the hall by the caretaker because of course cases fucking matter.

@Blubells

Less acceptable for GCSE and A level students who have been told the marking/grading will be harder than ever this year (to make up for the past 2 years of 'grade inflation') and that exams won't be cancelled nor content removed

That's not true though. This year's A level and GSCE grades are still going to be higher than pre pandemic, and exam content will be removed. That's my understanding anyway.

No, no exam content has been removed.

They will get some warning of what the topics in the exam will be just before the exam apparently. But for some subjects this won't make much difference (e.g. chemistry exams seem to manage to include something on every topic in the syllabus).

And the government have expressly said that grade boundaries will be tougher this year because the 'grade inflation' (simply due to knowing who would have messed up in an exam, not the individual pupils getting more than they should) cannot happen again and must end.

• not knowing

@noblegiraffe

Someone, somewhere decided that the line was ‘cases don’t matter, only hospitalisations matter’ and people lapped it up.

And now are trying to pretend it’s fine that their kid might be supervised in the hall by the caretaker because of course cases fucking matter.

Quite.

I'm not fully sure personally if I'm more pissed off with government for being shit or parents for accepting the shit.

I personally think my kids deserve a lot better.

Instead, 2022 will be a transition year to reflect that we are in a pandemic recovery period and students’ education has been disrupted. In 2022 we will aim, therefore, to reflect a midway point between 2021 and 2019. In 2023 we aim to return to results that are in line with those in pre-pandemic years.