Teachers, how are things as regards cuts?

[fivecandles]

If you teach, how are you being affected by the cuts? Have there been any reduncies at your school and if so on what basis? It's starting to hit my place of work now and it's rubbish. No redundancies yet but it's generally expected to happen at the end of next year unless people leave which they can't because there are no jobs anywhere else either.

I don't think anyone loses out.

Kids who need a bit extra go to our SN teacher for odd lessons, and we have a TEP teacher for those who need extra language coaching.

It would be nice to have a TA in the classroom, but its a pretty small class so we get along ok without one...

Support staff includes admin staff. It's not just TAs. One of admin staff does the photocopying.

Honestly, you should track the entirety of a photocopy job before casting judgment.

Five candles, you should never get offended by other people's viewpoints. It is very worrying that you do. Have you considered counselling? :)

MmeBlueberry - photocopying is one of the jobs that teachers are not supposed to do - it's part of the national agreement. The other side to it, at my school anyway, is that putting it in to reprographics makes it a cheaper job than doing it myself. There are signs on the photocopiers in the library and recpetion saying that we are not to do more than 10 copies. You just have to be organised enough to sort out your resources with time to get it done through the correct channels before you need them.

since when do teachers not do photocopying??

We do all our own!

Our photocopying department is staffed by 3 people and they are always run off their feet. It's not just doing individual teachers' photocopying (I'm never organised enough to put a worksheet in 2 weeks in advance so just do it myself), they print the newsletters, bulletins, homework diaries, tests and vast quantities of resources. My maths department at this time of year goes through hundreds of past papers for GCSE and A-level - all printed and made into booklets for us. Same for all the other subjects. It would be an exceptionally poor use of a teacher's time to get them to do all this.

We aren't supposed to 25 jobs but since there is no one else to do them we just get on with it TheFlyingOnion I bet you

Collecting money from pupils and parents.

*Investigating a pupil?s absence.

• Bulk photocopying.

• Typing or making word-processed versions of manuscript material and producing revisions of such versions.

• Word-processing, copying and distributing bulk communications to parents and pupils.

• Producing class lists on the basis of information provided by teachers.

• Keeping and filing records, including records based on data supplied by teachers.

• Preparing, setting up and taking down classroom displays in accordance with decisions taken by teachers.

• Producing analyses of attendance figures.

• Producing analyses of examination results.

• Collating pupil reports.

• Administration of work experience but not selecting placements and supporting pupils by advice or visits.

• Administration of public and internal examinations.

• Administration of cover for absent teachers.

• Setting up and maintaining ICT equipment and software.

• Ordering supplies and equipment.

• Cataloguing, preparing, issuing and maintaining materials and equipment and stocktaking the same.

• Taking verbatim notes or producing formal minutes of meetings.

• Co-ordinating and submitting bids, for funding, school status and the like, using contributions by teachers and others.

• Transferring manual data about pupils not covered by the above into computerised school management systems.

• Managing the data in school management systems.

just like most of us

Also, I think comparing teaching in 1995 to teaching now with regard to teaching assistants is unfair. Since the inclusion drive and the closure of special schools etc, there are now much larger numbers of pupils in your bog standard comprehensive who have specific needs, both medical and behavioural, which previously would have meant that they were educated elsewhere. Extra support is needed in order to successfully include them in the classroom.

EvilTwins what are admin staff? [puzzled smiley] if you mean our poor overworked part time secretary she struggles to find time for her work never mind photocopying for the entire school

In 1995 I shared a TA with three other classes now I don't have a TA at all

We have many staff taking early retirement. The whole face of the school will be different come September and will lose over 200 years' experience.

Most of them aren't being replaced.

Our intake will still be the same.

It's just so awful. So sorry for all of you affected and your pupils and colleagues.

mrz - I'm intrigued (ok, nosey) - your school seems to allocate its funding in quite a different way to lots of schools wrt TAs. So, if TAs aren't a priority, where does your school stash its cash? - As in, what are your class sizes, etc?

Just curious.

When I look at the list of jobs that teachers are not supposed to do, I am so happy to be in the independent sector.

Really, how petty can you get?

Oh, and my school's becoming an academy to try and claw some extra funding. Most secondary schools are, I believe.

I am a Head of department with 3 frees a week. Recently we did revision guides for the whole year group- 250. To photocopy, staple and collate that would have taken much of that time. As would making things like card sorts etc.

What about the pupils in my school in wheelchairs, one of which requires a ventilator- her TA is essential.

When I worked independent I didn't photocopy as much, but then they could all afford to buy revision guides, and I was encouraged to do less resource based lessons.

I think the focus on pastoral staff who have the time to support students with emotional/behavioural issues was/is a good one. It would be a shame if these roles went back to teaching staff who are busy teaching and can not supervise, apprehend, support students when needed. Behaviour is a huge issue in the majority of schools and support is needed to tackle this.

Also our exams officer is rushed off her feet as we have exams (modular and early entry to a whole host of GCSE's and vocational courses along with controlled assessment) a much busier role than it was even 5 years ago! So yes we may happily photocopy, produce letters, do displays etc cos we're not petty but we have not got the time to do the bigger roles. lLus if we did we'd then be able to say we had no time to do the SEF, analysis of results, governors reports etc cos we were doing an admin task!

MmeBlueberry - those 25 tasks were taken away from teachers so that they have time to teach. I find your attitude infuritating. I am a head of dept and also head of VI Form. If I had to do all the administrative tasks that involves, from writing and photocopying letters, to collecting money to chasing absences to collating reports, I would have no time to do the acutal imporatant bits of my job - the things I trained for.

All department budgets have been cut.

There has been some reduction in the amount of timetabling allocated to some subjects which along with not replacing certain teachers means that non-specialists will be teaching KS3 subjects.

School lunches have gone up as the subsidy has been reduced.

Looking at chopping some KS4/KS5 courses because they are expensive

As connexions is being slashed then teachers have to take over that role

I quite enjoy the non-teaching tasks. I don't moan about them and see them as part of teaching.

I enjoy being part of the whole life of the school. When I see that as a drag, I might as well just give up.

It is not cost effective to pay someone over 30 grand a year to have them spend their time stapling booklets together when they could be doing something that actually requires their teaching qualification.

Of course, what actually happens is that teachers end up standing on tables putting up displays and filling out endless spreadsheets as unpaid overtime.

Do you man the phones in reception and dole out the dinners too, MmeBlueberry? They are part of the 'whole life of the school' too, but I expect you see them as not your job. Although they support it too.

The photocopier does the folding and stapling. It takes about 2 seconds to give it the instruction.

Analysing spreadsheets of pupil exam data is a very valuable part of assessment for learning.

I don't cook school lunches but don't object to doing a lunch duty, where I can gauge what/how much pupils are eating and also detect friendship issues.

Seriously, it takes longer to make a point about what you are not doing than it actually takes to do it.

My mother is 57 now and had to take a break from work due to depression. She is now ready to return to work but is unable to find a job anywhere. She was head of department, years of experience, has taught other subjects as well as her specialty and has great references. No one bothers to reply to her job applications.

A family friend is 24ish and a NQT. She can't get a job for love or money either.

noblegiraffe most of us do the 25 tasks when the children have left or before they arrive not in teaching time