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.

Yes, mrz, that's what I said. As unpaid overtime.

MmeBlackberry, given the amount of time it takes our photocopying department to actually do the photocopying that is generated in our school that people are organised enough to pass onto them, 2 seconds is a silly estimate. That includes all the cutting, collating, laminating of course.

Perhaps you only ever use the most basic of resources if your photocopying takes 2 seconds?

Actually I have to dole out the lunches at my school, as we eat in classrooms and don't have a cafeteria.

I don't mind too much as I can listen to readers or mark whilst they're eating, but then (as I said further up) its a small class (16).

It takes 2 seconds to common the photocopier to fold and staple. The photocopier then does all the work, and whoever pushed the buttons gets on with something else!

I am inclined to agree with mmeblueberry, it isnt a difficult process to photocopy. I consider that and many other things a teachers role.

However, I am appalled that some teachers are serving lunches and that said lunches are in class ( and worse school work continues whilst they eat)
No wonder childrens table manners and social skills are so atrocious!
I dont care what sixze of class you have, that is wrong. If my DS had come home and told me that was ahppening in his school I would have had him out of there pronto. We do not eat and work in the same room and on the same tables ( or at the same time at home), it should not be so at school.

It is a recipe for ill health throughout life. It often means poor diet, poor eating habits and no doubt much indigestion as well as a poor working environment after eating in a room there are bound to be stale food and lunch smells.

At least in my school we have a proper dining room where all the pupils can eat and drink appropriately and staff do the same.

I can only assume, then, MmeBlueberry, that your school has enough photocopiers for everyone to have one each. One of the other reasons we have to give our stuff to reprographics is that there are two photocopiers for general use, and if I decided to produce, say, this term's Yr 8 record booklets myself, it woud tie up the photocopier for a good hour or so. That wouldn't exactly please the person who had ten minutes before their next lessons to copy a class set of worksheets.

I guess my school is just a bit more considerate than yours in that way. We tend to work as a community - yours seems a bit "every man for himself". Shame.

Of course we all do non-teaching tasks. I spend every lunchtime in the VI Form common room listening to tales of teenage heartbreak, advising about UCAS, helping with homework and generally chatting with my students. I analyse exam and review grades data because it's a very useful exercise. There's plenty that I do which is a "non teaching" task. The point of the 25 tasks within the national agreement was that head teachers couldn't oblige staff to carry out those tasks. Bulk photocopying could not be part of a teacher's duties - that's not to say that no one does any photocopying any more, or that we all stand around moaning about it, but it cannot be seen as part of a teacher's contractual duties. In the same way that a solicitor would be unlikely to type letters or answer her own phone, or a doctor unpack deliveries or make appointments.

Of the tasks listed by mrz I have to say I do not handle money ( the burser adds it to the yearly bill if any is involved for trips etc and that is always organised via SMT anyway). Neither do I follow up childrens absence. Thats SMT pastoral ( but those people are teachers, not administrative staff).

Photocopying and writing resources and such is my job and I do it both at work and home sometimes. I am doing one document now in my holidays. I dont have to do this in my holidays I should say, but I do by choice. I will be the one who then takes it to school, plugs it into a computer and presses send to the photocopier ( and makes all the booklet settings) for it to be reproduced. I will then take it to class and hand it out.

However, I am appalled that some teachers are serving lunches and that said lunches are in class ( and worse school work continues whilst they eat)
No wonder childrens table manners and social skills are so atrocious!

Well that shows how much you know. I am rigid about table manners and the children eat quietly and politely, then they clear away, wipe the tables and do some quiet reading or drawing before playtime. Our school doesn't have the space for a cafeteria.

I have worked in state schools in the UK where the dining hall resembles feeding time at the zoo, and in my home area the children who have school dinner are given a happy meal-style paper bag on a Friday. yuk yuk yuk.

ClenchedBottom infant classes 30 junior classes 30+
1 teacher per class
1 TA per school
we also have a FSU with 2 teachers and 2 nursery nurses
plus 1 part time SEN teacher (1 day per week)
and 1-1 support for statemented children
1 PT secretary

In my last school ( state) the only reason they required you to send large or bulk documents to repro was so they could cost head it to your dept. and take it from your individual budget.

The repro woman was always three days behiond and complaining ( the rule was 24 hour turn round) . She was a sour puss about doing anything that she didnt get a weeks notice for and very often I did put bulk items on one of the school copiers ( usually library( for speed and efficiency. I would then have to count and log what I had done for budget purposes but it was mighty faster than repro and more pleasant.

My current school has three photocopiers and we seem to do quite well without a repro service. No one ever seems held up. In my last school repro alone had three copiers and then there were those for teachers odd use around school - two in the main office and one in the library (which kids also shared). Its all about flexibility isnt it? Repro isnt flexible and its inefficient.

apology accepted, jabed

We have one all-singing photocopier for teachers to use, as well as a basic one. We also have several printers that are useful for a class set of worksheets at short notice. Our good printer can be interrupted too. There is also a good machine for back office and SMT, but so much now goes out to parents by email that it is fairly idle.

The system works because we are a strategically aligned team. We are committed to managing our time so that major projects can be delivered without panic or inconvenience to others, but will support one another when we screw up.

This thread is giving me a picture of a teacher printing off a document, going to the printer to pick it up, writing out copy instructions and giving it to back office, then waiting several days to get it back. Me, I just print out sufficient copies from my computer, telling it to fold/staple/punch as required.

Our is. She's brilliant. She has colour coded forms and will do your resources within the hour if you want. However, I am usually both effiecient and considerate and pop my resources in at least a week in advance. It's just a case of getting used to it. It could be argued that no teacher should need to be photocopying their own resources 24 hours before the lesson.

I don't even have a printer in my office. Budgets. My printing goes to the photocopier in the library. I have to walk over and get it. I manage though.

I have worked in state schools in the UK where the dining hall resembles feeding time at the zoo, and in my home area the children who have school dinner are given a happy meal-style paper bag on a Friday. yuk yuk yuk.

Yes, my last school was one such but that was also because the so called dining room ( doubled as a hall and a drama theatre) was not big enough or a space which could be controlled enough to make sure manners were observed. I guess thats a discipline issue and an issue of enforcing rules.

In my current school we have a real dining room. Tanles laid out permanently. Kitchen staff who set them and who serve the pupils as they come in. Prefects who monitor the ques, ensure children are seated and who head each table and keep order and a " High Table" ( sounds posh - it isnt!) for staff to sit at. The multiple presence of staff and prefects seems to work (as well as a chef whose wrath would be faced by anyone throwing his food on the floor or across the room)

I still stand by my view it is wrong to eat in classrooms . Have you not thought of raising funds for a dining hall?

Its not ideal, but I don't think its wrong per se.

We will be moving sites next year but the suspicion at the moment is that the new dining hall (shared with upper school) will be too far away for lower school to use effectively, so the classroom eating may well go on.

All staff on temp contracts gone, teachers being asked to teach subjects that are not their specialism, long term sick staff not being covered, learning support dept has been cut massively, teachers being asked to teach across more than one school.

Stop with the bitchy competitiveness and in fighting already! This is a time when teachers should be sticking together not arguing about photocopying!!

Can't you see that how many admin tasks you do entirely depend on your role and your place of work?

In large institutions it is much more economical for admin staf to do admin work because teachers' time is more expensive. It would be like expecting surgeons to clean the operating theatre after performing surgery - a waste of their expertise and a waste of money.

I work in a college of over 2000 students. The idea that 200+ staff would queue at a photopier for signficant chunks of time when we have a very efficient print room is ludicrous but the idea that a teacher who needed a particular worksheet printing off for a particular task now would put it through the printroom to make a point is also ludicrous.

So, in the next few weeks I am running 200 copies of several 100 page booklets that we produce in house for my course through the print room for my A Level students next year but that doesn't stop me copying the odd exemplar essay for my classes that has just been produced this week.

I think we should respect that teachers will have the common sense to know the best way of getting admin tasks done in their particular place of work!

I also think we should be cutting down copying full stop. I'm increasignly communicating with my students via email and the VLE.

Your thread, your rules, eh?

In all businesses, there have to be periodic cuts, and this is doubly so when there are limited resources.

Like all good gardeners know, you need to prune, sometimes hard, if you want your plant to thrive.

Schools are not businesses and what is being 'pruned' is the support and opportunities available to young people as well as those who might wish to offer that support and opportunities. Your casual attitude in the face of the biggest cuts to education in my lifetime is really quite distasteful.

Hmm MmeBlue you do seem very flippant. These aren't plants or profits, these are children - and, because of where a lot of the cuts are falling, vulnerable children (round here the pattern seems to be that TA support is being cut to the bone, so Wave 2 and 3 interventions, for example, will be hard hit).

Besides, my dad pruned my roses back too hard and they never recovered.....

The rise in TAs is a relatively new thing. They are not necessary, and a total luxury that we can ill afford.

I agree we need to stick together during tough times. The comments above re doctors and solicitors are very true. They simply would not do admin tasks and it should be the same in teaching we are a profession too. I feel many teachers except some level of cuts but it doesn't seem fair to hit the public sector so hard. The bonuses and tax dodging that goes on in the private sector needs addressing. The Robin Hood tax seems an excellent way of finding more cash.

Plus the attack on our pensions is not fair and probably not legal hence why the NAS have employed queens council to take it to court. Our pensions were deemed to be sustainable only a few years ago, but we are looking at effectively a £1000 a year pay cut! We can either bend over and be shafted or stand up and fight! and if we're shafted I aint hanging around until 6pm doing admin tasks!

It very much depends on the age group you teach and the needs of the children.
If you are teaching incontinent 5 year olds in a class of 30 believe me a TA is not a luxery!

luxury argh!

Not necessary?
So, thinking of kids with SN, how are they going access their personalised literacy programmes, then? SENCo won't do - well, can't do it, as usually it's a managerial role and the SENCo is busy teaching their own class! without these programmes (SENCo sets things up, TAs deliver), pupils will not learn to read and write. How can you think that that's ok?