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 work with wonderful teachers. Not a bit of contempt towards them, except for the one who is a total jobs worth.

I don't have contempt for TA's. All I have said is that they are useful rather than necessary. This does not include those who are employed to work with statemented children (the statement will say that they are necessary).

And made some rather ill-judged comments for instance about 'pruning' which shows contempt for teachers and their TAs.

It's a fine line between 'useful' and 'necessary' isn't it? So, bankers bonuses = necessary, TAs who might make the difference between a child and a whole class being able to learn and not, = unnecessary. Bombing Libya = necessary, teachers' pensions = unnecessary.

My dcs' independent school have fortunately put TAs into the 'necessary' box. It's shameful that this Govt has not done the same.

MMeblueberry - I too have issues with a certain poster who is now saying to you what she said to me a few days ago. Dont worry , she seems to think all schools are like hers and if they are not, you have to be lying about being a teacher.

On the point though , mmebb's school sounds pretty typical of independents I have worked in . Generally we do not have TA's and do not need them.
I would also add that I too have worked in state schools where I have not had TA support , or TA support has been very random.

The view that education is not a business is not one you will find in the private sector ( nor nowadays in FE either) because education is our business. We have to compete . We have the best teachers etc. because we have to show our value for money. Its no different in state schools really, it just isnt seen for what it is. Money follows pupils through the system. When the bidget is cut ( which I guess would be the same as us in independent schools cutting our school fees and having less money coming in - or falling rolls , then staff do get made redundant.

In my school that isnt happeneing now. We bit the bullet as it were, sometime ago and the governors made a decision to freeze pay ( we have now had a pay rise) at the beginning of the recession. We also reassed needs and cut five teachers and several full time staff went to part time.
Since then though we have actually employed one extra teacher because rolls increased. Like mmeblueberry, we do not have many TA's or admin staff in the numbers seen in state schools.

I feel for every teacher who finds their job under threat right now. I have been there more than once in my career.

But that's a different situation. These children, presumably, are statemented.

I don't see why your DH can't also build relationships.

If you think back to your own favourite teacher from your childhood, what do you remember about them? Is it all those French irregular verbs they taught you, or that they were kind, cheerful, and took an interest in your life?

Of course it's about building relationships. And good relationships means they will learn.

'I don't see why your DH can't also build relationships.'

Without TAs? Ha, ha, ha.

Have you ever been to a school for children with severe EBD?

MmeBlueberry, I don't think anyone would argue that a good teacher will be able to 'build relationships'. What people are disputing is that a teacher who is able to 'build relationships' somehow makes TAs unnecessary.

Sometimes TAs are the only way in which a teacher can 'build relationships' and this is certainly case in dp's school.

'she seems to think all schools are like hers and if they are not, you have to be lying about being a teacher. '

Oh, go away, Jabed. What I've said is precisely the opposite. That I have a huge amount of experience of a huge amount of different schools from both the private and the state sector and in no school or teacher have I encountered Blueberry's dismissive attitude to TAs..

It is clearly Blueberry's experience that's rather more limited.

As is yours.

Thank you, jabed.

I think another thing about most independent schools is that we are used to working with the minimum of resources in order to keep the school fees down. We feel that many admin tasks are actually part and parcel of teaching, not something separate from lessons.

And I'm not the one sitting in misery corner, 5c.

Why are you so angry?

I chose my dcs' indepedent school because it is so well resourced and because the TAs together with small class sizes mean that the teachers can get on with teaching. If I thought my fees were paying for teachers to do photocoping I would consider my money being squandered. So you see even in the indepedent sector your experience cannot be made into a general assumpion about how schools work.

It's not very kind to tell someone to go away.

Actually, MmeBlueberry, your comments have made lots of teachers angry on this thread.

I'm sure they are very efficient at pushing those buttons on the photocopier. They will be doing something else while the machine is actually running - marking, perhaps.

Jabed is not a very kind poster. I already know his views about students with SEN and schools and they're not pleasant. In fact, he works in a school where pupils with SEN are taught in isolation and he has explicitly said he would 'kick them out' of his own lessons.

That is their problem. They need to ask why they are getting angry.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I would rather that the teachers at my dcs' school as in every other school spent their time teaching. That is what they are paid for and trained for. It is not economical to use their time on admin tasks.

Of course, as I said earlier, that doesn't mean teachers won't do admin but a good teacher and a good school will make sure that teachers mainly teach and admin staff do admin just as in a good hospital doctors doctor and admin staff do admin.

Because several people have patiently explained why TAs are necessary, citing problems you will know nothing about, but you casually sweep those children's problems away, airily saying teachers should just 'build relationships' with them and showing no empathy, understanding, or respect for other teachers' situation.

MmeBlue, actually I am remarkably calm. I can certainly see why your lack of concern for the fact that people are losing their jobs and young people are losing support might make people angry though. It's a shame you can't.

Their employers are patently not seeing TAs as necessary if they are making some of them redundant.

So it's not just something from my own experience.

Times are hard and hard decisions have to be taken. Whether I have made people angry nor not on this thread does not change that simple truth.

Their employers are patently not seeing TAs as necessary if they are making some of them redundant.

But that's the point - cuts mean they have no choice in the matter. Can you not see how your attitude is offensive?

I think they are taking the line of least resistance rather than not seeing TAs as necessary.

So MmeBlue, just out of interest, can I ask you how children at School Action + are supposed to receive any extra support? - you seem to have accepted that Ststemented pupils are allowed some TA support.

Are you aware that LAs are trying very hard to keep to an absolute minimum the number of Statutory Assessments they agree to?

I must ask ask friends working in/parents of children in the independent sector how they feel about being the poor relations in the education sector, what with having so few resources - that's certainly not what the parents feel, or what the schools present in their glossy brochures!

I can see that losing something that is nice to have does not have any immediate upside potential.

However, if this means you alter your working practices, you can actually turn a problem into an opportunity. When the economy picks up again, there will be new job opportunities.

People losing jobs is happening in all parts of the economy. It is not something unique to teaching. It is never nice for those people directly affected, but we are all suffering in some way or another for the reckless fiscal management by the last government. I imagine that I am financially worse off by the entire salary of a part-time TA for a variety of reasons, but I have no choice but to take it on the chin and get on with life.

MmeBlue 'Their employers are patently not seeing TAs as necessary if they are making some of them redundant.'

Schools are having to do it because they do not have enough funds to pay the salary bill. How can you not understand that?