Something EVERY parent of a child in a UK State school should know about

[QualifiedTeacher]

The UK Government has new proposals to allow non qualified teachers to teach in UK schools. This means our children?s education may be placed in the hands of teachers without basic qualifications such as English and Maths GSCE let alone a Bachelors degree. This policy will mainly be affecting children from the lower economic backgrounds and the reasoning behind employing unqualified teachers is simply because it costs less.

I have attached an epetition which gives more information and is asking for signatures to oppose the use of unqualified teachers in UK State schools. If the numbers signing this petition is large enough, we can get the debate discussed in the UK Parliament. Please help and protect the education of all UK children in State schools.

Thanks

WWTB 'The teacher pupil ratio may be looked at and if less qualified teaching staff are necessary to deliver the curriculum it will allow for more hands on deck within classes, then I really think it would work very well....having 2/3 staff per class has to be a huge advantage to the teacher's and the pupil's....'

But 'delivering the curriculum' has to be planned before it happens! Who will be doing the planning? (And planning takes many hours of a teacher's time: from the odd sleepless hour in the middle of the night, to inspiration in the car on the way to work, to several hours of slog on a Sunday afternoon.....)

WWTB added to FB comment, HLTAs, TAs, and CSs don't get paid PPA, which is time set aside for planning. And the curriculum is always changing. I remember planning my first ever 6 week Scheme of Work for Year 7. It took ages and I was constantly having to change it after every lesson. Luckily I was a PGCE student at the time and had the guidance of an in school mentor and a lecturer from university.

I'm much faster at planning now, because of the training and with experience. We call it EDL (Evidence Based Learning). But can you imagine doing that without the training FB? All that planning for AFL, BLF (Behaviour for Learning), VKA (Audio, Visual, Kineasthetic) Learning, that's not even the half of it, the list goes on and on.

QT But can you imagine doing that without the training FB?

People could argue that school mentoring and CPD will deal with that! But..... who will want to do CPD courses, KS and/or department meetings, staff insets, work 50-60 hours a week (planning, teaching, marking, assessing, planning, teaching, marking, etc, etc), pastoral care, extra-curricular clubs..... AND have to face big O judgments - for £15000 a year?
The problem is, that a 'teaching' position includes all the above roles, all of which are time-consuming. You can't dilute the role.

Marysbeard - precisely! Far better for the class to have a variety of different types of helper than one single teacher.

QT has already said that this isn't about an increase in the number of helpers. It is about replacing the qualified teacher in the classroom.

er - and how exactly does QT 'know' this? Perhaps by the same means s/he 'knows' the incoming horde will be thick,burly gorillas?

Well, I guess she read the news:
England's new academy schools can now hire unqualified teachers, after a change to the rules.

Government officials say this means academies will be free to hire "great linguists, computer scientists and other specialists who have not worked in state schools before".

Unions for head teachers and teachers have attacked the move, describing it as a damaging backward step.

The change is immediate.

Until now, most state-funded schools could only employ people with what is known as "Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)", meaning they have been trained and approved as meeting a range of standards.

mam29 TAs do have a valuable role, but more one to one teaching using TAs may not be the way to go:

I dont wish to come accross anti teacher as im not I have few teacher freinds.

maybe im lucky last 2years daughters ta has been very mature and experienced so inspired confidence.

when she struggled with reading the ta taught her in smaller group for 8weeks so the ones stuggling for more help.

in reception the ta taught re she was very religious, is rc school so would have every confidence in her teaching that subject as after all sunday school teachers not qualified.

eldests year 1 teacher -bafflled why had one afternoon off every week to do lesson planning. was same teacher well assume she was qualified.

The ta in r1 class used to take the 15reception kids to do something whilst teacher taught the year 1s as year 1 teacher told me that much.

one of my primary school freinds talks about her ta like they some kind of skivvy slave doing all the crap jobs she cant be bothered to do.

Im not sure the senco co-ordinators a qualified teacher.

I know budgets being cut as on pta and teacher requests range from odd to crazy.They seem to overcomplicate a load of simple issues, have different veiws on whats good use of pta funds and moan an awful lot.

We dod try to help fund things that benefit the child

for example specilaists coming in to teach kids certain subjects.

I think at secondry level in subjects where there shortage then maybe there should be some give and take.as long as they crb checked and have high level degree/experience in that topic then why not.

I agree if teaching modern languages why is maths relevant.

Thankfully I dident have my maths so dident consider teaching as find the kids I have more than enough managing 30 is huge so if i was teacher I be glad of the tas.

Actually MrsGuyOfGisbourne all the research shows that those extra people in the class can actually undermine pupils progress

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8539366/Teaching-assistants-fail-to-improve-school-results.html

Abstract
Paper title
The deployment of teacher aides/assistants and their impact on students? academic progress

Teacher Aides/Assistants (TAs) make up almost a quarter of the school workforce in the UK, but research on their impact is limited and the results mixed. This paper reports on the largest UK study on the impact of TAs on pupil outcomes, involving nearly 8,000 pupils across seven year groups, five measures of support, and pupil attainment measured by National Curriculum levels/Key Stage tests. There was a consistent negative effect of TA support on the academic progress of pupils, even after controlling for prior attainment and special educational needs (SEN). The more support provided, the less progress made.

The effectiveness of the use of learning support assistants in improving the mathematics achievement of low achieving pupils in primary school.
Muijs, D. and Reynolds, D.Educational Research Vol.45 No. 3, 2003, pp.219-230.

The study took place over the course of a term in year 1 and 2 classes. The pupils in the project were matched with pupils of similar levels in other schools.
Findings:
? The pupils with LSA support did not make more progress than those who did not.
? Recommend a case study approach to allow closer scrutiny of the underlying explanations of these results.
? Teacher effectiveness found to enhance achievement at all levels.

It depends how you define 'progress'. I like to see my Dc and others interacting with a variety of adults, and confidently adapting to different styles of communication/accents/vocabulary/body language. (in any case, the study appears to say they did not make 'more' progress, not that thier maths suffered)

And the helpers are only useful if the teacher plans their use effectively within his/her lesson plans. (Another job for the qualified teacher and one of the teaching standards.)
A helper doesn't automatically 'know' what to do. The teacher will be targeting any available help to raise achievement in the classroom.
A TA doesn't just sit there when a teacher is talking - s/he makes notes on what is happening in the classroom, annotating the teacher's plans and feeding back names of children who need extra help. Used properly, they can be really useful. Used ineffectively, they just become another body in the classroom.

MrsGuy I fear you are right. No one seems to be addressing my questions.

Qualified, there simply are not enough specialised language teachers in the system - this is not a myth.

I suppose it depends on what you call good use of a TA flexybex I certainly would be unhappy if the TA in my class was sat taking notes and annotating plans rather than actually interacting and supporting those pupils who need help.

I meant when the teacher's starting the lesson mrz. They're not 'just sitting there' when the teacher's talking - they're actually proactive throughout the lesson. Of course they interact and support children!

so did I

I don't want anyone 'sitting' there while I am teaching - it's usually very interactive and I need the extra TA to interact and support. I can't imagine talking long enough for he/she to make notes.

You mean you never have a maths starter that involves all the children (i.e. interactive)? My TA notes down who is having trouble at the same time as 'interacting' with the children around her, then I address any problems in follow-up lessons.

That's different - that's just normal interaction and feedback, which isn't what you described at the beginning.

I always teach whole class flexybex (although I don't have a TA most of the time)

OK - she's multi-tasking! My original point was really aimed at the way a TA was being branded as a 'helper'. I was trying (obviously badly ) to explain that a TA is actually following (and, indeed, is part of) the lesson plan and is providing the teacher with invaluable feedback.

I don't want the TA in my class to be a "helper" or a "note taker" I need them to work with me as an effective team member

Most children will be taught by unqualified people at some point - TAs do teach children things when they are working in small groups within the classroom.

Not in every school Dizzy

But, dizzy, they are following the teacher's plans - TAs are not just randomly 'teaching'.

The teacher's plans are written to help children achieve a certain objective. The TA will be working to support his/her group within the classroom to achieve and make progress towards that objective. The success criteria will be made clear to the TA and s/he will know what to expect from the group by the end of the lesson.
All TAs are working from plans that are written by the teacher.

Im interested in hearing from tas on this matter.

In our school I hope they valued members of staff and not seen as very much lesser than teachers.

Always hate the end of term gifts thread as some parents dont get ta anything.

If they helping the kids then im all for them.

I cant see i the proposals how the new changes=

less helpers
more teachers losing their job.
i cant see the words classroom assistants will be teaching your child no plans and unqualified.

I think we need to know more detail.

Im assuming they will be used when really needed specialist subjects or where a school struggles to recruit as rough area, bad repuation ect;