Who's teaching your child?

[swedishmum]

My dd (Y4) tells me she had a Teaching Assistant all day. We've been out of the system for a while and I'm just wondering if this is normal. I have nothing against TAs but would just like to know what my children are up to.

Any thoughts?

My dd is only 5 (Reception) and they have a teacher and a TA all day. Her teacher is deputy head but when she goes to do deputy head stuff, they bring in another teacher to help out. Though I do know the TA does a lot of work with them - she is often the one who signs her reading book.

There are now level 3 TAs who are able to provide cover for whole classes at a time. Not neccessarily the best option but perfectly legal and about to become common practice.

HTH

Yes, HLTAs (Higher Level Teaching Assistance) have additional training/experience to qualify them to do whole class cover. And from September all schools should be providing every teacher with 10% PPA time - i.e. one morning or afternoon every week, or a day a fortnight. Some schools will be doing this by using HLTAs.