Renfrewshire Council cutting primary teacher time by 10%

[MrsBalfy]

Is anyone aware of what is happening to education in Renfrewshire? There has been a policy agreed to take away 2.5hrs a week of the current 25hrs that primary children have. The council have yet to define the job descriptions of these people and have yet to place an advert for recruiting them and yet the pilot is due to start in April.

Can anyone give us some advice how we can oppose this, I don't want my children's education to be decreased like this, I want them to have just as good an education as all of the other councils in Scotland.

JR61- teachers can't possibly do all their planning for the term ahead in advance- a vital element of planning is flexibility, adapting plans to suit the children's learning. Our teachers use their weekly PPA sessions to discuss how lessons went & adjust their planning in the light of that, reinforcing where necessary; it should be an ongoing process throughout the term.

I should add that they also review their planning on a daily basis in their 'own' time after school, or in their lunch break if they are running a (free) after school club that afternoon

RustyBear>

I wasn't suggesting that all the planning is done a term in advance.

What i was suggesting that this would supplement what they did and allow teachers to have 25 hours teaching plus 10 hours planning per week.
Again, as i stated before, teachers are not the only folk in the world that do extra hours. I am not condoning it, just noting the reality for many folk.

For those who do not believe that a review teachers conditions of service is not part of the bigger picture then so be it. There is nothing that i can say that is likely to change your mind. The Government have commissioned a review that is due to report in June, we can all just wait and see what it says.

So when do they do the 10 hours planning then? After school? In which case, when do they run the after school clubs, speak to parents, have team meetings and whole staff meetings, attend twilight training sessions?

not to mention the marking, the assessments, the planning review, the IEPs, the ILPs , the meetings with EBSS, EP and the 101 other things we need to do during the day!

Boofle, thanks for your comments - you have your opinion and I have mine - if you don't mind the cuts affecting your childs education thats up to you - I feel differently. If the Council get away with this (and remember this is Renfrewshire Council alone proposing this - not Scotland wide) then that it up to you. I for one do NOT accept it.

If anyone thinks that CUTTING education and taking away time with a qualified teacher is the best thing for our children, then you must be mad! Sorry, but there is no way that saving only £1 million justifies reducing our children's education.
The goverment is so intent on not raising council tax that our children are now being punished. No one wants to see council tax rise, but education for children should not suffer, ever.
The fact that they're calling it the "enrichment programme" says it all to me. Call it by a name that sounds like its a benefit and people will be fooled by it.
Make no mistake, if they get away with this, there is nothing to stop them chipping away an hour at a time, to reduce our children's education to a 4 day week.
Enrichment programme - dont't make me laugh.
Please come along on the 19th to register your disgust at this proposal. People power DOES make a difference.

I hope that everyone who is against this proposal will turn up to the EIS Rally on Saturday 19th Feb at Paisley Town Hall 10.45am, this is the only way the Council will see the parents are serious and not going to give up.

My mind is made up - I was more than satisfied with Alex Salmonds answer to my question. As long as I know HMIE will be inspecting, and if it doesnt work they can scrap it - THAT'S FINE BY ME!! Might even start up my own campaign - in SUPPORT of this!!

I agree with you. If they employ people to conduct a pilot in all schools, are they really going to get rid of them if the pilot is unsuccessful?

I have always viewed Alex Salmond as a very capable politician and I am sorely disappointed with his approach to this issue. His responses to questions from Iain Gray at First Minister's question time last week were not what I would expect from a professional politician and certainly not from our First Minister.

You can view it here if you are interested. www.holyrood.tv/popup.asp?stream=vr-sp-archive.lbwa.verio.net/archive/100211_FMQS.wmv

This idea of a non-teaching element of the day makes my blood boil! Our children are currently taught for 25 hours per week, not 22.5. Yes, they get input from more than one teacher but they are not doing 2.5 hours a week of thumb twiddling! All 25 hours of teaching time are planned to give our children a well integrated experience.

For the first time in my life I have written to and visited Councillors and MSPs and, at the tender age of 45, this Saturday will see me at my first ever demonstration. I hope to see Paisley Town Hall filled to capacity.

That is I agree with Euphemia. I guess we're all entitled to our own opinions. If we keep piling on the pressure we might get a u-turn from Renfrewshire Council, although I have a feeling this may need to run its course.

Hi, At the beginning of all this I was horrified to hear what was being planned and would have been standing with you on the 17th and the 19th. However, as more information has been released I am beginning to side with boofle on this one. None of us like change and would prefer everything to go along just as we know it and like it but you only have to watch the news to know that the county is in trouble. Its cuts cuts and more cuts. When you peel back the political hype and the myths that go with this proposal it's not really that bad. My son has had St Mirren football coaches for football and my daughter has had rugby coaching from a development officer. Both have rated their experience as "great". When I looked into it further I was told that these activities were delivered as part of the core PE time so that shatters the theory of only a teacher can deliver PE. I am open minded about it and don't feel my children will be disadvantaged in any way. I also believe that with all the hype that has gone on with this proposal, Renfrewshire Council will go full out to make it work.(Well I would if I was them) I have nothing against teachers and I know they do a difficult job but I believe other people are more than capable to fulfill this task. If it was maths and english I would be totally opposed but its not. Its sport, culture and citizenship. Happy to join your supporters club boofle, count me in.

Jeanie50 - had you been there at the rally today you would have got the side of the teachers in this argument - 97% of them can't be wrong - they struggle to teach the curriculum in 25 hours never mind 22.5 - there is no guarantee maths and english will not be affected and I am disappointed you are quite happy to wave cheerio to a right your children have to be taught by teachers like every other child in Scotland. Why should Renfrewshire be different just because they can't add up their sums properly, they are spending millions on more work to the Lagoon - more insulation for Renfrewshire House - despite the millions already spent, I for one would prefer to see these projects put on hold and our children receive a fair education like others and be taught by teachers and not someone who has no experience of teaching a class of upto 30 children.

Carrie02 We are all entitled to our own opinions. I don't believe my children will be disadvantaged. I think they will be given many new opportunities and experiences within the 2.5 hours per week. I do not believe only teachers can teach. As I said previously, reading writing and maths should be left in the capable hands of teachers, but sport, art, culture and citizenship can be taught by a range of people providing they are disclosure checked, experienced and knowledgable. I have spoken with a few of my friends across Renfrewshire and know that other people are already in the schools providing these activities. St Mirren, Active Schools, Sports Development, PACE and many others are already providing this service. The only difference is that we are paying the teachers to sit at the back of the room. The coaches/staff are more than capable of taking a group of 30+ children because they already do it during after school activities. As I said, this is not a new approach it happens acrosss the country already. I want my children to get the best education possible and quite frankly as a parent, I don't see this proposal as being all that bad. I can see why the teachers don't want it and I can see why the EIS and the GTC are trying to stop it. If they did support it, it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. As far as the rally is concerned, it does sound as if there was a good turnout but when you think about it, there are about 49 primary schools in Renfrewshire. There were a lot of children there and a lot of teachers and parents.However it works out less than 30 representatives per school! But don't get me wrong if you are unhappy about the proposal you are quite right to be doing what you are doing.At the beginning I would have been standing beside you but not any more. I am happy to agree to disagree on this one.

I thought that I'd throw my opinion into the mix. I have read everything I could find regarding this proposal and tried to see through the mis-information (not always intentional) provided by both sides. I have spoken directly with my local councillor who voted in favour of this proposal. I attended the EIS rally and listened to what the teachers had to say. As a result of all this I am totally opposed to these changes.

While the redefining of the 'teaching' week concerns me, my main problem with this is the safety of my children.
NOBODY can tell us exactly who will be providing this 'enrichment' to our children. It would be nice to think that it will always be staff of organisations like Active Schools, PACE, etc but that is not necessarily going to be the case. Even if it is... staff from within these organisations are not used to an adult to child ratio of 1:30+. If there is no control over a class there will be no learning. My children and their friends attend a variety of out of school activities between them and I have yet to hear of anything like this ratio, the maximum I have heard is around 1:15. Their teacher looks after 32...... but she knows her class. She knows which kids to keep apart, who's having problems at home, who to keep an eye on etc. The same can be said of the McCrones cover which is currently provided by other qualified teachers from within the school - often the same ones throughout the year. Teachers are invested in each of the children that they teach. If a teacher messes up there are consequences, they are members of a professional body.

With every will in the world the 'council enrichment providers' will struggle to have the same level of control over a class and as a result learning of any topic will suffer.

I am so thankful this doesn't affect me. I know a renfrewshire teacher who told me her biggest concern is the people that are going to be employed to do these jobs with children. As someone already pointed out due to the nature of the funding they must employ people who have been long term unemployed and cannot be employed by anyone else (her example was alcoholics). These people (I hate the term 'these people', I really don't mean it like that) will be working with 100's children in and out of a lot of different schools without any direct supervision. She is genuinely worried about this.

Her second concern was that there would be no point in sending your child to school for those 2.5 hours. But, I can see a benefit to addressing the problem of childhood obesity if they are going to get more sports. I really don't know much more about it than that though.

Euphemia, Shame on you for protecting your own interests as a teacher and using my children to fight your case. Lets hope that the review taking place to look at the "McCrone" time will sort this out once and for all. If you are made to work the full 25 hours I will be whooping for joy. The enrichment programme is a missed opportunity as far as I am concerned. If I was the council I would withdraw all curriculum activities delivered from "non teaching" staff and make the teachers deliver it all. You cannot have your cake and eat it. If only teachers can teach then you should be left to get on with it and put a full days work in along with everyone else.Bottom line is money still has to be found from the Education budget. So what schools are they going to close? Bigger class sizes? Yeah yeah but you will be alright. SHAME ON YOU!!!!! This site was better than the RPCF because parents could air their views without the piffle being spouted or the direct abuse if you did not agree with their thoughts. I would not normally resort to tit for tat but on this occasion I have made an exception. Finally, as far as recruiting alcoholics to the posts. c'mon. The european funding was only mentioned on the basis that there are highly skilled people out there who have been unemployed for 12 months. It was alway about the best person for the job. You were clearly listening to the rubbish on RPCF. I feel sorry for the council workers who deliver these activity sessions in schools at the moment. Clearly, as far as you are concerned they are not worthy. Shocking!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12527747

Pleased about this development but still wary.