How many Mums are dissatisfied with their DCs primary school?

[CrosswordAddict]

There seem to be a lot of dissatisfied Mums on MN and primary schools seem to be particularly disappointing. Any strong views? And if so, how can Mnetters become a force for change/improvement?

I agree AbigailS I would prefer to get in early or stay late to do these jobs so every adult can work with the children while they are in school.

Jenandberry, there just isn't the staff to do it in primary. Many primary schools are operating with one headteacher, one secretary, 7 teachers and one TA. That's it! No extra admin staff at all! Until PPA came in, many DHTs in primary schools worked with a full teaching timetable. Ditto Sencos.

As mrz says, in primary, if the class teacher doesn't do something it simply doesn't get done.

Do you know, I work in IT and always feel that computer systems would work brilliantly if it wasn't for the users DH teaches and sometimes I wonder whether he has the same opinion about schools and parents ......

I agree. When I was teaching there was no way I would have used what little time I had with the TA getting her to do admin. Her skills would have been wasted and the children in my class would have suffered.

When you have a class of 36 Y4s, 14 of whom are on IEPs (4 on SA+ for behaviour) and you only have TA help for 2.5 hours a week. You make sure that time is used well. I always used it for science or D&T where having 2 of you makes a huge difference.

i am a very, very tired teacher. i have 15 years experience with top juniors.

recently i have decided that i can no longer cope with juggling the needs of work and family. i work 3 days a week, but plan/ assess/ mark/ study continuously (unpaid) for the other 2 days, whilst my dc are at school.

i just feel burnt out all of a sudden.

the sad thing is that i still really love the job. however, a new series of hoops to jump through have just been placed in front of us at our school. planning, assessment, tracking, target setting systems have all been changed and are more time consuming and pointless than ever.

i just havent the energy any more

my DDs school is amazing
their teachers have been great
DD2 is in reception, she is heard read and books changed 4 days/week. never a problem.

BUT she has a parent helper almost EVERY session morning and afternoon. It is the only way to get through 30 children.

people who moan should see what they can do to make it better.

and whenever i go in to help (about once a month) i am always faced with a massive box of sheets to file. i don't mind, i am a super whizz filer and the teacher/TA knows it.

without parent helpers the TA wouldn't be able to support the teacher very well.

Schools aren't always great at dealing with parent helpers - ours hasn't taken up any of our requests to help and particularly doesn't want us listening to reading it seems .

It was only in pencil, so if they feel that strongly about it, they can take it down, rub out the correction and put it back up again - or alternatively, they could print it out again, complete with error.

I'll find out next week (if the project is still ongoing).

Sorry - wrong thread

antimony..'Schools aren't always great at dealing with parent helpers - ours hasn't taken up any of our requests to help and particularly doesn't want us listening to reading it seems.'

I guess you feel a bit fobbed off. However, it is really difficult to find a time to actually send children out to read! They need to be in lessons at the start, because they need to know what's going on. They generally need to be there for the middle bit, because the teacher will be workign to an objective, and s/he needs to assess the children against that objective in order to inform her next days' planning. The plenary is also an opportunity for assessment.
The only time we fit in individual reading is in assembly or in guided reading sessions in the afternoon (when Y6 come to help).

Our lessons are so objective and assessment focussed, I sometimes feel that I'm about to lose the plot!

But on the other hand, I feel that I've got a handle on each individual child in the class, which is something I've never felt before.

Bloody hard work though - and I question whether it's worth it sometimes.

Educational provision is patchy in the UK.

Some schools are great, others less so.

I volunteer in my local school an dit is very poor indeed. The children all deserve better.
Some of this is the fault of the school managemnt, some of it the fault of the teachers, and a large part of it down to the parents.

Not an easy thing to fix.

Haven't read past the first page but I am happy with DDs school. All I expect at this age is that she is happy, eager, making friends and that she is learning the three R's. So far so good so no complaints from me

I acknowledge there is not the staff in primary schools. Perhaps this is something concrete that poeple could change.

As a standard teacher before reponsibility I worked on average about 70 hours per week and that is with admin support. I would not be able to function without that support and know my teaching would suffer and therefore my students would miss out.

Infact I can remember before I had my son part of the reason I fell pregnant was to escape my relentless workload. I worked in a demanding school with no admin support and it was slowly driving me to a melt down. I suspect that if I had not taken maternity leave for a few years and then returned part time and then to a school with admin support I would not be in teaching now.

Teaching can be a little but like being on stage, there is no down time between 9 and 4am - or in our case 5pm and you need support to do that.

The utter chaos that I have witnessed in some primary schools must be down to this lack of support. Both my children have been in schools where reading books are never changed, spelling lists sent home wrong and then the tests never happened. Poor discipline, work never marked etc.

Noonar, that was how I felt.
I consider myself very lucky that financially I was in a position to leave teaching and take a TA job. I get to (almost) stay in the job I love without all the crap that goes with being the class teacher.

Since posting earlier about having 36 Y4s, 14 of whom are on IEPs (4 on SA+ for behaviour) and virtually no help excepr a TA for 2.5 hours a week, I have realised how ridiculous that actually was.

I worked my bum off but there is no way those children could possibly have received the same level of education I could have given them if I had had help or the class was only 28.

It will get worse as well Betty. We are getting ourselves ready for the cuts.

jenandberry I'm sure you don't mean it but you aren't winning yourself any fans with comments like that. I'm not sure how you think things can be changed with huge budget cuts things are going to get worse rather than better. We simply don't have money to pay admin assistants unless we get rid of a teacher
but what I find really annoying is that when I speak to secondary schools re the transfer of SEN children they haven't got staff to provide the necessary support yet have an office full of admin

I do think there is a fundamental difference between us in that primary staff would always opt for budget to be spent on more TA hours or desperately needed resources over admin staff. In fact, I think the mindset of most primary teachers would be that spending money on an admin assistant to help with reprographics etc would be a ridiculous waste of money.

Whether this is down to ethos or requiremnets I don't know.

betty, i am currently working towards an additional teaching qualification and hope to work in a learning support role in the future. i need a break from whole class teaching.

i secretly fantasise about working as a TA instead of class teacher, but feel that i would be letting myself down somehow, if i did that.

good on you though, to have the confidence to do a different role without worrying what others think.(sorry if i'm jumping to conclusions, but you sound very self assured and happy with your decision.)

Why do you feel you would be letting yourself down? You will still have your education, your experience and your skills. You will just be using them more productively!

That's how I look at it! I have a certain amount of autonomy and I take a lot of whole class lesson still. Though I also do the intervention groups and change the reading books etc. I love sitting listening to someone else's lesson and then being told exactly how I can help and what she would like me to do.

I love the job and the kids and being part of school life so it suits me really well. I get to spend more time with my kids and weekends and school holidays really are just that.

It doesn't bother me what other people think. I do think it bothers DH a little because whenever I tell peole I'm a TA, he always makes sure they know that I'm actually a qualified teacher. I'm happier than I've been for a long time and I'm lucky that I wasn't dependent upon the salary.

I may return to teaching at some point in the future and working as a TA means I have recent school experience and can keep up to date with everything new.

If you can afford it, I'd say go for it. I think Hulababy was saying she has done the same thing and couldn't be happier either. Teaching is no job to be in if it's getting you down and making you feel jaded.

betty, that is so, so interesting... i came back on to this thread just to see if you were about, actually, as i wanted to explore this idea further.

the qualification i am doing is a specialist dyslexia teaching qualification- albeit not at a particualarly high level. however, it lasts for 5 terms and involves a huge amount of study and a lengthy teaching practice. now, if i could get a TA job supporting a dyslexic statemented child 1:1, then that would be perfect. a TA job, but with no feeling of 'dumbing down', iykwim, as i'd be gaining valuable experience.

betty, i think i'd be more like your dh, tbh, and would want people to know that i was qualified . you sound like you've got it all worked out, betty. respect, to you

OP- apologies for the hijack.

This thread is quite an eye opener. What a crazy situation we have come to if you have to demote yourself and take a cut in salary in order to spend more time teaching the children rather than photocopying and form filling. It all seems completely inside out.