how many teachers assistants per class?

[firstgreatholswiththree]

Hi there,

I just wondered what is the normal set up with TA's. I know that it depends on if there are SEN children but if there weren't how many TA's does a school normally have? If there is a different number in different schools (excluding the SEN allocation) how come???

I'm just curious. My kids school has 1 teacher and one TA per class all the way through. How would they fund this if it's not standard???

TIA

graphy - has the school got the same number of pupils this year it had last year?

A cut of 40K would only be a difference of 10 kids on the role on census day. Many schools would expect fluctuations of this amount year to year.

Is it a school with low, medium or high FSM? (Low FSM normally get less funding)

Has it got a lot of experienced staff? (They're far more expensive than NQTs)

40K is only about a 4% cut - so not really a huge amount.

What a fab website. Bit scary how little they spnd on educational resources. Only get 3600 per head though.

I work in an infant school. We have one teacher and one TA in each classroom, although some classes do have one day a week without, due to part time TAs. Most of our TAs are level 3. Where there are SEN provision for 1:1 these are in addition.

We're rolling in money! We receive £5069 per pupil, which is why we have 4 teachers, 4 teaching assistants and 2 1:1's for 96 pupils.

ours is one per class but they move around for different activities too and additional staff to work specifically with particular students

AT DSs school it LOOKS like one ( or more) TAs per class but currently in Yr 3 and above each class has a child with 1:1 who works with named child OR small group OR at teachers direction depending on circumstances/ need at the time.

My DS's school used to either have a TA or a trainee teacher alongside the teacher in every class. Until this year. Now there are only a rare few TA's, who are specifically for 1-2-1 for statemented dc. Our TA's have disappeared since they hired a FT teacher without a class, as 'floating cover' for teacher's PPA periods. It's a bit shit when you have a dc with SN on SA+ who used to get help from the TA and now doesn't.

That site says that my ds's primary has the highest expenditure on education support staff of my 5 closest primaries. Yet they have no TA's except for the 4 for the statemented dc. Who all have 1-2-1 for the full school day including break and lunch. (I know all 4 parents). So every penny of their TA spend goes on 4 dc out of 400?

.

None of the other 4 schools have ANY statemented dc. So I would assume they spend the TA money they DO spend on shared-use TA's rather than solely on 1-2-1? Yet my DS's school have the second highest number of dc with SN that aren't statemented.

So, in summation - my DS's primary is a good school to go to if you have a statement that states how much 1-2-1 your dc needs. It is a crap school to go to if your dc is on SA or SA+. Well, tbh, that's pretty much what parents have been saying locally for years - it's just got worse this year!

I feel like the poor relation here with less than £3000 per pupil. But there is a TA in every ks1 class (above 1:1 TA) and a pool of TAs for KS 2.

I'm in England and have never taught in a school with the level of TA support mentioned here either Euphemia.

I think many schools use low paid lowly qualified/unqualified staff to provide "bodies" in the room.

on the subject of qualifications the youngest least experiences teachers are paired with the most highly qualified and experienced TAs and Reception class always have a very experienced TA, I did check and all the qualifications of the staff are on the wall at the office reception, I asked what the letters after their name meant. with 30 children per class I think they need it, and lots of parents help out as well with reading and assorted other tasks

Lets be quite clear here about the funding. There is a very very complicated national funding formula, which then gives a set amount of funding to each pupil in an LA,which is called the Direct School Grant (DSG). Each LA then has its own funding formula which it uses to divide up the funding from government, part of it is kept by the LA (called the Central Spend) and part of it is delegated to individual schools -The Individual School Budget ISB).

Normally there is actually no funding allocated specifically for TAs within the ISB, it is up to each school to make decisions on the level of funding it is putting into teacher's pay and into non-teaching staff pay. So the number of TAs could be 0 or anything above that. The only specific funding for TAs is when a pupil has a statement of special needs and it names the number of hours support that pupil has to receive.

All four of our TA's are Level 3 qualified, one is also a Nursery Nurse ( not sure what level that is!) We certainly don't use non/underqualified staff-indeed one of our ta's is also a qualified teacher too.

My school has 1 TA to each class (and a couple of 1-1's) . We are all , AT THE VERY LEAST, NVQ 2 qualified, but are only paid at our council's "level 1" (except for 2 who are level 2...something to do with the junior and infant schools amalgamating). We all take groups, do PPA cover in pairs and basically do the same as teachers,(except for the planning and deciding what levels the children are achieving). We get paid for 27 and a half hours, but regularly do more without pay. We put up with it so that we at least have a job.

Out of the 9 class TAs - who are all level 3, with two of us due to start working as HLTAs) we have (we have other lower level TAs who work 1:1 with children with SEN), 4 are qualified teachers with QTS. We are paid as TAs obviously though and do the role of TAs. But our TAs are definitely not under qualified for the role. We are probably underpaid for the role, but that is a whole different question.

TBH in our school we do need a high level of support staff imo. It certainly is a great benefit to the children to have this additional support in the classroom. A lower adult:child ratio is one benefit, but with the experience, qualifications and skills amongst us we bring far great benefits than that. And yes, par for the course , we all do work outside our role and often unpaid too. I do I certainly do a lot of work when I am not employed to do so, but partly that is just my nature.

mrz - low paid, yes probably. Low qualified - not where I am. And we are not used just as extra bodies in the room either.

It just depends on what the school decide to spend their finances on I guess.

I've seen schools that employ unqualified TAs Hulababy parents are impressed by the extra bodies in the classroom where in fact it can be a liability rather than an asset.
I've just had a level 3 student on final placement and frankly I wouldn't employ her and have told her college that.

I agree that some TAs can be a liability in the classroom. BUT not all schools with lots of support staff are like this. My school isn't. Our TAs are well qualified, experienced and do a really good job. But then we also retain our TAs very well, because they do a good job. A poor one wouldn't last long here.

Our TA has worked in the school for 16 years and is very experienced and highly skilled. Our SEN HLTAs have been there for 20+ years and are frankly irreplaceable

Same with us. Our Nursery Nurse/TA has been with us 28 years, another TA 26, both undertook their level 3 qualifications about 5 years ago. The other two TA's had their level 3 before joining us several years ago (one of whom is also a qualified secondary teacher!) . Out 1;1 staff also have additional qualifications in their specialism. We have plenty of choice when we advertise TA posts ( we don't use parents/students) and can pick and choose from experienced candidates. Whether we pay them what they are worth is a diferent matter!

Ours are old NNEB trained with additional qualifications added over the years and no they don't get paid what they are worth IMO