How many teachers/TA's to a class?

[MrsTruper]

Last year (year 2) my dd had one teacher one TA and there was also an assistant for a child that needs special help.

This year (3) my dd says she has one teacher and then the same person from last year that helps the child, no TA.

It is a standard sized primary class ie not far short of 30. Seems short staffed to me.

Are all classes supposed to have one teacher and one TA, or can there be no TA? What is the standard set up?

Many thanks.

We have ONE TA for the whole school.

The legal requirement is one teacher per 30 children from Reception onwards, anything else is a bonus!

euphemia, mrz do you mean there is only the one teacher per class in your schools and no other adults in the classroom at all? thanks

ok thanks

Yes Mrs Truper for the majority of the week I am the only adult in the classroom, which as snowball says the legal requirement.

And given the way funding is going there will be less and less TAs as time goes on, as the school has legally to employ teachers but not TAs, unless they are specifically to do with a special needs statement.

In my school, no key stage 2 class has any other adults apart from the teacher. Key stage one/early years have tas and learning support assistants though.

In years R to 2 there must be a minimum of one teacher to 30 children, from year 3 there may be slightly over 30 children. No statutory reqt for TAs (AFAIK)

1 teacher and 1 full time TA in DD1's yr 2 class. 20 children. not private, infact a failed school.

1 teacher and 3 floating TAs in DD2's reception year. Haven't worked out how many children are in her class as its still a bit mad with other parents still taking them in.

reception/Y1 class have 20 kids, 1 teacher, 1 TA
Year1/year2 class have 20 kids, 1 teacher, 1 TA who does mornings only and 1 TA for a statemented child.
Can't remember further up the school.

Dd's yr5/6 class has 1 teacher, 1 ft class TA and 2 ft SENTA and 2 pt TA's who are there during numeracy and literacy each day.

Crikey! In my 5/6 class I have a TA for Literacy and Numeracy and a part time 1:1 for a child with a statement for 18 hours

My DD and DS go to a 2 form entry school. This year, in each of the reception classes there will be the teacher and 2 TAs plus anybody acting in a support role for a child with SEN.

From Y1 upwards, there is 1 teacher and 1 TA per class. There are 2 classes for each year group from YR up to Y6.

In the school I work in, nursery has 1 teacher and 2 TAs, both reception classes the same and then 1 teacher plus 1 TA per class.

I don't live in a particularly well off area either but it seems we are lucky here.

I don't think wealth has anything to do with it. In fact on a recent course one TA said there were 5 TAs and a teacher in her class in a very deprived area. As a teacher it would be my worst nightmare.

We have one teacher, one TA per class of 30 in Reception - I have never quite worked out yr1 and 2 as I hear so many names mentioned but I think it's the same. After that, no idea.
There seems to be a lot of discrepency across the country, someone I was talking to who lives just outside London somewhere said her child was starting at a school with something like 2 teachers, 2 TA's per class or something!! Not a particularly deprived area either. Have no idea why some schools seem to get more money than others, does it depend on your county council and how they spend their money????Or does education funding all come from the centre?

Lots of reception classes work as units with 2 classes combined so need 2 teachers

Yep, TAs are the first to go when budgets are cut or roles fall. We kept a TA shared between classes, but lost the lady who did numeracy.

Great pity as the ability range in the Y6/Y5 class was huge.

We have the same staffing as we have had for the last 12 years so it isn't a case of cutting TA jobs.

Lots of schools dont have TA's for KS2 classes, children are encouraged to be more independent in their learning.

I teach in a private prep school (average class size 18). I don't have a TA, but I teach Latin so I don't really know what I'd do with one. The Y3 class has a full time TA, though.

We have one teacher and one TA per class. Sounds like we're lucky!

It would be really interesting to see good research on how well children (of the same ability spread per class) progress in the presence / absence of a TA - I suspect that the relationship is not straightforward and will depend much more on how they are used and on their level of training than on numbers.

We do have a TA per class (currently average class size 20) BUT they are only in the class for part of each day (Lit + Num + Phonics) except in Reception. For the rest of the time, they deliver specific targeted interventions to children either on the SEN register (we have a VERY much higher than average percentage of SEN kids) or who have other short or long term barriers to their learning which are causing them to fall behind. As a result, those children make really good progress, partly because the TAs are each really highly trained in the area of expertise in which they deliver interventions. In addition I do have 1 TA who does full-time 1 to 1 with a child whose disabilities mean that he requires continuous personal care.

On the other hand, if they were sit-with-the-lowest-group-and-do-displays type TAs (as I have seen in other schools) with relatively low qualifications and expertise, then even if we had twice as many of them they wouldn't make as much difference to the children....