Teaching assistants in sole charge?

[Escapingthemadness]

It's is by no means ment to offend anyone who is a TA. This is purely personal opinion, and some advice as to how other Mums feel about it happening.

My son is in yr.2 (he's 5). And it has recently come to light that his class are spending a lot of time in the sole charge of teaching assistants. His teacher is a NQT so gets 1 day a week to spend on non contact time. This day is being covered by a Higher level TA. This is planned and expected to happen all year. As parents we were not told.

Last week, the Teacher went home ill. The normal class TA took the class for the rest of the day. She's not a HLTA. She again took the class on her own all day Monday. Apparently it is school policy to let TAs cover for 2 days before finding another teacher or calling in outside supply teachers.

Now the kids are saying they have been having lots of choosing time, playing and watching DVDs. Rumour has it they watched Home Alone 4!!! Not something I would of chosen for him to watch.

Having spoken to our local LEA, Ofsted and the DEpartment of Education, it's seems this is all aloud to happen. There are no guidelines or regulations relating to TA's in sole charge.

However as a parent, I'm very unhappy and concerned about my sons education.

How do other parents feel about TAs in sole charge? What's your schools policy's?
Any advice?

Thank you.

Hi I'm a KS2 TA, your not insulting TA's at all, we should not be in charge of full classes, we are not paid to do this and even though some of us are qualified teachers it is poor practice to have TA's as replacement teachers, for PPA days or sickness cover.
TA contracts do not include the requirement to take full classes, we are employed not by the school but by the board of governers with contracts for state schools written by the LEA, therefore while a school may have adopted a regular pattern of TA cover, TA's are not obligated to fulfill this role.
If the school is a free school the contractual situation maybe different.
In addition if the TA is taking the class who is assisting the TA ?
A teacher or supply teacher will have a TA, when the TA is alone it is a darn sight harder to teach a class.

Agreed with the others. TAs are not really qualified to be teaching classes (and they certainly aren't paid the same). The roles are very different and it's a little cheeky allowing TAs to take classes for a few days before finding a substitute. You have a right to be concerned as you're naturally going to want to know what your son is being taught during this time.

Allowed in Engand HLTAs can cover PPA & NQT time and TAs can cover as a short term arrangement for illness or unplanned absence.

I would rather a decent TA (or two!) covered my child's class, who knew the school, and my child, than a supply teacher who had never set foot in the school until 10 minutes before the lesson started.

However, I would be very unhappy if my 5yo watched Home Alone 4.

If you are unappy with the provision the school is providing, you need to raise it with the HT.

I'm a HLTA

We have had union and lea guidance on this matter Over the last 2-3 years at my school.

A HLTA can do PPA cover and regular cover for whole classes. They can, and are usually expected to, plan, deliver and assess lessons for these classes. I do this for our y2 classes and also an eyfs class. I teach Computing, which suits me. I also go on all the training for this subject area inc stuff for the new curriculum. I was a secondary school teacher and have taught the subject to gcse and A level in the past.

Our TAs, if at level 3 - which most are at our school, can cover short term unplanned teacher absence ie teacher sickness. The unions and lea did advice they can do this for up to 3 days. We only do it for first day cover. Officially they should only be delivering lessons planned by or with a teacher. If the case of teacher sickness, in reality, this varies obviously.

Level 1 and 2 TAs should not, according to the unions and the lea, take full classes.

If you and a few other parents raise the issue you may do the poor TA a favour. A HLTA is trained and qualified (and paid) to plan and teach lessons over a short period. A TA is not. A TA should only cover in a true emergency. Even then it should only be short team, i.e. until cover is arranged or arrives. It may be that the school is taking advantage of the TAs who are being asked to do above and beyond their contracted role but do not feel able to refuse.
Ask the head, the response should be interesting

As a HLTA covering ppa I don't have a ta assisting me in general as they are busy doing interventions and class support elsewhere.

However usually if a TA here is doing first day cover we do try to move the other TAs around so that they have support, two TAs working together; the class teachers are the ones who lose support for the day if necessary.

If I ended up off sick at short notice, I would rather my TA (who knows me, the way I teach, my plans (because she gets copies every Monday) and most importantly knows the children and the school took over my class) rather than some random supply teacher. Recently the reception teacher phoned in sick on a Monday morning - the supply sent by the agency was a secondary science teacher. The TA spent all day telling him what to do and then chose to not have a supply teacher the next day - it was less stressful for her to be without a teacher than one who had no knowledge or experience. I rather suspect my TA would make the same decision.

Our school regularly uses TAs to cover absence instead of using supplies. At one point my DCs teacher was off sick for nearly three weeks and the class was taken by a HLTA. It turned out that she was very efficient (interestingly, apparently more efficient than the teacher - but that's another story), and the kids loved her.

I did think it was unfair on her though to be asked to take a class for that amount of time, and although the Head says she prefers to use TAs than supplies because they know the class, blah blah, knowing our Head it's more of a cost cutting exercise.

Escaping:

First off - and this may just be our experience - but many TAs are highly qualified, frequently teachers that have opted for a less full-on job, often because they have young families themselves or care responsibilities.

Second - people get sick, unexpectedly and this can mess up the best laid plans. Not sure if you work - but if you think about it - if someone is ill at work and it's an important presentation and they've got the material at home but haven't sent it through - then someone has to cover and 'wing it' basically.

Third - have you approached the HT? It seems to me that you should more concerned about the sudden drop in quality of education. One of the real bug-bears at our school is that teaching plans clearly aren't submitted far enough in advance that if someone is ill, what they had planned for the day (and all materials) are available to SMT to ensure smooth sailing.

I think it's this third point that you (and possible others concerned about this from your DC's class) should raise with the HT.

Follow procedure.

My advice is to submit a letter to the HT expressing concern and asking for information on how the school will avoid disruption to the normal delivery of curriculum in future which is signed by as many parents from the class as possible.

There will be a response from the HT or SMT. If verbal - send a letter reiterating what you understand she has promised and make it clear that your expectation will be that there should be no further issues on this matter. I suggest you make it clear that if this poor service continues you will raise this with the Governors.

If you continue to have 'days off' when staff are ill/ training/ on scheduled leave for NQT day, etc... - then formally complain to governors.

You then have a paper trail & come OFSTED inspection if you continue to be concerned you can simply submit it to OFSTED as an example of poor management and/or governors not holding SMT to account.