Teacher sickness covered by a TA

[Dinnertime22]

The TA has covered the class for the last three days while the teacher has been off sick. Has this changed as I recall a cover teacher was normally drafted in? Is the common practice?

Norestformrz
Exactly!
Being the adult responsible for a class for a short period of time does not equal teaching.

I have my own feelings on how schools take advantage of TAs and put upon them in a number of areas, but there's a difference between cover supervising and actually teaching.

So all the parents saying they'd prefer a TA to cover the teacher's absence are happy for their child to not be taught until the teacher returns?

Here in NL kids are sometimes sent home if teacher is sick, last week 25 kids had to be spread over 5 other classes, another time my DD had 3 different relief teachers in one week. It's pants.

I was involved with mentoring and assessing a TA to be an HLTA abd I honestly assessed her according to the criteria. She had to prive she had fulfilled her existing role well and brush up some IT skills which she did and then went from being a TA in a Nursery Class to covering year 6 including maths and literacy. She had no extra training.

From my personal experience, my head and school bursar don't care about any of those laws/guidelines. All they care about is that I am cheaper than a supply teacher.
But these are the same people who are expecting TAs to help run subjects and be part of the new Deep Dives, so it's hardly surprising.
I am perfectly capable but I will say again, if I wanted a teaching role I would apply for one.

I’m a HLTA but only cover PPA in the afternoon i.e not English and maths! I do PSHE, some music and French- primary school standard.

Many of our TAs are qualified teachers and we pay them a bit extra if they cover for a teacher.

Equal to a Qualified Teacher's rate?

Well, my 18 year old ds covered a class at the private school where he works part time in a “specialist capacity”. I’d a million times rather have a TA!

@Norestformrz

Yes.

Good ....most schools only pay a few pence an hour more to TAs for covering a teacher.

I am a HLTA and cover sickness. All lesson plans are available and I deliver the lesson and mark it. I don’t cover more than 1 day in the same class. Supply teachers are brought in from day 2. Teachers prefer HLTAs to cover as we know the children, the school and the marking/next steps system. Alternatively classes are split which is no learning tbh.

I thuink it depends when the cover is, and for how long.

I had to go home unwell in the middle of the day - on one of the last days of term. As my class TA was already with the class, I was able to brief her fully on the necessary lessons before I left the building. As we were in the last few days of term, these were consolidation lessons, not lessons with significant new learning.

The following morning, she handed back over to me with a thorough debrief, and so I could pick straight back up again.

This worked much better than the school having to bring in a supply teacher ON THIS OCCASION, especially because the supply teacher would not have been on site for me to brief before leaving.

However, at an earlier point of term, with lessons containing significant new learning, and for a longer period, I would want a supply teacher to cover - for this class.

On the other hand, for my class last year, with an extremely complex mix of severe SEN and behaviour problems, I would NEVER have wanted an unknown adult to take the class. Partly for their own safety, but also because the very careful structures put round each of the children with particular needs for every single part of the day - avoiding all the key triggers, being aware of the safeguarding issues, the key vulnerabilities, the difficult moments of transition etc etc - and the fragile bonds of trust with any adults at all, were so easily broken and so hard to rebuild. If I had been ill last year, then unless SLT or a school HLTA stepped in (our HLTAs have teacher training), a number of individual children would have had to be moved elsewhere within the school with assigned adults (taken from other classes if necessary) before a 'general' supply teacher could have been used.

I'm a qualified TA op I am also educated to similar standard as teachers and in a much more relevant subject than some of the teachers I know. My back ground is children and childhood. All I'm lacking is QTS. In my opinion I'm more than capable of covering a class and teaching a class short term and have done more than once.

My TA is entirely capable of taking a class (and indeed we swap roles for one PE lesson a week, so she takes the class and I deliver specialist interventions as it plays better to our strengths).

However
a) I feel it is exploitative - if the school paid unqualified teacher rates for a graduate who is a TA to cover the class, i would have less issue with it. But they tend to make very little, if any, more than their usual tiny salary.

b) TAs have their own jobs to do - usually supporting the most vulnerable children in their care and learning, and delivering specialist interventions. I think those children do not deserve to have their support taken away, particularly as many also have ASD or MH difficulties and suffer when their structure is disrupted.

c) Once 'some' TAs take classes 'because some can', I think we are on a very dangerous slippery slope, in which ALL TAs, however poorly equipped, are expected to cover classes. If a very clear demarcation can be made between 'people employed as TAs who have been trained as teachers' - and thus can be used for supply, paid at a teacher rate - and 'people employed as TAs who do not have these qualifications' - who cannot be used to cover a class, then that would not be so bad. However, I do not see this clear dividing line in use.

I'm a qualified TA op I am also educated to similar standard as teachers and in a much more relevant subject than some of the teachers I know. My back ground is children and childhood. All I'm lacking is QTS. In my opinion I'm more than capable of covering a class and teaching a class short term and have done more than once.

Great, however-what about TAs that aren’t qualified or aren’t educated to a similar standard to teachers or in a much more relevant subject to teachers? What if their background isn’t in children and childhood?

Once 'some' TAs take classes 'because some can', I think we are on a very dangerous slippery slope

This is the crux of it. There are some amazing TAs that have degrees, used to be teachers, have PHDs etc etc, yes..., but if you don’t NEED any qualifications to teach a class, some cash-strapped heads will use simply anyone. The minute that becomes ‘fine’, what next?

We use TAs to cover for shorter (up to 2 weeks) teacher absence. It's not mainly about funding, but because a Higher Level TA that knows the children and the teacher's plan will usually do better. Supply teachers won't know names, needs of individuals, what happened in previous lessons, so until they have caught up and things move on productively, a week or two will have lapsed.

Also TAs are not necessarily less clever or less qualified than a teacher. My ds TA is a QC who downsized, several other TAs are qualified teachers who downsized/early retired, or the other way round: many TAs are highly capable professionals who want to change career and are qualifying as teachers while working as TAs.

My PPA cover (1 day a week) has gone wrong through illness this year. I've had a number of supply teachers, all of whom are TBH utterly unsuitable/pants/rip off. All qualified, just not good.

Have changed my working week so my TA now covers 2 afternoons while I'm on site. My supervision. She's far better than any of the supply teachers we've had, knows the children and their learning will continue. Also she's so much better at art than me...

“Most schools will have insurance which covers the cost of supply teachers (usually kicks in after a weeks absence )”

Not most. Some. That insurance is incredibly expensive and is really aimed at longer term sickness rather than day to day stuff. It also has multiple get out clauses for the insurer as well. And the premium shoots up if you actually have the temerity to claim. Or they simply redline the school

many TAs are highly capable professionals

Many are, many aren’t.

Wait until you get to secondary - a lot of schools rely on "Cover Supervisors" to cover teacher absences, these people have minimal training. My DCs school didn't use them, but all students needing cover went to the Hall and sat at exam desks and did preset work under the supervision of some senior teachers, actual supply teachers were few and far between (mainly used for long term absence or exam classes).

I'm a primary school TA and sometimes cover classes. I do not teach as I am not a teacher. However, I have been working with my current class for three years (Y4-6), I know the children that need extra support, I know the tricky characters that I need to keep an eye on, I am in that class full-time so know exactly where we are and what our current area of study is in each subject, I have access to (and read thoroughly) lesson plans (including any differentiated plans), and am perfectly capable of guiding the children through (usually) consolidation work that the class teacher has left. The children know me and how I work, and vice versa. Having me covering a class is usually less disruptive than getting an unknown supply teacher in (especially for the SEN children). It's not an ideal situation and I get paid nothing extra for it. But school budgets don't always allow for anything else.