Is there a legal requirement for a primary school class to have a qualified teacher?

[Smurfs]

My reception aged DS is in a mixed class -reception, year 1 and 2.in a small village school. Recently there have been quite a few changes to teachers etc and I have become aware that in DS class they are sometimes without a teacher with 2 taeching assistants taking charge. Should I be worried? Any pointers would be gratefully received.

I think it depends on the level of qualification that the TA has. Higher level TA'S can take a class.

It happens at our school too. Specially trained TA's are allowed to teach under the supervision of a qualified teacher.

I don't agree with this, but there you go .

I guess it's a school's way of saving money when the teacher has non contact time. They don't have to pay for supply teachers then.

I think it happens at a lot of schools, it does at the one I work at. It's come about because the Government introduced PPA time (Planning, Preparation and Assessment time) as 10% of the working week for teachers - anything up to 2 1/2 hours a week - great on paper, but not supported in any way by funding, so schools have to give it, and cover as best they can. If a teacher is an NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) that also entitles them to another 10% non-contact time - quite a headache for schools not flush with cash. A lot cover using parapetetic music or Art teachers, or have TAs taking the non-core subjects (eg music, art, etc) rather that Literacy, Numeracy, Science etc. It's very difficult. What I would say is that in my school, if a TA is taking a class the planning is usually done by the teacher (hard core teachers would say that it shouldn't be, but if you're planning a tranche of lessons it would be rather bullish IMHO to not plan the ones you were not going to teach yourself) and to be honest, I would normally mark it too. But that's just me and my school.

HTH

Thank you for the responses - it is very hard with the first child when you are not sure what to expect!

TAs are not allowed to teach. Same goes for Cover Supervisors. They are allowed to do just about anything else but. TAs are there to assist the teacher (either with the class or a specific child). Cover Supervisors are there to cover lessons (having been left work prepared by the Class Teacher). I know that many will recount stories of when they believe that they were teaching lessons, but..........

Reception rules are due to change in September 2008 - new legislation states that a qualified teacher with QTS must be present at all times.

Our head wants to have HLTAs taking lessons in PPA time at our school - it's cheaper. As a staff we have argued against it and our view is that it can be a positive thing for our school, i.e. all our lessons are taught by fully qualified staff. So far the governors agree with us, and this new Reception legislation is very useful when arguing the point - if it's good enough in Reception, surely it should be good practice throughout primary school?

The problem arises from the government appeasing teaching unions by insisting we are given planning and preparation time without putting any funding in place to help. Many heads feel they have no choice but to pay HLTAs to teach on the cheap (after 11 weeks training, btw). Personally, I think HLTAs are not paid enough to take on this role.

critterjitter, HLTAs (higher level TAs) are allowed to take lessons using teachers' planning.

Feenie
Not allowed to teach though. TAs/HLTAs/Cover Supervisors etc are allowed to instruct, hand out, supervise, 'take lessons' etc, but not actually teach.

What are they doing if they 'take' a lesson using your planning? If I'm there, I'm teaching, if a HLTA is there, they read from my lesson plan, so...?!

I agree, actually. It ain't teaching!

I don't disagree that the HLTA/ TA/ Cover Supervisor may be trying to teach (without having been trained to), but they are not actually supposed to be doing so.