No TA in year 1

[Azanrain]

Would you be concerned if your year 1 dc did not have a TA in their class? There is a full time class teacher but no teaching assistant. It’s a class of 30 in a state school. Is this normal? The email said they will have the class teacher and a TA for forest school and a different TA will take children out 2 mornings per week to run interventions but there isn’t going to be a class TA. I am concerned that my shy DD will be lost in the crowd and not get very much one-to-one attention. They had a really good TA last year and my DD had a great relationship with her and she was wonderful. She read one-to-one with the children and even did things like getting DD into her ballet clothes after PE because we had such a rush to get from school to ballet. Am I worrying unnecessarily or will the dc miss out by not having a TA? Should I speak to the school about my concerns?

Very far removed from what any child gets today

Some children were considered beyond education, they refused disabled children, deaf, blind, autistic etc and they were kept at home or sent to special schools.

That’s not how it works now and some classes have huge special needs.

You also get children from dysfunctional homes who aren’t brought up with manners, expectations, love or even the right equipment, toilet trained etc so staff have to be there to help them.

There’s a lot wrong with education and it’s starts at home.

DD is in year 2 and I was surprised that they have 2 full time TA’s as well as a full time teacher. Same in reception and Y1. I have mixed feelings about it tbh, DD attracts significant additional funding as do some of the other children. She gets no additional direct support as the school pools it all to fund the TA’s to support all of the children. On balance I think they’ve got it right but it’s hard when she struggles and would benefit from some of the money being spent directly on her.

That's terrible but sadly it is all to do with budgets. I teach year one and have a class TA plus a SEN TA, both fulltime. I couldn't do the job without them and the children wouldn't make anywhere near the same progress.

If she has an ehcp they should be ensuring the provision is provided.

The schools often see provision for the least able as best delivered within a group setting. So it’s very difficult not to include others within the group. It’s a balance of course.

@Threelittlelambs
We had special schools then as we do now. However 40 in a class wasn’t a great learning experience. When DDs were at school they had no severe special needs in their class.

I started primary in late 80s and there were no TAs then.. I can't imagine how reception teachers used to cope! Though it used to be a staggered start, the term after you turned five (I was five in January, so didn't start until I was five and three months!) so fewer, older children.

So I guess they perhaps started to be introduced in early 90s...

My DC is year 2 and doesn't have a class TA this year, but did in reception and year 1.

A lot of the schools I work with have TAs in the majority of classes, or at least shared between class groups (eg Y1/2 , Y3/4, Y5/6)

@Thenightwemet16
In my LA, in the late 80s we did have school employed TAs. Working for the LEA, I also had a budget for TAs to be targeted on SEN children with no “statement”. This could also be targeted at YR classes with high percentages not ready for school. Not potty trained for example. I reviewed the needs of the children we supported each term. When (if) DC got a statement, the funding was from the SEN pot. Now all of this gets devolved to schools but it’s not necessarily the best system of support.

Yes, YR entry was staggered and summer borns would start after Easter and get 1 term in YR. My DD1 started in 1997 and she was 4. She is a summer born and, for the first time, her school took summer borns in January. She was more than ready for school but at 4, some are not. Hence greater use of TAs.

I was born in January and didn't start until after Easter, which is crazy as I was a whole year older than my DD who started at 4 years 3 months!

Staggered entry just seems like such an easy way to make the younger children in the year lag behind forever, I’m so pleased that it’s no longer a thing.

I definitely agree with the way it is now much more (where a whole class starts at once, unless by parent choice), but agree that this makes TAs in reception absolutely vital as the new starters are so young.

For year 1, whilst it’s not as necessary as in reception, I think that a TA is still pretty necessary. The kids are still so young and plenty will still be struggling either with academics or behaviour. A TA can help with this and therefore help keep the class as a whole on track.

I’d be disappointed if we didn’t have one in year 1, but it’s understandable given the massive budget squeezes. I’m sure the school would have one if they could manage it.

When my children started school (now 19/17/15) there was a TA in all the classes in their primary school plus 2 floating TAs and in one of my children's classes there was also a one-to-one TA as well. I was a school governor. By the time my middle one left primary there were only 2 part time TAs left. I imagine there will be none any more.
This government has absolutely destroyed state school funding. Don't forget that they agree to increased teacher pay (rightly) but don't provide any extra money for the school to pay for that. Our secondary school reckons they are £300,000 worse off this year than last year.
Speak to the school if you want to but they can't get a TA for free. I'm sure they will gratefully accept volunteers though if you've got the time!

My mum’s been a TA since 1993.

OP - you can certainly ask the school about it, but I’m pretty sure they’ll tell you they’d love one but there is literally no money to pay for anything ‘extra’ in most schools. Blame the Tories for over a decade of underfunding. Many of them also think TAs are unnecessary anyway, and yearn for the days of kids at desks facing forward and copying from the board all day

@BuffaloCauliflower
Schools have had money for TAs until
now. PP money can be used for them and SEN money, as discussed earlier. I don’t know a single school without them. That might change but I could point to Executive Heads in MATs who are paid well over £100,000. Money is found for them and often significant numbers of SLTs. It’s the overall picture that should be looked at.

My suggestion is that small schools must federate. They must pool money snd save money by having one head. If there are schools struggling for money with 50 DC, federate with another one, or two.

I remember my children, born in the 1990s had TAs in their classrooms but I think it was a fairly new thing. I was at primary school in the early seventies and there were certainly no TAs then - one teacher with up to forty children in the class, 35 was the average number then - even in reception.