How many teaching/classroom assistants are there in your dc's schools?

[Polgara2]

I am about to fill in an ofsted questionnaire as they are visiting dd2's primary school and in the anything else you want to say bit I was going to say I think there should be a TA for each class. There are 210 pupils and we have 3 TAs - 2 in infants and only 1 in Juniors. Then I got to thinking - is this realistic? I know of one school who has a TA per class but don't know whether this is usual or unusual iyswim. TIA

[Nemoandthefishes]

1 TA per class and then think there is one who floats between classes. There are 120 children per year[4 classes]

[Nemoandthefishes]

1 TA per class and then think there is one who floats between classes. There are 120 children per year[4 classes]

[Overmydeadbody]

Oh and there has been a huge improvement in DS since he was assigned a TA.

[kyrasmummy]

1 teacher and 1 ta in dd's class, she's in reception in a class of 17.

There are 6 classed in the school ranging from 16-20 in each and they all have a full time ta to.

[Polgara2]

Well it certainly sounds like lots of schools do have more than we do, so it must be thought to be beneficial.
Ghosty that sounds really good having all those specialist teachers, guess they just have a different way of approaching things there.
Next thought -does how many TA's a school has have a link with how many SEN pupils there are do you think? Or how healthy the LA's budget is?

[Overmydeadbody]

Of course the number of TAs is linked to the number of children with SEN. That goes without saying.

[Polgara2]

Sorry omdb I maybe phrased that wrong - what I meant is if there are not many SEN does that mean you can't have as many TAs.

[hana]

children on SEN lists bring extra funding so that's why there would be more TAs

[pagwatch]

so extra sen funding allows schools to hire more TAs across the board.
But surly if a child needs extra help shouldn't that help be for that child - even if it is a specific ppn of that Ta's time? Rather than a random extra bod in that class room?

Genuine question.But just being nosey as not relevent to me tbh

(My Ds2 is in a class of 6 boys with three additional support staff. The unbridled joy of having got him a school for his needs..)

[Overmydeadbody]

The extra TAs for the SEN children would be allocated to that child specifically, although they do also help out in the class they mainly help that child, so the fact that my DS has been allocated a TA means she works with him specifically, rather than just being an extra body in the class.

If DS wasn't there, they wouldn't need her there either (or, if DS didn't need the one to one help that he does need, she wouldn't be there)

[Overmydeadbody]

Basically, if there aren't as many SEN children, the teacher wouldn't need the extra TAs, just the one would be enough.

[pagwatch]

OMDB
so TA is allocated because of particular child/ren and is primarily to support that childs needs but can be used more fluidly according to circs?

Thank you

[Overmydeadbody]

Yes that is how I've seen it, both when I was a teacher and now that DS is in school and has SEN and a TA to help him.

Sometimes his TA helps out generally in the classroom in the afternoon, but will always work one to one with DS for literacy and numeracy in the mornings.

[Overmydeadbody]

(but if they hadn't thought DS needed one to one help, she wouldn't be there at all, but I'm assuming they would still have access to the shared TAs if the teacher needed one for a particular lesson or activity.

[rachelp73]

Ds just started in Reception in a class of 30. There are 2 other classes of 30 in Reception year too. All have a FT teacher and FT TA. I was wondering if it might be a bit OTT. Then the other week DS relayed to me the (hysterical in his eyes) story of how one of his classmates had pooed on a chair that day. Then all the benefits of a FT TA suddenly became clear! These are really young children still, and they need a lot of hand-holding (real and metaphorical) with regards to the domestics of school life in their first year, I think. Feel very sorry for the poor TA in that incident, though. (I assume the teacher is off the hook regarding that type of thing if there is a FT TA there!) And feel for the child, too, I guess....poor little thing.

I don't think years 1 & 2 have their own TA per class though, I think they have 1 that floats between classes as needed. I guess the need for someone to help with bottom-wiping has passed at that point!

[Elibean]

dd is in Reception, currently a split class (am/pm) of a total of 39 kids, 24 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon. They have a f/t teacher and a f/t TA and it works beautifully.

[rachelp73]

Wow, Elibean, how will that work when the kids are full-time?

[Hulababy]

1 FT teacher and 1 PT (every morning) in Reception; but only 12 pupils

None in rest of years but again very small class sizes.

I help out (qualified teacher) 2-3 times a week also, which apparenntly I can be counted in the ratios even though voluntary - I help in infant level (so Reception to Y2)

[LIZS]

1 teacher , 1 full time ta for Reception, 1 part-time ta per class in Years 1 - 3. Plus additional ta's to float.

[DontCallMeBaby]

DD's school (420 children) has 13 'learning support workers' listed in the prospectus - I know it's not up to date because one of the Reception TAs isn't included, but the number is probably about right. There is a TA in each of the two Reception classes all the time (I think one is actually full-time while the other class is covered by two separate people). They're all actually qualified teachers, so cover PPA time, and PPA time is covered by part-time teachers in the rest of the school.

But it's not just the numbers, I went round the school the other day, and it was the fac tthat there were only a couple of classes with one person stood at the front talking to 30 kids that struck me (they were KS2 classes). In the rest of the classes, there were more adults around, including one focussed maths session with about eight children and four adults. There was a real feel of there being sufficient support for the children, not just enough names on the payroll.

[LynetteScavo]

DS1s shcool has 1 TA per class.

I really apreciate the difference it makes.

The school also brings in quite a bit of extra help, although I'm not sure what the roles of these people are; I just hear from DS1 about extra adults in the class room.

DS2s school has one for each reception class, years 1&2 have a TA either in the morning or the afternoon. I would really like there to be a TA full time in each class.

[Elibean]

rachel, if the numbers haven't dropped below 30 they will employ another teacher and TA and split the class permanently. Apparently, though, its quite common for numbers to drop off by the New Year - though the school is gaining in popularity atm, so probably won't this time!

Means that eventually dd will probably end up in a class of about 16 or 17....