Has anyone moved schools and taken TA with them?

[Marne]

Hi, i'm thinking about moving the dd's to the village school, have been humming and haing for months, spoke to her TA today and she would be happy to come with us (as her dd's are at the same school and would be closer to where she lives), my main worry about moving was loosing the TA (as she has been great with dd2 and is the main reason why i havn't moved her before). How easy is it to take the TA with us?

I know of one case where this happened, with a girl at my DCs school. I think if the TA and the new school agree, it can be done. I guess it also depends on how much the old school would mind about her leaving.

Yes ds moved from an Infant to a Primary and the LSA went with him. It worked because he had a FT statement and so the school would have had to recruit somebody anyway as they didn't have any in house staff willing and able to take him on (He was a bit of a challenge and frightened a couple of the TA's tbh).
Dd though moved schools and had a TA who was already in the school they just moved the TA's around a bit because her children would be moving on to secondary in six weeks (swapped schools mid year)
Have to say I wanted ds's TA to go with him but didn't ask the new school about dd's TA because although she was pretty good I didn't always feel that she was a very strong TA.

Sphil, if dd2 leaves the school then the TA will be out of a job anyway (as she is employed as dd2's TA, school could not aford to keep her on without dd2's funding), the head has asked her 'what she would do (would she go with dd2) if we moved her' and she said 'she deffently would' so the school have realised that it is possible we will move the dd's. TA said it would depend on funding but surely if dd2's statement is for 30hrs 1:1 then they have to fund the 30 hours? at the moment she gets more than 30 hrs (to cover lunch and break times) which the school have got extra funding for, i'm not too worried about this and i'm sure they will realise that she needs a 1:1 for lunch and they will provide it (i hope).

It really depends on the receiving school. They have to be happy that the TA is someone who they can work with. Talk to your local school about it and test the waters. I do know of TAs who have followed children from primary to secondary, so it can be done. If the statement says 30 hours that actually does include lunch hour as the school day is officially 5 hours plus 1 for lunch. The TA has to have a 1/2 hour break in a 6 hour day, though.

Good luck, it would be great if your DD could have this consistancy with everything else changing!

Marne the funding will transfer with dd and so the new school will have to provide her with the support on the statement. The only sticking point would be if the school she transferred to had enough "in house" staff to cover the hours already. So supposing your dd transferred into yr 1 and at the same time two children in yr6 with 15hr support left then it's highly likely that the school would employ the two TA's already in the school rather than the TA from her current school.

Thanks asdx2, it was the new school that suggested taking the TA with us when we visited at christmas so i hope that meens 'they dont have enough in house', they know dd's TA well as she has her dd's at the school and is already involved with the school PTA. I think i will have to try and contact the school next week and ask a few questions.

Oh well that sounds really positive and that's what happened with ds they asked his TA to go with him because she was well known as a very good TA. It all sounds really positive to me.

It sounds quite positive then, Marne! [csmile]

Crossed with asdx2!