LA teaching my childs class not a qualified teacher

[daisysue2]

My DS is being taught by a LA rather than a teacher for maths. They have one lesson with a teacher then seven special needs children are taken out and taught by a LA for the rest of the week. I'm really angry about this and need to confront the school. I could do with some pointers and help. Also this LA is being used from the hours from my child's statement. I will contact SOSSEN but any other ideas.

you don't need a particular qualification to be a SENCO.

I'm a primary school teacher and also have a son being assessed for ASD.To be a senco you need a normal teaching degree as well as another specific SENCO qualification-it has actually been changed so that you need to do another degree to be a SENCO.

As a mother with a child who will now probably need additional support in school, I am worried as I know how it works.

Unfortunately it is commonplace for the teacher to do the whole class introductory session, then when children are split into groups, the TA or LSA take out the SEN children.

You could always suggest the LA takes the 'middle' group out and the teacher work with the SEN children in the classroom.If the teacher never works with this group, how will s/he ever get to know their strengths/weaknesses?

As for using your child's individual LA, I think this is appalling and you definitely need to mention this to the headteacher.Once again though, I know that if TA'S are off sick, LSA's are quite often used, hene the child misses out on 1-1 time.

Ihope you get some answers. It would be good to hear what they say. A lot of parents don't realise precious 1-1 time is taken away when there is a shortage of staff, school outings, etc, etc.

You might find that the assistant working with your child has particular strengths in supporting with maths, or has a particularly good relationship with your child - and is therefore actually doing an excellent job. What makes a good teacher? Rapport, patience, understanding, subject knowledge. Support assistants can have this too. I'm thinking of one particular TA with over 10yrs experience who I've worked with, she is my mentor and is outstanding - the children she supports thrive under her care. On the other hand, I've seen teachers who make me despair. It's a question of what the individual is like: personality, empathy, sensitivity. Those kind of people can help children learn and you don't learn those skills at University, it's inherent.

Kissingfrog I am happy with the LSA and she should be giving support for 28 hours, as in the statement, but she shouldn't be teaching her and the rest of the SEN children maths, or at least I don't think so.

Jussi thanks for the idea about take the middle group out will put that too them.

Any other idea warmly welcomed before email goes off tonight. I need to get it done before they break up for Easter or it will just carry on into the next year.

from my understand TAs can teach class but teacher needs to do planning. DD1 sometimes has been taught by TAs with teacher working in other groups. Its happnes a lot and Im not too worried as long as they warn her.

You need to look carefully at the statement and the IEP your child has. If part of the time for 1 to 1 is to help your child in more social situations then it might be appropriate that that LSA is taking the other children as well to help your child cope better in group situations and learn to learn in bigger groups rather than just one on one.

For example my child has 19 hours of TA support detailed on his statement but part of that time the TA is working with him in groups (leading/teaching the groups) to help him to be able to work in bigger groups. I also am a TA working with children 1 to 1 and part of my time is spent with the individual children in small group work to help them learn to do that. I am teaching the whole group at the same time.

Btw TA's are allowed to teach and plan as long as their planning is overseen by the teacher.

Thanks Wedgie I don't mind the TA leading a group my issue is that it is maths which is a very hard subject to teach anyway rather than a topic, literacy or reading say. I'm pretty sure that this isn't about teaching her to work within groups but rather a staffing issue. Any more thoughts welcome.

Tricky. As the others say, this is absolutely allowed by the rules - the theory behind the very existence of TAs is that the skilled part is not the supervision but the planning. So as long as the teacher sets a self-explanatory lesson plan, all the TA has to do is supervise them working from the plan and answer (hopefully straightforward) questions.

Of course, there's more to it than that. Or you could have 2 or 3 qualified teachers sitting in offices writing lesson plans and doing marking and only TAs in the classrooms.

So I think the way to push back at it is not that the TA is unqualified for these sessions, but that these sessions are taking up too large a % of the lesson time and that the key explaining and checking understanding bit is either being done by the TA or that there is some part of this being done with the main class when those pesky SN kids aren't there to slow everyone down.

Do you think the TA is any good at maths btw? I'm toying with the idea of becoming a TA (the hard bit is getting into it), and I have 2 A levels in Maths, which I could easily have done at uni. So TA may have some Ninja Maths Skills. Is there any evidence of how "well" this session is going? How is DS's progress in maths? Is he understanding his homework?

You do not need a seperate degree to be a SENCO.
Any qualified teacher can take on the role of the SENCO.

Look at Lamb report (DCSF website) it talks about children who get no time with teacher but taught only by LSA as having worse outcomes. You can't demand the SEN children get taught by teacher each time, but you could say they should rotate so the teacher works with SEN children at least as much and pref more than the others

you don't need any extra qualifications to be a SENCO! That is what usually happens.

As far as I am aware there is no SENCO qualification. And from what I can see, it is essentially an admin role.
If you are a good and efficient teacher, and have some common sense and are a good organiser then you can be a SENCO.
So Leonie, not sure why you feel she is not good enough / qualified enough for her role?

SENCO's are SEN CO-ordinators. Not SEN experts/ed-psychs, therapists etc. Just the co-ordinator who arranges visits from said ed-psychs, therapists etc. Non?

YOU DON'T NEED ANY EXTRA QUALIFICATIONS TO BE A SENCO!

well that's another issue!

Sorry, meant to get back to this last night. Yes, the SENCO can indeed be crap at her job. But not because she is underqualified. But I see you have covered that with Cornsilk

On another note, I feel for you. I work closely with the Senco in our school and see the effort she puts in. She has a good relationship with most of the parents of the SEN registered children. (I say most as sadly some parents don't appear to give a fig and don't bother coming to meetings, reviews etc)

I seem to vaguely remember a thread on which you were debating moving dd1 to a different school? Is this Senco at the new school?

If anyone else has any advice about the LA taking the class it would be really helpful still.