Teachers...is this reasonable?

[quitehelpful]

I am a TA in a primary school. One of the teachers has me to cover the class for an hour or so, about once per fortnight while she and the rest of SMT have a meeting (during numeracy in the morning).

She will not do without a TA in the mornings generally as she says it's too much to cope with by herself.

Yet when I cover the class, I do it with no TA and I'm not a teacher

She gives me the planning about one minute before she goes to the meeting. A few times she has criticised me when she came back and the children hadn't all completed the work perfectly (there are a few SEN children as you'd expect and they often don't understand tasks without a lot of support - which is why she needs a TA in there usually.)

Does this sound reasonable that:

1. I cover the class at all?
2. I am expected to produce the same results as a teacher would?

1. reasonable
2. unreasonable

Terrible - OK so you shouldn't have to cover the class but if you had to (in an emergency or whatever - something like handwriting practise would make more sense)

As for criticising you.... A disgrace

If it's in your job description to cover then you should cover, however if you are not trained to teach then expecting you to teach (and then criticising!) instead of just supervising work set is unreasonable. TAs in my DS's school do PE or ICT during PPA cover, not numeracy or literacy.

It is entirely unreasonable to give you the planning with no time to look through it, it should be at least the day before.

I think if she has said that she cannot do without a TA then she is being unreasonable regardless what your contract says. Very unreasonable to give you numeracy and last minute planning!

Unreasonable on so many counts!

1. That you are regularly taking the class (without getting the extra pay as an HLTA?)
2. That you are expected to take the class without a TA, even though she won't !
3. That you are presented with the planning with such short notice, and no time to go through it with her first
4. For then criticising you!

Thank you all. This has been going on for a while and it's hard to know whose expectations aren't realistic!

My contract is "occasional" cover for up to an hour at a time. So I guess that can be interpreted as regular e.g. once a fortnight.

I think that, unless you are a Level 3 TA, you shouldn't be covering the class without support.

Speak to your line manager. If she can't cope without a TA it's ridiculous that you should be able to. Request at a minimum that another TA is in there with you.
Also tell your manager that you need assigned time to go over the work set by the teacher, and it needs to be at least 24hrs in advance.

I think an hour's cover every 2 weeks is reasonable, but you must be fully briefed and have support.