Year groups for September.

[Lara2]

It's that time of year when HT is deciding what year groups to put us all in next year (2 from entry primary school). I've always gone with the flow and never been particularly bothered about exactly when we find out. However, my personal circumstances have drastically changed in the last 5 years and I have had a no class responsibility role for the last 3. Our new HT has decided that with the budget he wants no part time staff, and with some teachers leaving he wants non class teachers back in class. Or rather, that's what we are hearing - no confirmation from him or the DHT despite being asked directly on numerous occasions. I seriously don't want class responsibility again, but totally understand that backs are against the wall budget wise.
My question (sorry, it was long) is really about when do you legally have to be informed what your role is going to entail? Especially as end of May is the deadline for resignations. Can they legally tell you after that?
In the past we have often not found out until July!

I'm not sure that legally speaking there is a deadline to tell staff where they are. On the one hand, as you say, it is good to be told before the resignation date so that staff have the opportunity to resign if they are unhappy. On the flip side, the head can't decide where to place staff when they don't know what staff they will have.

Can you go and see the head and ask?

I have, the answer I get is that nothing is decided.

It is tough for HTs to make that decision until they know which staff they will have, so nothing can be fixed until after this term's resignation date. You have a contract to work for the school in which ever year or teaching capacity the head places you, so there isn't a set date you have to know your year group by. I know its not what you want, but with the current budgets teachers with no management role or class responsibility are going to become more and more rare.

It may be that genuinely nothing has been decided yet. Due to budget cuts, my school has done the same as yours and pulled all PPA teachers back into classes. Most of the decisions have now been made, but there are a couple of outstanding decisions which need to be agreed with governors before they can be shared with staff.

We haven't had time to even start the decision process with some of the other things that are going on, and I'm glad we (SLT) haven't spent hours discussing the various options as we've just had a surprise resignation and another member of staff tell us they are pregnant (so we won't put them in Y2 or Y6!).

Agree with everyone else - schools can't decide who is where until after 31 May - the Head needs to know which staff they've got before they decide where they are going to place them. Also agree that those lovely intervention/PPA type jobs (which have all the good bits of interacting with the children but not all the draining stuff that goes with being a class teacher) are becoming less common as schools just can't afford them.

Would you actually resign if you were back in class? Or do the class teacher role and be very unhappy? Surely the worst that can happen is you give the job a try until October half term and resign at that point if it really is too much for you. Or wait until classes are allocated and then resign if you don't like what you've got, but you may well end up having to stay until Christmas, if your Head doesn't release you early, in which case you might as well give it a go in the autumn and see how it goes.

I feel very harsh saying it, but presumably you are paid on the teachers' pay scale, so there's something that doesn't sit quite right with me if you are taking home the same salary as a class teacher but not putting in the same amount of work. You might have to view it that you've been lucky in your current role as opposed to unlucky if you end up back in class.

The intervention team at my school is shrinking too as they are being put back into class where teachers have moved on.

In 2-3 years I rather doubt there will be any (we currently have 4FTE teachers without class responsibility). I expect TAs will lead the intervention work.

I would have to stay for the Autumn term at least - I have been looking for jobs near home, but nothing permanent is available at the moment.
I do get paid on the teachers' pay scale and I do have a lot of planning and data responsibility etc even though I don't actually have a class. Yes, not as much as if I did, but I'm in at the same time as everyone else and leave after many. I'm not dense, I know how lucky I have been to have this role.
I understand about the problems associated with where to put staff each year - what I was wondering was, if you legally have to be told before the end of May so that staff can make decisions about staying or going?

Unfortunately most contracts simply specify the role as 'teacher' and as such your Head can expect you to teach in any year group and any role they so choose, and you ultimately have no say in the matter. Obviously most Heads will want a happy, productive staff team, so wouldn't put, say, an experienced KS2 teacher in Nursery (unless they particularly wanted it) but there's no legal requirement to tell you where/what you're teaching as your contract just says teach.

Good practise would be to ask people where they'd like to be, warn people that there may be changes to role/year group and then do your best once you have all information at hand. Get put into year group/role you don't want and your only comeback is to resign before the Autumn half term and leave at Christmas.

All non-classroom responsibilities roles have been eroded at my school. 5 years ago we had PPA teachers. Then some were covered by HLTAs. As other staff have left, they've not been replaced and some given part time contracts if they requested them. Now no PPAs are covered by teachers. Even our ANCo has a 0.5 classroom role.

what I was wondering was, if you legally have to be told before the end of May so that staff can make decisions about staying or going?

No-absolutely not. Every school I have worked in has only told the teachers where children are going after the May half term. If heads 'had' to tell staff where they were going, teachers who were unhappy would then have time to resign and then the plan would be pointless. Much better to make the plan once you know which members of staff you actually have!