Our school has a TA per class, but it still feels very stretched. We have lots of children with high levels of need and are in a very deprived area. I have kids in my class working 3 years behind their age group; children with (undiagnosed) ASD; children recently arrived with very little English; children who've lost parents; children who are living in refuges hiding from a parent; children who have witnessed domestic violence... the list goes on.
One child has a 1:2:1. As the class TA, I spend 90% of my time with two other children, both of whom really need 1:2:1s. I do Maths and English 1:2:1 with a child everyday, run a phonics group twice a day, try and hear at least 20 children read per week, look at reading records, mark homework, and spend any 'spare' time I have herding a wandering child back into class.
Plus as TAs we regularly don't hear about anything until the last possible minute - sometimes I go into a class to collect my phonics group to be told they're not going out today, when I've already spent some of my -nonexistant- time planning and preparing for the group. And when the teacher needs any extra time out of class (on top of scheduled PPA time) I end up covering by myself (or alongside the 1:2:1 if her child is managing to stay in the classroom).
It just feels like there's no time to breathe at the moment!
And teacher's starting salaries are increasing to £30,000, yet with the rise in the cost of living, TAs have effectively had a paycut in recent years...