sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 So I heard on the radio today that the Government is is talks about axing the Teaching Assistant role. Couple of sources (sorry one is Daily Mail with the usual uninformed comments). Army of teaching assistants faces the axe as Education department attempts to save some of the £4billion they cost each year | Mail Online 230,000 classroom assistants face axe | The Sunday Times Aside from the debate about the worth of Teaching Assistants, how on earth can they actually force this though. One good point the Mail makes is: School budgets are ring-fenced from government cuts and head teachers can decide how to spend their budgets to changes could be difficult to implement.
featured_spectre Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 I have never heard anything so stupid in my life. Teaching assistants are a valuable school resource and help teachers immensely! 2
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 I have never heard anything so stupid in my life. Teaching assistants are a valuable school resource and help teachers immensely! I agree. Well used TAs do a great job. As it stands (and as I understand it), statemented children are entitled to one to one attention. What happens to them?
Hefferzzzz Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 I agree. Well used TAs do a great job. As it stands (and as I understand it), statemented children are entitled to one to one attention. What happens to them? We stop creating labels for kids and stop making excuses?
sted Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 I agree. Well used TAs do a great job. As it stands (and as I understand it), statemented children are entitled to one to one attention. What happens to them? arnt statements being phased out as well?
featured_spectre Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 How about labelling people correctly, my daughter is on the autistic spectrum, needs a rigid structure in her day, if she doesn't get it, she acts out, badly. The nursery noticed this, and worked with us and she has improved drastically, and there is already a set structure for when she moves up into the next school. If you find out early, you can get things set in motion for the child. For many of these children that are statemented, they are done so because they lack discipline at home, and the school is too scared to instill discipline for the child for fear he/she may lash out. It is much easier to statement a child and have them put in a special class than it is for the teacher to use proper discipline (this is based on personal experience of working in several schools) 1
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 We stop creating labels for kids and stop making excuses? Identifying pupils that need extra help to give them a good experience of/integrating them into school is a bad thing?? arnt statements being phased out as well? Oh do you happen to a have source for that? Would very much like to look into that.
sonofsanta Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 We stop creating labels for kids and stop making excuses? Have you ever been to a Lincolnshire school? I'm not saying every statement is valid, and ADHD has been treated as a Get Out of Jail Free card a lot recently, but a lot of kids do have genuine learning or behavioural issues and really benefit from the support.
Hefferzzzz Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 Have you ever been to a Lincolnshire school? I'm not saying every statement is valid, and ADHD has been treated as a Get Out of Jail Free card a lot recently, but a lot of kids do have genuine learning or behavioural issues and really benefit from the support. Yes and without doubt there are some children with genuine problems that need support. However, there are far more that are statemented out of convenience.
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 Yes and without doubt there are some children with genuine problems that need support. However, there are far more that are statemented out of convenience. Any evidence to support this, there been some kind of report done into the effectiveness of statements you can link to?
witch Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 That's interesting, because in my LA it is really difficult to get ANY child statemented. I think this is because once they have a statement it is likely that the LA has to give us money for TA hours to support that child. So most children, many of whom really need the extra help, only get a limited amount of hours that the school can afford (even when the LA does provide help, it is usually for not enough hours). TAs are very valuable in class - they support many children, often not just their one-to-one child and some are general TAs anyway, particularly in Primary schools. With the advent of "group work" where the teacher usually supports one particular group, the TA is worth his or her weight in gold, to help support the other groups in the class. TAs do an amazing job and use a lot of their own time to find resources to support their particular child's needs. They don't get enough money or training as it is, and it is only their enthusiasm for the job that results in a good outcome. 1
Hefferzzzz Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 Any evidence to support this, there been some kind of report done into the effectiveness of statements you can link to? No, i'm afraid that I dont have a report for it. I just use something that is distinctly lacking in education at the moment - common sense.
Hefferzzzz Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 That's interesting, because in my LA it is really difficult to get ANY child statemented. I think this is because once they have a statement it is likely that the LA has to give us money for TA hours to support that child. So most children, many of whom really need the extra help, only get a limited amount of hours that the school can afford (even when the LA does provide help, it is usually for not enough hours). TAs are very valuable in class - they support many children, often not just their one-to-one child and some are general TAs anyway, particularly in Primary schools. With the advent of "group work" where the teacher usually supports one particular group, the TA is worth his or her weight in gold, to help support the other groups in the class. TAs do an amazing job and use a lot of their own time to find resources to support their particular child's needs. They don't get enough money or training as it is, and it is only their enthusiasm for the job that results in a good outcome. And therein lies the problem. A lot of people do a lot of work outside of their remit to enable departments to function correctly which means that the extra work is effectivly free. I dont think that this is taken into account anywhere other than the department they are working in. This results in the extra work being unrecognised at head/LA/Govt level and so decisions are made incorrectly.
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 (edited) No, i'm afraid that I dont have a report for it. I just use something that is distinctly lacking in education at the moment - common sense. Ah so you can't really justify your sweeping statement with any kind of facts then. Unfortunately its this kind of approach that informs Government policy. @witch I am not 100% sure but from talking to our SENCO I don't believe that the LA provides money for statements anymore, certainly not here anyway. Its (as the increasingly familiar phrase goes) "In your budget". Edited June 3, 2013 by sparkeh
Kitkatninja Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 Think-tank Reform found that schools could improve value for money by cutting the number of teaching assistants and increasing class sizes. Isn't this the same think-tank that have had links with pushing the PFI programme and had a hand in saying that the Government polices would result in a 10% reduction in the NHS workforce, that it would be a good thing, without providing any calculations or reasonings?
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 Isn't this the same think-tank that have had links with pushing the PFI programme and had a hand in saying that the Government polices would result in a 10% reduction in the NHS workforce, that it would be a good thing, without providing any calculations or reasonings? Probably. They also recently reported that school budgets could be cut by 1/5 without any drop in standards. BBC News - School budget cuts 'no harm to standards'
Meldrew Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 We're already due to lose 15 TA's this summer, I think, due to SEN funding being slashed. Meldrew
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 Hmmm does this also affect TAs who are cover assistants? Well, it appears to be early days in the discussions but the tone is that it means scrapping all TAs completely. But who knows where it will lead? Could disappear swiftly but the theme of scrapping TAs has come up a few times now.
witch Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 I think LAs do things differently but funding is definitely directed to the SEN child who is statemented, rather than the one that isn't. It could even be that the SEN dept can "demand" hours from the school for statemented children who have a recommendation from the LA but if the child isn't statemented then the school may say that they cannot afford it and so the child, who may have very particular needs, goes unsupported.
sted Posted June 3, 2013 Posted June 3, 2013 Identifying pupils that need extra help to give them a good experience of/integrating them into school is a bad thing?? Oh do you happen to a have source for that? Would very much like to look into that. not as such i was in a school office where it was being discussed with a parent who was moving to a n other lea and they said they couldnt pass on a statement as that lea dosent do them anymore (paraphrased) and a similar conversation with my mum who is a ta in a third lea
sparkeh Posted June 3, 2013 Author Posted June 3, 2013 Oh found something: Statements scrapped in radical reform of SEN - news - TES
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