Assistants regularly teach pupils

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8463088.stm

Pupils in Wales are regularly taught by staff who are not fully qualified teachers, according to BBC research.Weekly timetables in more than a quarter of 172 schools who responded include lessons which are taught or supervised by teaching assistants.
One Swansea school uses supervisors for 150 hours of classes per week, the BBC's Politics Show Wales has found.

Unison, which represents teaching assistants, said the extent to which some of its members were being asked to stand in for teachers was a concern. The Politics Show Wales asked schools throughout the country about the way they use teaching assistants.

Personally I'm not surprised and I'll bet it takes place in England as well.I'm wondering how many parents were aware of this?

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8463088.stm





Personally I'm not surprised and I'll bet it takes place in England as well.I'm wondering how many parents were aware of this?

probably none ,and a tad concerning .Would this be because there are not enough supply teachers to stand in or is it because using teaching assistants is cheaper?

Originally Posted by martyh

probably none ,and a tad concerning .Would this be because there are not enough supply teachers to stand in or is it because using teaching assistants is cheaper?

As a supply teacher working for an agency I get £100 before tax.So I can understand the temptation.

In England they use Learning Cover Staff who have no teaching qualifications (most of whom seem to be going on to train as teachers in a particular school where I teach regularly who have decided not to employ LSAs for the posts).

This was not apparently the case at other schools I've been in but I'm not always able to work out a school's policy on one or two visits.

[Halcyon]

I've seen this happen here in England too.

We also have some teachers teaching different subjects than the ones they studied for.
So, a P.E. teacher may be teaching GCSE Geography to one group whilst another group will be taught Geography from a teacher that trained in Geography.
Surely those with the dedicated Geography teacher will get better grades!

Originally Posted by Maggy J

As a supply teacher working for an agency I get £100 before tax.

I should have pointed out that this is per day.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8463088.stm





Personally I'm not surprised and I'll bet it takes place in England as well.I'm wondering how many parents were aware of this?

But then, I know several LSAs who are far more competent to teach than some teachers. I also know of some teachers who are far less competent to teach than any LSA.

---------- Post added at 22:57 ---------- Previous post was at 22:53 ----------

Originally Posted by Maggy J

As a supply teacher working for an agency I get £100 before tax.

Blimey Maggy, that's not a lot. As an SSA my job is valued at eighty pounds a day. I don't get paid that, because I give my time for free, so that my son's school can provide him with the extra help he needs. But still....a hundred pounds a day?

Originally Posted by Flyboy

But then, I know several LSAs who are far more competent to teach than some teachers. I also know of some teachers who are far less competent to teach than any LSA.

---------- Post added at 22:57 ---------- Previous post was at 22:53 ----------



Blimey Maggy, that's not a lot. As an SSA my job is valued at eighty pounds a day. I don't get paid that, because I give my time for free, so that my son's school can provide him with the extra help he needs. But still....a hundred pounds a day?

That's agencies for you.When I was employed by the LA direct I earned £150 before tax..and it's more than some schools want to pay...as to your first point that is no help to me as a supply teacher.I resent the fact that I worked hard for 4 years getting a teaching qualification and there are people teaching in schools without the same training and taking work away from supply teachers.

[Angua]

Primary School TA's teaching in class has much to do with teachers PPA time (10% of school hours worked must be worked away from pupils on Planning, Preparation & Assessment). Some schools have employed PE specialists to cover for this Teacher out of class time others have planned work for the children which the TA's supervise.

Looks like they have gone to the next step by assuming because the TA's do this supervised learning they can actually cover when a teacher is off ill.

[injuneer]

My friend's wife is a teaching assistant in a primary school & regularly has to teach classes. It just the way most professions seem to be heading because it's cheap labour.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by injuneer

...because it's cheap labour.

No, that can't be right! The Prime Minister has assured us that spending on education is a top priority:

In a speech designed to refocus attention from debates about his leadership and towards the government's policies, he insisted that public spending on education had to remain high despite the growing public debt because, he said, the country needs new skills to build its way out of a recession. "The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in education, but rather to build more vigorously for the future," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...s-rate-schools

[Taf]

Teaching Assistants ran the whole IT course for a year for my lad when the proper teacher started not turning up... causing almost all the entrants to fail their GCSE (rerun of the whole year again this year for most of them)..

Was the teacher reprimanded? Fired? NO!!!

The teaching assistants for the Special Needs classes desreve medals as they are about the only one-to-one help the kids get these days.

[Pauls9]

Originally Posted by Taf

The teaching assistants for the Special Needs classes desreve medals as they are about the only one-to-one help the kids get these days.

And they can often be asked to look after more than the kids they're supposed to be responsible for.