Proposal to remove teaching assistants

It removes the incentive for parents who could make a difference in state schools if their own children are not likely to be affected by ministerial meddling.

Agreed, it's a disgrace that so many are forced into the private sector, be it public schools or private ones (there is a difference). But at least it eases the pressure on state schools.

Michale Gove is a disgrace and has ruined our education system

It is a disgrace isn't it granjura - it can hardly be the case that they are more intelligent can it.

Our daughter is the only partner in her firm who didn't go to Public School (or rather, unpublic school!). She went to the local primary and the local comp, and to an (excellent) red brick Uni (red brick Unis often have much much better courses and lecturers btw). The only woman too.

And still about 50% at Oxbridge!

According to google, 7% of UK residents went to private school, but 53% of the Condem cabinet! I don't suppose most of them will be using their neighbourhood comprehensive. (Although since they mostly live in affluent areas, it probably won't have many problems.)

This is of course a smoke screen. Osborne is demanding budget cuts from all ministers. Gove is trying to distract but has no power to retain or sack TAs. The heads will have to decide who to make redundant as 90% of the budget is salaries.

Gradgrind is alive and well and living in cloud cuckoo land - aka the House of Commons. It would be interesting to know what percentage of MPs of all parties send their children to private schools and use private health care.

And get them to eat their packed lunches up, make sure they take the right bags home, in the right coats, get them changed for PE, ensure they don't kill each other in the playground...

My spelling was a darn sight better than the young teacher's, but she was an excellent teacher who motivated the children, and knew when they needed to rest. My son was in her class when he was 4, so I had a vested interest. He used to pretend he didn't know me. It's a fascinating job, not one that I ever expected to do, but so interesting to see how differently children behave when they are at school from when they are at home. The wonder on their faces the first time they realise they recognise a word. How proud they are when they do well at something. I actually feel quite privileged to have had the experience.

Agreed granjura! He is a total 'wet' without a clue about true education. Have any of you seen the spoof 'MR GOVE'( not Roger Hargreaves ) MR MEN story on facebook? It says it all!

Signed
Who will take over all the tasks that the TA's do?
Who will change the wet pants and clean up the vomit of small children?
Who will comfort the child in distress?
Who will have the time to talk and listen to children?
Who will help to prepare the classroom?
Gove does not care about children and has no understanding of what life in the classroom is like.

Apart from the enormous damage that removing TA support in the classroom would cause, Gove is ignoring the fact that in order to balance the books many schools use TAs to actually teach classes on their own while teachers have their half day of preparation time. Quite wrong as they aren't paid a teacher's wage, but very common. I guess that he is quite aware, but would be happy for this non-contact time, gained after a long campaign, to be removed.

A very good point Gorki

Not that many school assistants here in Switzerland ...



because class size is 15-18!!!

I'd be very happy for classroom assistants to go and be replaced by doubling the numbers of teachers and reducing class size to above figures.
Gove is a total idiot and has NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO idea!

My grandson's TAs can't spell and we can't always understand what they have written in his communication book but they love him, are enthusiastic and encouraging so what more can you ask? Without them he would be totally lost as it takes him a long while to process information. Without them he would need a special school. So where is the funding and where are the places?

In my experience of being a Head of Faculty in a very large secondary school, I was responsible for up to 14 TAs. Without them, not only would the students have suffered, I would have found my job much harder, if not impossible at times. It is not only in classroom activities where TAs. support students, but also in extra curricular activities, sports, and often providing inclusion support for disabled students.
Schools do need to recognise the need for training and professional development for TAs. Appropriate training supports not only the individual, but the students and school as a whole. But, of course this all cost money!
I would like to think the petition would result in a U turn, but I worry that education is in for a rougher time in the future. It is an easy target! After all if you're not satisfied you can "pay for it"!! NOT my opinion. X

More back to the 50s policy. Th good old days when there were 40 children in a primary class with just one teacher. This is completely at odds with the "let the head teachers have the budget and manage their schools" rhetoric. It has always been the case that ministers get over-involved in education. All they need to do is set a few carefully designed outcomes e.g. primary children reading ages and then keep their hands off and don't keep moving the goal posts every couple of years.
I fear though that Gove is the opposite to this because he is ambitious and wants to be in the headlines as often as possible.
Imagine if they intervened in what universities do - like they do with schools. Yes universities are "independent" despite relying hugely on government funding, but then isn't that what "academies" and "free schools" are supposed to be?

Signed! I couldn't have managed without TAs during my teaching career. I remember one Y11 group with about 5 students with varying degrees of learning difficulties / behaviour issues, where the TA kept me sane!

I agree with the comment that the standard of teaching assistants does vary. I do some voluntary work for the NSPCC that involves going into primary schools. We were in a school this week where the teaching assistants supervising the children did little to interact with them and looked totally disinterested apart from the one who was giving a pupil one to one support.

Done.
My DGS 7 has just been assigned his class for next year the numbers have jumped from 19 to 29, we have also been told there will be no teacher assistant, I dont know how the teacher is going to manage without the TA.
The TAs are the backbone of school.

How did I miss that? I used to be a teaching assistant for 4 and 5 year olds, how awful! With the size of some of the classes, I don't see how the teachers will cope. Art, nature walks, hearing readers, just helping with sticking work in books, nothing will get done on time. Our headmistress said that the reason our school was always at the top of our local league table was because she spent every penny she could on assistants.

Signed

Our local school (where I am a governor) has several excellent TAs who are indeed the backbone of the school. They are truly wonderful and devoted and work for peanuts

I suppose the problem is about the variable quality of these employees - I know my sister (a qualified primary teacher) gets slightly irritated that the TA assigned to her statemented son cannot spell and sends home notes about him that are full of errors.

TAs are hugely important to many schools, but the absence of standards is a problem and draws all the excellent TAs into disrepute. It is important that their role is clear and that they are not simply used as teacher substitutes.

I do not think that Gove has the faintest clue what is really going on in schools and just jumps on bandwagons on flimsy evidence, trying to gain right-wing votes. Does he realise the financial implications of what he is proposing?

I remember the Thatcher years when Keneth Baker as Education Secretary almost wiped out TAs. It must be a Tory practice?