As well as starving the NHS, Education has been starved by this government too.

Agree absolutely DaisyAnne. Plus, the relentless pressure on teachers to push up standards, whilst meeting the demands in the class for those children with additional needs, challenging behaviour et al seems only to increase year on year.

A closer look at Starmer offers no good news

By restoring morality to public life, challenging the failing neoliberal economic model and rebuilding the UK, Starmer can emulate his magnificent predecessor Attlee. If not, he will fail
Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, 24th January 2023

www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/starmers-project-doomed-to-fail/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new-article-from-jvl-newsletter-post-title_8&fbclid=IwAR2gUgjfgMbt_MYMrxEdZo6WI2W5EGtp4K3OuTEQTRdPZcDnZqFjqC2lats

I've heard a lot of people say that teaching assistants aren't needed and that they didn't exist in "their" day... but I would argue that teaching assistants are essential to a class if 30 children achieving their full potential. In secondary there are more classes to cater for different abilities but in primary, adapting learning to suit all needs is more than a 1 person job.

Not only are there not enough TAs in many schools the pay scale in some schools is so low that it is not a sought after position and I know many institutions that have now stopped the training. My institution did during my first year and due to that, only 2 out of a class of 12 passed when our work was sent to an independent examiner due to lack of support. I was thankfully one of those 2 but I had an amazing relationship with my training school who were fantastic in helping me find creative ways to get every criteria met even though no one ever came to observe.

Schools matter, not just in education... but children's social and emotional development. More staff to support those needs and role model good relationships is important.

The loss of budget is truly devastating and why more and more schools have joined academies to mitigate budget deficits

It's so sad.

Grany

A closer look at Starmer offers no good news

By restoring morality to public life, challenging the failing neoliberal economic model and rebuilding the UK, Starmer can emulate his magnificent predecessor Attlee. If not, he will fail
Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, 24th January 2023

www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/starmers-project-doomed-to-fail/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=new-article-from-jvl-newsletter-post-title_8&fbclid=IwAR2gUgjfgMbt_MYMrxEdZo6WI2W5EGtp4K3OuTEQTRdPZcDnZqFjqC2lats

But you wouldn't see good news in what Starmer said if he found he could turn the country into the Garden of Eden, Grany so what is your comment actually worth?

I've heard a lot of people say that teaching assistants aren't needed and that they didn't exist in "their" day... but I would argue that teaching assistants are essential to a class if 30 children achieving their full potential. In secondary there are more classes to cater for different abilities but in primary, adapting learning to suit all needs is more than a 1 person job

They are needed because schools have to be more inclusive after the Warnock Report. Numbers of special schools closed and funding was supposed to be provided to make sure all (or most) children enjoyed an inclusive education.
With children of such varying abilities and needs in one class, a teacher aide is essential, not just for the sake of the teacher but for the children who need extra help.

Yes, the difference in the same teacher in a year without a TA and a year with is staggering. It can literally be make or break and teachers are in short supply too. Many I have known vrilliant teachers, have changed job

The head teacher at a primary school in Leeds will offer one to one support to pupils if she thinks it’s needed.

I am impressed with the increase in educational achievement at primary level now as opposed to the 1980s to 1990s.

VioletSky

Yes, the difference in the same teacher in a year without a TA and a year with is staggering. It can literally be make or break and teachers are in short supply too. Many I have known vrilliant teachers, have changed job

This is why my DD, tearfully, had to quit teaching. A class of 'only 28' but with several of them with behavioural difficulties, a classroom in an old building which meant she had no other adults even within eyesight, no TA, children of ages 7-8 with reading ages ranging between 4 and 10. She is full of regret for the children she feels she abandoned, but her mental health was suffering. It has taken a few years for her to acknowledge that it wasn't her fault. Now she is angry.

That's so upsetting, I'm so glad your daughter knows it's not her fault now

I haven’t heard a lot of people saying that teaching assistants aren’t needed.
I wonder where these people are and why they do that.
In fact I’ve heard it for the first time, now on this thread.
I have heard lots of people saying how many more teaching assistants or support assistants are available now to cope with the wide variety of needs in a class.
When I started teaching I had 1 TA, for one afternoon per week and between 38 and 40 mixed R/Y1 children.

Now I have 28-30 children, daily support from 1 TA and 2 assistants doing 1-1 support for children with SEND, one of whom has spent time in the PRU.

My mother in law was a teaching assistant over 50 years ago so they are hardly a new invention. To have lasted this long they must be useful.

Well as one example Mollygo I'm surprised you don't remember Micheal Gove proposing to get rid of teaching assistants entirely

I don’t remember-why would I need to when it hasn’t happened, if fact things have improved. Besides, there’s always a Jobs Comforter to bring it up.

It's been discussed very recently that schools are being forced to cut TAs, end of last year. I've been reading it and I've read people comment on the news articles that TAs are not needed

I don't agree and not just because I need my job

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/08/thousands-of-english-schools-in-grip-of-funding-crisis-plan-redundancies

I remember it too VioletSky.

Thanks Growstuff

I'm sure I remember a leaked government plan to cut RAs a few years ago too...

So in the last 10 years that's quite a few news articles about cuts to support staff and... it probably shouldn't surprise anyone that there are people who agree with those cuts and think TAs aren't needed for whatever reason

Cutting TA’s is more to do with the fact that pay increases have had to come out of existing school budgets-no more money being put in. Not to do with TA’s not being valuable. Although when I think of some TAs . . .

Of course the Tories have starved state education. They simply don't care about ordinary childrens' education - most of them are products of the fee-paying private sector. How many Tory PMs went to state schools - a minute number compared with the old Etonians, Harrovians, etc.

Grantanow this concept of care struck me. I am very impressed with the progress my two young sons have made in a very ordinary not even good primary school in Leeds. So much better than the middle class primary my son attended in the 1980s. I think basic literacy and maths are much better taught now.
Also the major public schools are set up to teach leadership skills… so maybe it’s a failing area these schools need to address?

Grantanow

Of course the Tories have starved state education. They simply don't care about ordinary childrens' education - most of them are products of the fee-paying private sector. How many Tory PMs went to state schools - a minute number compared with the old Etonians, Harrovians, etc.

I agree. And educating the lower classes is dangerous. They might realise what a lot of self serving venal individuals a lot of Tories are. And then what could they do? Keep 'em poor, keep 'em ignorant, work' em hard, let 'em die young. It's Tory policy, always has been. Education and the Health service don't matter. And they hide their real intentions by talking about managing money and not living in a nanny-state.

My friend’s daughter has given up her position as head of an English dept. in a secondary school and says she will never return to teaching. Not because of the children but because of the abusive and nasty parents.

Our daughter works in a senior school in a pastoral care role. She describes going into work as 'going to that hell hole'.

Meanwhile breaking news.. a second Tory minister was being investigated at the same time as NZ last summer.