Teaching Assistants are now taking the children all one afternoon so the teachers can do their PPA time.(Planning, Preparation and Assessment) This PPA time was introduced by the Government - all teachers receive 10% of their teaching time to plan and prepare work. Wondeful, you may say, but, typical Government, what they gave with one hand they took away with another as it is now all assessment , assessment assessment! It will all implode, as now the TAs are going beserk because: The Teaching Assistants are not trained to teach - they are effectively child minding. They get paid a pittance. They have to look at behaviour and have no real control over how children behave - children play up and during PPA time, the TA's often send the more difficult children back to you, so you have to keep one eye on them when this PPA time is supposedly sacrosanct. Heads can't afford to bring in supply teachers to cover all the teachers on PPA time so your children are being 'chld minded' at least one afternoon a week or they are paying professional people to come in and teach at a high cost that will eventually bankrupt the school because the Government is not putting enough money into schools to fund the 'Planning, Preparation and Assessment' time (PPA) There is no money full stop The NUT was the only Union not to sign up for this pathetic agreement. Every other Union did and "sold teachers down the river" to coin an old cliche The NUT Union motto is that 'Every child deserves a teacher,' (not a teaching assistant! ) No dispespect is meant here to TA's as they do a fantastic job and I for one could not manage without mine, when I am lucky enough to have her working alongside me. There is not a teacher I know who does not value his/her TA. The TA' are invaluable as assistants but they have not been trained to teach! They are not teachers full stop. TAs are not trained to teach and yet are now expected to do so. They are even expected to plan lessons, because when a teacher is undergoing PPA time, the teacher's time is sacrosanct (thanks to Union negotiations to make it so) and the teacher does not plan or prepare for that period. That's because they are busy doing all the bloody assessment work and new paper initiatives that the Government has brought in. Heads are forever coming into Class saying 'I want this in by tomorrow and this by Friday and can you sort this out by next Monday and you are on a course next Tuesday so please leave work for the supply teacher and also Mrs X is coming to see you about XXX and I would like your tracking sheet by next Weds and I have put you down for the tracking meeting for 4pm next Thursday" Nowadays, it's not planning that is the focus , it's assessment. The children are tested and assessed until they don't know whether they are coming or going and all for what? Not for the child Simply for the Govt to say "Well we improved standards.." Like hell! Children don't have time to play anymore. Whatever happened to play? Even when they are allowed to play, there is likely to be someone there following them around with a clipboard ticking this or that - it may be the teacher who is 'forced' to do it to keep his/her records up to date as the Head will be calling for them several times per term and if your records are not up to date then all hell will be let loose if the Head does not have the data to hand to send to the LEA so they can send it to the Govt and then the Govt can say "Aren't we wonderful, improving standards as we are?............." or it may be Advisors. The Advisors are in week in week out telling you this or that and most of them are failed teachers who couldn't hack the daily routine of a class day in and day out I know some of them personally from my early teaching years and they were simply awful in a classroom and now go strutting about in designer suits and carrying clipboards to tick off this or that For WHAT bloody hell, for What? Your children are being tested to death and for what? When I was a kid I played in the sand and we got the water tub out and I sailed boats and chanted tables and wrote poems and poetry. I crayoned and drew pictures and labelled them, sat and listened to stories, told stories, sang and laughed and clapped and cried and when I went to secondary school which was in Sheffield, I went into meltdown if the trains stopped running and I couldn't get to school to live and learn. "I have a little scooter, it's colour is bright red I musn't ride it on the road, that's what my Mummy said! I crayonned a picture of me riding the scooter and it was put up on the wall. My Mam came in to school to look at it. I wrote that at 4 and was so proud The teacher used to allow me to sit in a corner and write story after story because it was what I excelled at and what I wanted to do as my head was full of stories. I then read them back to the class and acted them out. You can't allow a child that type of freedom now. You have to be testing them, tracking them, watching them. I proved my teachers right , got a distinction for my A level in English and went on to teach. Ofsted have classed me as a "born teacher" and I have undergone 4 OFSTEDS now. I have nothing else to prove to any one or anybody. I have always known I was born to teach. It's a spark deep down in me that will never fade. Some teachers have it , some don't. If I gave you my name I am sure that some, if not many on here, would know me and remember. I probably taught you. To be able to teach is a gift. I have seen some of the most qualified people come into school and they couldn't teach. I witnessed one being led around the classromm like a dog with his tie but he did have a Master's Degree in Chemistry! I have taught in both Primary and Secondary and loved both. I have experienced the highs and the lows. I hope I have inspired, in fact I know I have. I hope I never lose that, that gift, that spark that instantly children recognise and you have their instant rapport. I am very lucky to have that. I can look back over a lifetime and see the cards, the books, the photos, the treasured mementoes that chidren have given me and I have my memories and hope that sometime, somewhere and in some ways I have touched a life and made it better. It's the best job in the world although perhaps the hardest. I will always go the extra mile for your child, it's what makes me and thousands of others so special. The rubbish I have seen written about teachers on here today has forced me to write this. I can inderstand why Varley, at the begining of his career, became so upset with EastStander's insensitive posting. The profession is lucky that it can still attract people to the profession as once you are in in, you have no other life, if you do the job properly. As a member of the teaching profession, We know that society, the media and even people here on this board do not value us. All are aten up with this jealousy about our holidays and the supposed 'Life of Riley' we lead with all the holidays we get. I am not going to waste my time talking about holidays as society will never be happy until they are abolished for all teachers. Suffice it to say, the rest is needed, not just for teachers but for your children too - being tested and assessed as they are, poor mites. Holidays are for them to play and have fun and freedom. Those of you who have had children who have been happy, enlightened and inspired will recognise what I am trying to say I take inspiration seriously it's my job I will carry on doing what I do best for the next 9 years or so when I hope to retire happily to my beloved Greece and sod the lot of you - my conscience will be clear Most of you know me on here, albeit, by another name perhaps and you know how I am with the job I love. Sadly, so many people on here have no idea what teachers do and have been seriously mislead by bad propoganda. Th new Inspection regimes have weeded out the very poor teachers. Capability procedures have been introduced to weed out the ones who either cannot do the job anymore or who do not wish to. There are still poor teachers in the job. The profession, like others is not perfect. Teaching today is all bloody paperwork and for that you can blame incompetent Governments over the past 20 years who have used YOUR children as guinea pigs for one sad initiative after another. The bandwagon never stops. New 'up and coming' Heads will jump on one band wagon after another in order to make a name for themselves with the LEA so as to move on to higher and 'better' things and in doing this they put incalculable pressure on their staff BSF schools (Building schools for the future!) Do you know the facts? I bet you don't - well now, perhaps that 's another lesson if you are interested. The privatisation of the Education system! I make no apologies for ranting as I have done. I have had 2 large glasses of wine and, like a fool, have come on here to rant after reading the posts earlier. It's what I feel anyway and I can't change that. After 2 large wines, I am sure EastStander will be able to pick holes in my prose Ah well, that's life!! Goodnight all
Goodness me That must have taken you all afternoon to write. Hope you feel better now you have got that off your chest Some pretty good stuff in there though
I apologise if you think it is "insensitive" to criticise a teacher who cannot spell professional or syllabus. But having seen what little importance seems to be placed upon spelling outside of English then it comes as little surprise.
RE: I apologise Does that last sentence make sense ? Are you saying there is little importance placed on spelling in other languages
(Y) (Y) (Y) Didn't think i'd actually sit and read all that. EastStander know's it all i'am affraid. Whats happening in the Hockey?
Crikey, I wouldn't have gone into quite as much depth on the subject, but by god did it keep me hooked!!! Personally I am an accountant, but wife is a teacher, and I for one know I could not do her job. The paperwork is shocking (even during most of the holidays believe it or not!), but when I look back I personally remember the better teachers who taught me - and not just the one's who were nice, the one's who actually progressed me - and I guess that must be the job satisfaction element, helping to bring out the best in what people have inside. Keep up the good work!
