TA chat forum

Dizzydolly · Top of the class Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 477

Do you work in primary Beamup and what class do you usually work in.

Rea · New kid Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Cardiff

Isnt teaching what we do? If you are not teaching the kids, what are you doing?

dancingqueen · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:26 pm Post subject:

as cover supervisor the idea is that you dont teach, but i know that is not always the case.

you are supposed to give preset work and supervise!

_________________

And quit running for that runaway bus -
Cos those rosey days are few
And - stop apologising for the things you've never done,
Cos time is short and life is cruel -
But it's up to us to change

Dizzydolly · Top of the class Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 477

that's a joke DQ nearly had to cover supervise for another TA who was doing PPA and had to go on a trip

CS Ed · New kid Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 6

principessa wrote:

I work in a high school in Cardiff and in my experience the classes I have seen being taken by Cover Supervisors leave a lot to be desired. Maybe through no fault of their own because (as already mentioned) they are not actually allowed to teach but only - as the name suggests - "supervise" a class and give out the work that has been left behind by the subject teacher. This though, is where the whole thing falls down.....in my experience, the work that has been left behind has not been work at all, but things like wordsearches and crossword puzzles! I'm talking here about year 8 and 9 classes in science lessons!

One day last week, one of the year 9 classes were actually left some "copying" work for them to do ( that I think is an actual cop out and boring for the kids to do.) All the cover supervisor lessons I have been involved in as a TA for those classes, in my opinion have been a complete and utter waste of time. I can understand why some of the teachers leave this type of unchallenging "work" for the cover supervisor to hand out as lots of our kids, at the best of times don't work anyway when the subject teacher is actually there teaching! The kids idea of coming to a lesson, is to do the bare minum, if at all any work at all! So it is no surprise that when they are faced with a lesson with either a cover supervisor or indeed a supply teacher, they pull out all the stops and act out even more! Especially when they see that all they have prepared for them is some hastily thrown together wordsearch sheets. The few brighter and conciencious pupils in the class actually find this very difficult to deal with as it is not challenging enough and they find themselves whizzing through the papers, whilst all around them chaos and general mishbehaving is going on - as the rest of the pupils are either refusing to do the "boring work" or running around the lab chasing each other about.

I really dispare when I see these kind of lessons and think that on the whole, both cover supervision lessons and supply teacher lessons are a complete and utter waste of time. The whole education system needs a good swift kick up the backside and review these so called "lessons" that are obviously not working and ultimately letting our children down so badly!

Anyone else out there experienced such lessons with particularly involving cover supervisor and or supply teachers?

There, Rant and rave over for now!

Over to you now!

Ciao!

It's as frustrating for the cover supervisor as it is for the children. Fortunately my school takes a rather relaxed view of this 'not allowed to teach' nonsense and as such i've had many happy lessons doing science practicals with my cover forms, when the exp. has been ordered and their teacher is off sick. I have got the advantage of a BSc (Chemistry) and get mostly posted to cover science and maths lessons.

Even without a practical, if the kids are meant to be doing some mind-numbingly dull thing like making notes from a text book, i'll do something like read the book out to them or get them to read it, and discuss what the important points are....

that way, they're teaching themselves with guidance from me Wink

beameup · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:18 pm Post subject:

Hi Dizzy. I work in Year 6. Today we had a TA who started this week (first TA post) left in charge of a year 3 class all day, to cover the class teacher's absence. As union rep, I went and spoke to her, told her she should refuse to do it and advised her to join a union. They just think I'm a militant troublemaker, but this is surely not right. bang

dancingqueen · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:48 am Post subject:

No its not right Beamie! i would have flipped if i was new and asked to do that!

CS Ed sounds like you have the job well in control and lots of background konwledge and experience to help you. There cant be anyhting worse for the pupils than to be copying facts.......we are told not to do this and to make lessons multisensory and accessbible to all....how can that be happening and be acceptable when CS are not allowed to teach!!!!

HT dont think things through do they!!!!!

_________________

And quit running for that runaway bus -
Cos those rosey days are few
And - stop apologising for the things you've never done,
Cos time is short and life is cruel -
But it's up to us to change

smilingmoose · New kid Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 40 Location: Kent

Teaching is what all TA's do!!

You can't have a cover supervisor in primary, well not in key stage one you can't!! All our TA's cover PPA time - its a bone of contention at the moment as the pay thing is being discussed and new job descriptions are being drawn up. We were all getting extra pay, non-qualified teacher rate, for the PPA time, but that is being changed now due to the budget - they can't afford it now, and only half of us will be able to cover - we are not a happy bunch at the moment! I still say TA's get taken for granted such a lot - we need to stand our ground more often! AND get a proper pay scale related to what we do, our experience and our qualifications! banghead

Dizzydolly · Top of the class Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 477

This is a classic example of what happens in my school. Friday I was covering my class due to unexpected absence of teacher and next door there were 1 teacher, 2 TAs and 1 parent helper and no-one offered me any help. Does this happen at your schools or do they share their staff around?

beameup · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:08 pm Post subject:

I think that's fairly typical dolly, but people will only do what they can get away with. Would one of them have come in with you if you had asked do you think?

Dizzydolly · Top of the class Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 477

I didn't know until the end of the afternoon that they had 4 staff and I was waiting for one of the parents to turn up. She was in the class next door but also had a child in my class. Next time I will ask and see what happens it always seems to be Friday afternoon when everyone else is finishing everything off for the week they don't want to share. My problem is that my teacher is the worst for not sharing staff so they are trying to get at her through me but that isn't fair.

Dizzydolly · Top of the class Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 477

Over the last 3 weeks I have had to do 16 hours cover supervision due to illness and courses I only work 12 hours per week and I get paid 1 hour per week at a higher rate to cover supervise. The theory is that over the year it will even out. I have now said I won't cover supervise any more and am worried my job could be on the line what do you think.

THE BOTTLE'S HALF FULL · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:29 pm Post subject:

At the school I'm at, the head won't allow TA's to cover classes, (although we could do alot better than some of the supply we get in). It's not us, its the principle of the matter and the blurring of the line. We all agree with this.
We do take small groups, and to be honest the small group of up to eight will be alot harder work than the ones left behind with the teacher. Also if, left with a incompetant supply, some of us, will tell them 'I'm taking my group out.' as the disruption is too much for them.

susie · Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:27 am Post subject:

Had a supply in today who was brilliant. He used to be a head but had no idea how our IT lesson should go so I started them off as this is usually one of the lessons I cover in PPA. He was quite happy to let me do this then take over once they were settled at their task. If all supplies were like this then we wouldn't mind .

Miss informed · Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:15 am Post subject:

I reckon fate must have had a hand in me finding these boards!

I've just got into work and have been invited to a meeting after school to discuss PPA and cover supervision in our school.

At the moment we have a full time teacher and 2 regular supply teachers that cover ours. Looks like the school budget is causing concern and they need to review the situation...erm...yeah right...I wonder why they have invite some of the support staff to tonights meet then...eh? Rolling Eyes

I'll let ya know...