Firstly thank you for all your kind comments, especially Foster Mummy, yes it would be good if support staff were treated with the same respect as teachers, unfortunately some teaching staff view us as second class citizens & treat us accordingly (the comment about anyone without a degree being pond scum still rankles.) The child who stabbed me in the leg with a sharpened umbrella 2 years ago has recently upped her game & threatened a teacher, instead of just assaulting support staff, she may finally be excluded.
We have about 30 pupils who are rude, unpleasant & generally lacking in respect, 10 of these are violent & aggressive, out of over 1000 pupils this isn't bad but unfortunately these pupils take up 90% of everybody's time.
There is a lot in the papers at the moment about failing teachers being sacked, this is of course bad news for failing teachers, but probably good news for the children they teach. Quite how teachers are supposed to keep up their commitment & enthusiasm until they are 67 I'm not sure, most of our staff are between 30 & 40 & they are beginning to struggle, they have to be in school by 7:30 for briefing, they must attend after school training sessions 3 days a week for themselves from 5 til 6 they have to run intensive sessions to help failing pupils 3:30 til 5 & on Saturday morning, we also have a series parents evenings coming up. We have a couple of failing teachers, but fortunately ours are just failing to attend, both only work part time & both have at least 10 days off sick every month, this of course puts more pressure of the staff that aren't off sick.
I had intended to reduce the amount of lunch duties I do now I'm 60, but unfortunately we don't have enough cover so I may even increase them to help out. I have dropped my first aid stint as the threat of litigation was keeping me awake at night, one of the other first aiders had an identical experience to me, a child presented themself as having been hit by some apple peel & was treated accordingly, by the time said child arrived home the apple peel had morphed into a brick & claimed to have been severely injured but ignored, first aider has now been disciplined & that will stay on her record permanently & is still under threat of litigation, all for £33 a month, it's not worth the sleepless nights.
10 comments:
this is sadly why i left teaching, being asked more and more to impossible amounts of work, and criticised for not doing enough, while i was not connecting with my own children. Schools are failing because of the beaurocracy, and the hours teachers are taken away from their jobs not only to paper work and increasing workloads, ut like you say that small percentage of students that are untouchasble. My colleague ( long term supply - almost with the school 3 years) being attacked by a student with a chair and having to go to hospital, and the school washing their hands of her, even though the week before they were going to write her up a permanent contract> what did the student get a 3 day suspension. Her crime she decided to press charges, and his would not look good to Ofsted. It really knocks me sick. And like you say, support staff are treated like dirt by the majority of staff. And they are often landex with the most difficult of pupils, I wish Ofsted woudl just turn up with no notice, and be abel to see first hand how a school works, how the staff are treated. We were threatened with being dismissed when our school turned into an Academy and the leadership had gone to pot, if we much as hinted at an inpector that we were not happy.
I am so happy I have left teaching, but so sad that I had to, as I was not able to do my job, which is actually teach, not be threatened or called "a black bitch" or become a glorified baby siter to very disturbed children ( mental health issues) ha ha being told not to tur my back on a student has she has a tendency to attack or harm other students. If only parents knew.
Don't let them grind you down. the support staff are an invaluable part of school's. hey its the weekend.
I'm sorry to hear that work is like that. It must be a stressful and tense environment all the time, which can not be good for anyone. I dont understand why Ofsted dont just turn up on spec for an immediate inspection, that would give a more truthful picture, but perhaps thats why they dont!! take care x
and my family wonder, why, when talking about what I plan to do with my degree (when I finish it in 2013) if I plan to go into teaching my response is "HELL NO!"... (and I've been there, Hester, as support staff. I used to work as an administrator for a firm of business consultants. I got sick to the back teeth of the misogyny and put downs that the support staff had to put up with, just because of a few letters after the names of the consultants...)
I can relate to the first aid in school problems. As I had nurse training, the other first aiders constantly sent me out to incidents. This on top of a 40 ;hour a week job that I was expected to complete in 25 hours. I left after 2 years and don't regret it even though money was tight.I do have a degree now (for my own enjoyment!) and was asked to teach, I said no, as I knew I would find it hard to keep my hands off the little darlings!!
this is terrible what you and the other people commenting have had to put up with it. WHat on earth is going on?
I am guessing it is probably as bad here in Canada.
Where is the responsibility of the parents in all of this?
How times have changed........
Gill in Canada
I worked as a TA and was kicked by one of the children I supported. I reported it to the class teacher , who, when the child's mother popped in after school, said absolutely nothing to the mother about her son kicking me. I reported it again the following morning, and recorded it in the incident book. The teacher wasn't happy. Although I supported children with a statement, who should have had my individual attention, more often than not I was supporting 3 statemented children at the same time , with other low achieving children added in for good measure. I never could understand why I, who hadn't undergone any teacher training at the time, was expected to do a better job with children who needed additional support, than a teacher with 3 years training.I was outside the classroom and working on my own with these children for the majority of the time - ' inclusion' - that's a laugh! I left after 6 months and went to college and then onto uni. My daughter is an NQT in her first post - she was misled at interview , the class she taught her interview lesson to was handpicked to be the best behaved and brightest children. In reality she has children in her classes who are statemented but don't have classroom support - where exactly the TAs are who should be supporting the children I don't know. It makes me wonder if the budget for TA support has actually been spent elsewhere. Others don't know what 'boundaries' are. I feel for you Hester, I really do.
What the heck has happened to parenting, respect , and plain old common decency? You and everyone you work with has a right to do that in a safe environment. It boggles my mind that your work conditions are considered acceptable...makes me sick!
Jane x
That's a very sad - but very true - post, and I speak as a teacher who stopped teaching four years ago. Teachers and teaching assistants need to be given some of their clout back, but that's not going to happen!
And here I thought that this stuff only happened here in the USA I don't understand why these kids get away with this behavior? Can I ask what "statemented" means? I'm not familiar with that. Hope your situation gets better but it looks like things won't change much. That's awful.
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