If you know any children of school age or are the least bit concerned about the future of our education system and the children it teaches \u2013 who will afterall be the adults running society in your old age \u2013 please read this short post.<\/p>\n
Teaching Assistants jobs are at risk as the next round of educational cut backs are being formulated and Mr Gove and the Department for Education are looking for quick ways to save money.<\/p>\n
In case you don\u2019t know, teaching assistants<\/em> in the UK are paid helpers who work with individual children or small groups in the classroom, alongside the teacher. They were brought in by the last Labour government (and that\u2019s probably half the beef with the current Tory\/Lib-Dem lot) in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure teachers face in the classroom. Since 2000, the number of teaching assistants has risen from 79,000 to around 232,000.<\/p>\n It\u2019s estimated that cutting them out could save in the region of \u00a34billion a year.<\/p>\n Class sizes have been growing for years now. Small classes are, for the most part, a forgotten luxury in the public system and the current government has now relaxed the law made in 1998 which made it illegal for classes to have more than 30 pupils in them. The number of 4 to 7 year olds taught in classes of over 30 has more than doubled in the last 5 years according to a report published by the Office of National Statistics last month.<\/p>\n The number of children recognised as having special needs has also grown beyond all recognition with as many as almost 20% of children in the UK being diagnosed in some way.<\/p>\n Now, whilst it may be argued that for some of them, their issues are more to do with their socio-economic background, their families or behavioural issues than an inherent learning problem per se, the fact remains that these children need extra support \u2013 both for their own sake and for the sake of their classmates. <\/span><\/p>\n How can one teacher be expected to teach 30+ pupils, cater to the range of educational levels and individual needs in that class and deal with children who might be disruptive and need extra, even one to one support?<\/strong><\/p>\n Add to that what may be the biggest problem of all \u2013 the apparent change in society\u2019s values, where teachers powers of discipline are next to zero \u2013 and what do you expect the result on the education of our children to be?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been lucky enough to volunteer in a school this year, helping children who are not the greatest spellers and I\u2019ve seen first hand what a great job the teaching assistants<\/span> do. They are able to offer the support that the teachers, with the best will in the world, don\u2019t have the time to do. I\u2019ve witnessed endless patience, kindness and encouragement and seen myself what a difference this can make to those who struggle to learn, concentrate or just fit in.<\/p>\n I for one think getting rid of teaching assistants can only be a dis-service to our teachers and more importantly to me as a mum, to our children.<\/p>\n Help Safeguard Our Teaching Assistants If you know any children of school age or are the least bit concerned about the future of our education system and the children it teaches \u2013 who will afterall be the adults running society in your old age \u2013 please read this short post. Why? Because\u00a0Teaching Assistants Jobs Are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,19,20,21,5,22,23,24,25,6,13,34,29,14,35],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-network","tag-affirmation","tag-amanda-ollier","tag-anxiety","tag-attitude-of-gratitude","tag-beliefs","tag-best-blogging-platform","tag-blog-daily","tag-blog-system","tag-business-skills","tag-change-your-life","tag-chris-and-susan-beesley","tag-communication-skills","tag-confidence","tag-empower-network","tag-empower-network-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/amanda-ollier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Yes, that\u2019s a lot of money, but shouldn\u2019t we be more concerned with other effects likely to arise?<\/h3>\n
If teaching assistants are lost, teachers will be left to cope with these numbers alone.<\/h3>\n
My Own Perspective On Teaching Assistants<\/h2>\n
What YOU Can Do to Help Our Children<\/h2>\n
If, like me, you feel that teaching assistants<\/strong> are doing a good job and that they should remain in our schools, please click the button below and sign the online petition<\/strong><\/span> to show your support now and please share this post<\/strong><\/span> so that we can get as many signatures as possible and show Mr Gove that we think he should save money somewhere that\u2019s not at the expense of our children.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"