TA pay body gets Royal Assent

The new negotiating body for school support staff pay and conditions now has the force of law.

The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body received Royal Assent on November 12th.

Public sector union Unison commissioned a special cake to celebrate. Christine McAnea, Unison's head of education, said it was the first major new national negotiating body for thirty years.

"I am delighted that school support staff are being given a voice of their own. For too long the vital contribution they make in sustaining children throughout their school years has goone unrecognised and undervalued."

McAnea said the body would oversee and ensure fair and equal pay alongside a robust training and career structure to apply in all schools.

The picture shows Christina McAnea (left) with Frances Lee and Jonathan Sedgebeer who are both Unison negotiators on the School Support Staff Negotiating Body.

TA talent competition

Teachers TV is holding a competition for the most talented teaching assistant. The winner will have a TV programme made about them, and get a new laptop.

The person who nominated the winner will also get a new laptop.

Closing date for nominations is December 7th.

TAs with talent

"High expectations" needed for Gypsy and Traveller pupils

Gypsy and Traveller children do best at schools with high expectations of them, new research has found.

Schools which give the message that Traveller children do well there often succeed in raising achievement, attendance and behaviour, says the government-funded report.

Good relationships between schools and traveller communities are also important. Communities need to feel the school is a safe place for their children.

Parents are more likely to respect clearly defined school rules, and they tend to be attracted to schools which have strict behaviour policies.

Schools can help Gypsy and Traveller pupils access education if they offer practical support with transport and uniforms, and assist parents fill in application forms etc.

Offering family learning opportunities, and employing members of the Gypsy and Traveller community, also makes a difference.

Improving Educational Outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils. What works?

London short of 50,000 primary places

London will need an extra 50,000 primary places in the next seven years, but doesn't have the money to provide them according to a report by London Councils.

And the demand for places in reception classes will be especially high.

The reason for the shortage is that a higher proportion of children born locally are applying for places in state primary schools, possibly because parents who would otherwise use private schools cannot afford to do so. There are also apparently more families arriving than leaving.

It will cost £880m to create enough places to meet the increased demand, and current Government funding plans will "nowhere near" meet the costs, says the report.

20 out of 32 boroughs in the capital are already short of places, and another eight expect to need more places over the coming seven years. But the growth in demand is not steady - instead it's spasmodic, with demand rising one year and falling the next.

One result of the shortage of places is that pupils will have to travel further to school.

TA numbers still growing

There's been another leap in the number of teaching assistants employed in English primary schools, despite rising unemployment levels.

There are now more than 118,000 full-time equivalent TAs. The number has trebled since Labour came to power in 1997.

About one in four TAs are special needs support staff or minority ethnic support staff. Of the remaining 90,000 TAs about one in ten now has HLTA status.

All other groups of support staff have also grown in number. The fastest growth was among school bursars in primary schools, with four times as many as in 97.

According to latest figures, TA numbers have also risen in Wales, from 10,224 full time equivalents in 2005-6, to 14,119 in 2008-9.

In Scotland there are no figures before 2008 when there were 3,404 additional support assistants, and 4,357 classroom assistants in primary schools.

School workforce in England

Schools in Wales: support staff

Support staff in primary schools (Scotland)