Free meals for all

All primary school children in two local authorities are to get free school meals in a government experiment to see what effect it has on behaviour and obesity.

The pilot scheme will last two years, and two local authorities in deprived areas will be chosen. In a third authority the eligibility rules for free meals will be changed.

Hull council introduced free meals for all primary children, but Labour lost power in the local elections and the Liberal Democrats scrapped the scheme.

Under the present rules, about 16% of primary children are entitled to free school meals but child welfare charities say many don't take them because of the stigma attached, and fear of bullying.

Chair appointed to new support staff pay body

The government has appointed an independent chair to set up the new body which will oversee school support staff pay and conditions.

The Schools Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB)will be underpinned by new legislation. The new law will also compel schools to abide by the national workforce agreement, designed to free up teachers from other responsibilities.

Under the agreement, teachers were supposed to have 10% of their time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA), and not to have to cover for absent colleagues for more than 38 hours a year. But the government says some teachers are still being expected to cover for absent colleagues during their own PPA time.

The SSNB would give a bigger voice to more than 300,000 school support staff, and will establish a separate negotiating formum for support staff pay and conditions "where the specific role they play is recognised and reflected fairly and openly accross all schools", said a government statement.

"The national framework will facilitate a much greater degree of clarity and consistency in the terms and conditions of support staff nationwide than is possible under the current arrangements, while still allowing employers sufficient flexibility to meet their local needs."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said, "This is a very important development. Professional and support staff in schools deserve fair pay and the hard work starts now to make sure the new negotiating body can deliver this."

The chair of the new body is Philip Ashmore, currently a member the NHS Pay Review Body, responsible for making pay recommendations for 1.2 million NHS staff.

Unpaid overtime by TAs must stop, schools told

Schools have been told by an official committee to change the way they employ teaching assistants.

The Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (WAMG) – made up of government, employers’ and union representatives – has issued new guidelines in response to worries about the way support staff are being used in some schools.

TAs are being required to take on responsibilities they are not appropriately trained or skilled for in some schools, it says. In primary schools, support staff who have not been trained to HLTA level (including in behaviour management) should not be used to cover planned or unplanned teacher absences even in the short term, says the guidance.

They are also being expected to do unpaid “overtime” which is unacceptable says the WAMG. If a TA’s working arrangements do not fully cover the work required of the post there should be “a proper discussion” to resolve the issue. This could include paying overtime, extended their contractual hours and pay, or getting another member of staff to do the extra work, says the guidance.

The new guidance also says that too many HLTAs are being hired on “split” contracts – in which they are paid as HLTAs for some of their time and at a lower rate as basic teaching assistants for the rest.

Schools are taking too a narrow view of the HLTA role – seeing it only in connection with teachers’ PPA time. This means the skills of teaching assistants with HLTA status are not being fully used to raise standards, as intended.

Casual arrangements in which TAs who have achieved HLTA status are given extra pay only for the hours they work with whole classes “are not in line with the aims of workforce reform and the principles of the National Agreement”, says the guidance.

“The National Agreement explicitly recognises that support staff should receive remuneration that reflects their level of training, skills and responsibilities – and this is particularly important as higher level roles develop.”

The guidance also says schools should review the use of term-time only contracts. These now cover the majority of permanent support staff, but they are sometimes issued “inconsistently, without transparency, and can be applied disproportionately to part-time staff.” The new national negotiating body for support staff in England, due to start work this year, will be looking at the issue of term time only contracts.

The Appropriate Deployment of Support Staff in Schools. Department for Children, Schools and Families July 2008. www.dcsf.gov.uk

Multi-ethnic schools "better for children"

Children in multi-ethnic schools have higher self esteem and experience less bullying than children in schools where everyone or nearly everyone is from the same ethnic group, say researchers.

A study by Sussex and Kent university researchers led by Professor Rupert Brown found that minority ethnic children did better in schools with children from different ethnic backgrounds, and children from the ethnic majority had more friendships with children from other ethnic groups and were less prejudiced.

The results cast doubt on policies which lead to a reduction in school diversity, such as promoting single faith schools.

Call for child mental health training

People working with children need better training in child mental health, says the children’s mental health charity Young Minds.

All professions working with children should be trained so they have a the expertise to pick up problems as they arise, says the charity. “It’s key that young people have someone they can turn to who they can trust and knows how to support them”, said Young Minds’ Julia Mason.

“We are not calling for everyone to become a therapist but simply to understand the role they can play in spotting mental health problems at an early stage. Training for professionals who provide support in the first years of a child’s life is particularly important.”

SATS firm sacked

The private company responsible for marking this year’s SATS papers has been sacked.

The American company ETS was stripped of its contract by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which appointed them in the first place. The announcement came after thousands of complaints from schools about delayed results and inadequate marking.

Results were so late that by the end of July some children still hadn’t received their marks. Some heads said SATS papers had been returned unmarked, with pupils marked as absent.

Heads reported problems with the system from early on. At one point, according to the BBC, ETS had 10,000 unopened emails from schools.

Striking TAs "determined"

Just before the summer holidays is not a good time to lose two days pay. But thousands of teaching assistants have decided to do it anyway by taking part in the local government pay strike.
On the second day of the strike, hundreds of schools have been forced to close again because of the industrial action by support staff.
Pictured here are TAs on the picket line at Jubilee School in the London Borough of Hackney. Twenty eight teaching assistants at the school have joined the strike, closing the school along with eleven others in the borough, according to Unison.
Unison says, "Many UNISON members are low-paid, part-time women workers, struggling to pay the bills - losing two days pay for strike action is not something we do lightly. We are striking because the employers won't even consider talking to us about a better offer.
"We know that the services we provide are essential to our community, and that shutting them down for two days will cause disruption and we're genuinely sorry if you are inconvenienced. We just can't afford another pay cut.
And unless we get a fair settlement on pay, local communities will suffer too. Services will simply get worse as councils continue to lose committed staff and struggle to find new employees prepared to work for such low pay."

TA strike set to close one school in three

Up to a third of primary schools are expected to close today and tomorrow as teaching assistants take strike action over pay.
Altogether 600,000 local government workers will join the strike over a bel0w-inflation pay offer.
Most teaching assistants are paid for term time only, on an hourly rate. The average full time TA gets the equivalent of about £58 a day for each day they work.
Local government employers have offered a 2.45% increase, claiming they can't afford more.
But unions say they have £11 billion in reserve which they could use to fund a fairer increase.
Schools too have reserves of about £6 billion which the unions say could be used to improve pay for their support staff.

Unions plead for new pay talks

Unions have made a last minute appeal to local government employers to re-open pay talks and head off next week’s strike.

Teaching assistants are among 600,000 employees set to take industrial action on July 16^th and 17^th in protest at a below-inflation pay offer.

Giant billboards were delivered to the Local Government Association (LGA) saying “2.45% - it’s a shame”.

Heather Wakefield, the union’s head of local government, said Ms Wakefield added: "Our members have families and the employers must realise that they cannot ride out another winter of choosing between basics such as putting food on their tables or paying their energy bills."

LGA chief Simon Milton told local government leaders earlier this month, “I am sure we all regret that our unions have decided to take industrial action. But as there is no additional government grant, we cannot offer more than we already have as to do so would mean cuts in services or unacceptable council tax rises. I therefore call on the unions to end their dispute swiftly.”

Big leap in primary school language teaching

More than four out five primary schools are now teaching children a foreign language.
A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that the overwhelming majority were teaching French, Spanish or German. But a few are offering Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Urdu.
The government wants all primary school children to have a chance to learn another language by 2010.
Language Learning Provision at Key Stage 2

Minister blames teachers for children's SATS stress

Schools minister Ed Balls has accused primary schools of causing children unnecessary stress over SATS.

In an interview with the New Statesman magazine he said some teachers worry children by giving them advance warning of exams.

“It is totally the wrong way of doing things. No seven year old should ever know they are doing SATS.”

Headteachers, who have repeatedly called for SATS to be scrapped, said Balls was guilty of hypocrisy.

Action called for to regulate use of teaching assistants

Tighter regulation is needed to stop schools asking teaching assistants to take on too many teaching responsibilities, according to Unison.

Speaking at the union’s annual conference last week, Unison national secretary Christina McAnea said TAs were often being asked to take whole classes.

Many have not received the right training or support for the duties they are being asked to perform, and they are also not paid for them.

“We are pushing the government and the employers to provide much tighter regulations and for these to be more closely monitored,” said McAnea.

Unison members vote to strike

Schools could close as teaching assistants in England, Wales and Northern Ireland take strike action over pay

Public sector union Unison – which represents 200,000 school support staff across the UK – has called a two day strike of its local government members - including TAs - on July 16^th and 17^th.

According to the union, 55% of its local government members voted in a ballot for strike action over the government’s 2.45% pay offer.

Almost 250,000 of those balloted earn less than £6.50 an hour, and three quarters of those are women, says the union.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said they were “fed up and angry that they are expected to accept pay cut after pay cut, while bread and butter prices go through the roof.

“Most of them are low paid workers who are hit hardest by food and fuel price hikes, and they see the unfairness of boardroom bonanzas.”

In Scotland Unison members are to be balloted for industrial action after rejecting a three year offer worth 2.5% a year.

Deaf pupils "left behind"

Deaf children are needlessly falling behind their hearing peers at school, says a children’s charity.

The National Deaf Children’s Society says the education system is failing deaf children and is calling on the government to make sure local authorities provide parents and schools with the resources they need to support deaf children.

Currently there is an attainment gap between deaf and hearing children, with deaf children less likely to achieve the benchmark of five GCSEs at grades A to C.

NDCS chief executive Susan Daniels said, “Deafness is not a learning disability. There is absolutely no reason why deaf children without additional needs should not be achieving on a par with their hearing peers.

A comprehensive strategy is needed to meet the needs of deaf children says NDCS, and governments should give leadership, set standards and provide funding to make sure no deaf child is left behind.

Heads urged to invest in support staff

Heads are being encouraged to do more to develop their support staff.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools has launched a programme to help school leaders improve support staff training and development.

It includes guidance on how to use the national occupational standards for support staff, and new induction materials for support staff.

The programme for heads should complement the Skills4Schools web site, which is aimed at support staff themselves.

Support Staff Development for School Leaders

Skills4Schools

New pay body to define TA roles

Work is to start in September on defining TA roles and responsibilities.

Schools minister Jim Knight said a new negotiating body for school support staff will provide “national consistency” to the way school support staff are deployed and paid.

“Support staff are having an increasing role in supporting teachers – both inside the classroom and out. However it is important to ensure that tasks are properly allocated and that staff are fairly rewarded for the work they do” said the minister.

“Roles need to be clearly defined and there must be real consistency between the different roles, and across the national picture.”

The DCSF says that by September the new pay body will have an independent chair, and a framework.