Sen

[Guest]

Hello to all

 

If a child has a statement of special educational needs and has been given funding for 17 hours of 1:1

teaching is it then appropriate for the school to use the Teaching Assistant as the 1:1 while also doing the duties of a T.A?

 

Thanks

[Lorna]

When I had a child who require 1:1 the school employed another person to do the job.... its not usually up to TA's to cover both positions in my experience.

[Susan]

No!

 

If the child has a statement they are entitled to their own support.

This person could support others in the same activity as the named child but should not be your classroom assistant! His/her first priority would always be the named child.

 

In case of illness, the TA may take some responsability for the named child.

Your TA could of course fulfil the role if their working day allows them to be employed for another 17 hrs but during this time as I have indicated they should have responsability for the named child not the others!

 

At least that's how it works in my school. At the moment my TA is covering a child, whom we have just admitted with a statement, in the morning and I have another person covering in the afternoon until we have successfully appointed someone else to the role. The child has social behaviour problems which so far have not manifested themselves in the morning so in actual fact he is fully integrated within the classroom.

I am going to give the afternoon lady the IEP to follow.

 

Susan

[Guest]

Thanks for your answers, they were very helpful and echoed what I thought.

 

I posed this question to an Ofsted inspector at a meeting and she said it varies from authority to authority, although she didn't know what the policy was for our LEA but that she would find out. I await her answer!

 

Here's the background to my question. When my son started school at Easter this year he had to share the TA with the rest of the class despite having been given 17 hours worth of funding for a 1:1. After spending most of the term agonising whether I done the right thing sending him to a mainstream school I decided to challenge the school on the 1:1 provision for my son. I was pleasantly surprised to be told he would be getting a dedicated 1:1 assistant for Year 1. I was really pleased and didn't question why the change of heart. After a term and a half in Year 1 I think I know why. This year his class has changed and it is a very difficult and disruptive class. There are five children with IEP's for various reasons - non of them are statemented. If he had been the only special needs child in the class I have serious doubts as to whether he would have had his own teacher.

I shouldn't really grumble or spend a lot of time worrying about it as I got what I wanted in the end, and his hours were upped to 21. He is making rapid progress which I think is down to him having a very able 1:1 assistant. It just bothers me that other future statemented children may miss out on having proper 1:1 help. I know it has happened in the past.

 

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