Parent consultation- Changes to the Day and PPA

A Time for Standards- tackling workload
Published by the DfES 2003

Over the past six years there has a concerted effort across the nation to raise the standards of learning for every child. All schools are expected to provide the rich learning environment that enables children to achieve to at least the age appropriate standard at the end of each key stage of learning. These are:
The Early Learning Goals by the end of the Reception Year
To achieve at least at Level 2 by the end of Year 2
To achieve at least at Level 4 by the end of Year 6
To achieve at least at level 5 by the end of Year 9

The subjects that are measured at these times are predominantly Maths and English but there are variations within each key stage. The raising of standards does not just apply to areas that are reported upon, but across all aspects of the school.

The national statistics rose sharply for the first few years but have almost stalled over the last three years. Therefore the question has been asked what can be done to continue to raise standards?

A study by the Hay Group (previously Hay MacBear), a prestigious management consultancy group, was commissioned. The company were tasked with looking at the workload of teachers because there were serious concerns over recruitment, continuity and wastage.

The report produced showed that a teacher worked an average of 52 hours a week during term time. The time worked during holiday periods was not reported upon. Further research concluded that a massive 30% of this time was spent on teaching activities. That included photocopying, collating reports, inputting data and a whole host of other such tasks.

This report became the subject of negotiations regarding teacher contracts and many of the recommendations were embodied in the School Teachers Pay and Condition Act 2003. With effect from September 2003 a series of progressive changes to contracts were to be phased in over a two year period.

In September 2003 this was started with the removal of the 24 Administrative and Clerical tasks. Initially Mrs Blenkinsopp undertook this additional work but more recently, Mrs Roberts was appointed to fulfil this role.

In September 2004 the limit to cover regulations came into effect and this restricted all teachers to a maximum of 38 hours cover per year. Although this was targeted at secondary schools, it does have a knock-on effect for primary schools.

From September 2005 all teachers are to have 10% of their timetabled teaching time (between 2 and 2.5hours) allocated for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA). This change is going to require significant changes in the school organisation and culture ?not only by teachers but by everybody associated with the school.

There is one further change to the regulations regarding examination invigilation of which Key Stage 2 SATS fall within the definitions, but the interpretation of this regulation is still awaited.

In March 2004 a group of eight people from across the school ? parent -governors, teachers, teaching assistants and support staff came together to discuss the programme that the school needed to implement. The School Change Team (SCT) was formed. Their remit was to determine the most suitable way to meet the statutory requirements as well as to consider what other aspects of the school would benefit from remodelling. This task has exercised the combined intellects of the School Change Team (SCT) for over a year.

The issues they considered were:

The school roll has risen almost continuously from 165 in 1995 to an anticipated peak of 261 in January 2006. The roll should then begin to slowly fall back to about 240 by 2009. Making predictions of this sort must be treated with great caution but the reality is that two of the larger year groups with 40+ children will have left and our intake is currently restricted to 30 children except in a few exceptional circumstances. The intake of 30 is currently being reviewed by the local authority but it will only rise by about 10%, if changed at all.

The building has been enlarged to cope with those numbers but the school playground has not. Morning and afternoon break times have been split to ease the congestion and the younger children start their lunch break half an hour earlier than the older children but this still creates a period of about 15 minutes when virtually the whole school is on the playground. There is barely enough room for children to walk about let alone run around safely. This is one of the more serious problems currently faced. The problem is also seasonal, because the field is a tremendous asset and is used extensively but between October and April it is not feasible to use it with large numbers of children.

Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1operate a flexible timetable, whereas Key Stage have a very complicated timetable with little flexibility.

Another consideration that must be taken into account is that from September 2006 the teaching of a Modern Foreign Language becomes part of the curriculum in Key Stage 2. Space in the curriculum has to be created for this beyond what is currently provided.

Taking the needs of the school and the response to the contractual changes the SCT proposed a small change to the Key Stage 2 lunchtime. Currently the lunchtime starts at 12.15 and ends at 13.00. The proposal is to change the lunchtime to 12.30-13.15.

This change would enable:
1) The younger children to have the playground to themselves for almost all the lunch break and only sharing it with some of the older children who finish their lunch relatively quickly but significantly fewer children than currently happens.
2) Between 12.00 and 12.30 to create a 30 minute period each day, one of which can be devoted to a Modern Foreign Language.
3) For at least three of the five sessions the classteacher would be relieved of their class responsibility to enable them to have 60% of their PPA time during these sessions.
4) There would be no changes to the start or finish of the school day.

The SCT considered arguments against the changes, such as the length of the morning session, different start and finish times and in some cases, families who would like older and younger siblings to mix at lunchtime and for children who have a meal at lunchtime at home. The SCT were of the opinion that these arguments could be overcome.
1) Free fruit (and carrots) have been introduced into Key Stage 1 for some time now. The good eating habit could be extended by allowing older children the option to bring their own.
2) The issue of the mixing of older and younger siblings is a little bit more sensitive but generally this does not cause a problem and in the vast majority of cases it is advantageous for the two groups not to mix.
3) No child regularly leaves the premises at lunchtime to take a meal at home.

The second change that is proposed is a cultural change. The Education Act 2002 changed the definitions of the persons who can legally deliver lessons to children. The jargon that has evolved around this has changed. For the word lesson now read specified work. The most simplistic interpretation of this is: providing the Headteacher is satisfied the person delivering the specified work does to so to at least the standard a teacher would, then that person can be permitted to deliver specified work.

There are three crucial elements here, firstly the role of the Headteacher, secondly the specified work and thirdly the person delivering the specified work. These three elements need further explanation.

The regulations covering all of this are very precise on the role of the Headteacher ? ?the Headteacher is the guardian of learning in the school.? Unless the Headteacher is satisfied the person is capable of meeting the needs of the children and the curriculum the person may not deliver specified work. There are no exceptions.

The specified work involves, planning, delivering, marking and reporting upon the work. This is not such a huge change as at first seems the case. It already happens and has happened for many years. The Teaching Assistants have been working alongside the teachers in the school, but not necessarily in the classroom with a wide variety of groups of children from individuals to whole classes for many years. It is also the case for the peripatetic music staff provided by Durham Music Service.

The third part ?the person? is the most complicated. The regulations do not require a minimum education standard. At Heighington a minimum standard will apply. All the Teaching Assistants have one or more qualifications to at least NVQ3 or equivalent or to a higher level. There has been a new qualification recently produced and standardised by the Teacher Training Agency called the Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA). To achieve this thirty one standards must be met. These are remarkably similar to elements needed for qualified teacher status. This award will be required by the school for a Teaching Assistant to deliver specified work. In the meantime, the Teaching Assistants will be delivering parts of lessons planned by the teachers but not requiring a teacher present to deliver. The jargon used to describe this situation is ?cover.? These could be such things as regular spelling tests, story-time or circle time.

From September the SCT are proposing to meet the contractual requirements of teachers partly through the use of Teacher Assistants to cover parts of lessons and additional teaching capacity to meet the curriculum changes that are desired or required. Again parts of this have been in place for some time, Ms Whelan has been adding to our curriculum provision with drama lessons, a member of staff from Hummersknott College has been providing French to Year 3 children and Mrs Kirkley worked with every group in the school last year on a drug awareness programme. The proposed changes will provide further opportunities for the school to enhance the curriculum.

This school is very fortunate to have available a small number of able teachers who can provide teaching cover in any part of the school. Most of the time supply and demand is met. However, there are times that the resources and resourcefulness of the school are stretched to and beyond the limit. There was one period last term when all of the Key Stage 1 staff was either unwell or unfit to work- even one of our supply teachers was poorly! There were two alternatives left: approach a Teacher Supply Agency to provide a person who has never worked in the school, who has never met the children or staff to provide cover or to use the Teaching Assistants, who know the children, the routines and the teachers? planning to cover some of the time. The latter option was chosen. That option would confidently be chosen again in similar circumstances.

There are six teaching assistants all of whom are very capable and a great asset to the school. Plans are being prepared to enable them to undertake the rigorous assessment procedure for the HLTA award. As soon as this process is complete, some specified work will be delivered by them and in the absence of a teacher, this will also include up to half a day absence cover in the first instance. A note of caution is needed here, these are only plans, and it will take up to a year to reach this position.

The title for this paper is ?A Time for Standards? as yet no mention of how these changes will impact upon standards has been explained. The teaching staff representatives on the SCT have asked that their PPA does not interfere with their teaching of Mathematics and English. This request will be honoured. The PPA time is unlikely to enable teachers to spend one less evening and or part of their weekend undertaking tasks associated with their teaching. What it will provide, for instance, are opportunities for them to have dedicated time available to prepare materials for the more sophisticated ICT equipment in the classroom for use in their teaching or to support the children?s learning. Marking of children?s work is a very important part of every teacher?s role, but to be able to complete some of this while in school and then provide feedback to the child the same day is preferable to taking the work home and responding the next day. For the past eighteen months the standard of achievement in the Arts has been an area of concern and significant time and effort has been put into the associated areas of the curriculum. The changes that are proposed, if embraced, will provide further opportunities to enhance the curriculum.




This paper has been written to provide you with fullest possible details of the proposed changes, describing the rationale for the changes, an explanation of some of the jargon and the implications for the school and children. These changes set out in this paper are only proposals. Nothing further can or will happen until this period of consultation is completed. Changes to the lunchtime are set in statute and require a minimum of six weeks notice. For them to take effect from 1st September 2005 a decision has to be made by21st July 2005.

The hardest part of these changes is to provide parents with the opportunity to discuss these options further. The wider consultation will begin with effect from 18th April 2005. A single sheet of paper will be circulated to all parents. This document has been posted to the school website and will be available to all parents. For parents who do not have internet access, a printed copy can be requested. Other options available include an Open Meeting for any parent who wishes to discuss these changes, a private meeting with the Headteacher or with elected parent governors. Please make full use of one or more of these options.

Three weeks after the consultation period begins, the school governors meet for their termly meeting. Parental views from this consultation will be shared at this meeting. Governors will then decide whether to proceed with proposals or return them to the SCT for further consideration.

If the proposals are rejected they will be reconsidered and revised to meet the expressed concerns if at all possible.

If the proposals are accepted, to help the school management understand how these changes will work in practice, some of the proposals (not the change of lunchtime) will be fully implemented for three weeks and then evaluated before finally being introduced in their entirety from 1st September 2005.

Contacts

To contact one or more of the parent governors please leave a message with a contact number at the school office and these will be passed on to the named person. The parent-governors are:

Mrs Helen Radcliffe
Mr Trevor Kirkley
Mr Mark Armstrong
Mr David Chambers.

To discuss this matter with the Headteacher, please contact the school office and a mutually convenient time will be found.

To request an Open Meeting please complete the return slip attached to the original letter sent home with your child. Back to top