Unqualified staff ‘using YouTube’ before teaching

SCHOOL support staff have described how they teach themselves GCSE subjects on YouTube before taking classes for qualified teachers, work beyond their hours and aren’t paid for meal breaks.

The teaching assistants, who work in schools around Wales, say their workloads have increased as hard-pressed schools struggle to find, keep and pay for adequate staffing levels.

The comments come in a survey released by the National Education Union, whose members in Wales walked out last term in a row over pay and what they said was a crisis in recruitment and retainment caused by underfunding and increased workloads.

The NEU survey of almost 7,500 support staff members in Wales and England shows that:

■75% are routinely working outside their contract hours;

■more than half (51%) say their workplace has seen a reduction in the numbers of support staff in the past year; and

■two-fifths (41%) undertake cover supervision, the majority of whom (75%) describe that work as teaching and therefore beyond the bounds of their contract.

Schools have warned that redundancies will follow as a result of below-inflation budget packages. Some have already begun to cut staff, and earlier this week, one local education authority warned its schools don’t have enough funding to keep children safe or provide statutory levels of education.

“Support staff are most vulnerable to staffing cuts at a school, and they have also experienced significant realterms pay cuts in recent years. The findings of this survey show that they continue to bear the brunt of budget strains in schools,” the NEU said.

More than two-thirds said they had to work extra hours, mostly unpaid, because “workload demands it”, and 30% confirmed it was because there has been a reduction in support staff numbers at their workplace.

“There’s not enough members of staff. Lack of experienced staff. Lots of apathy – you can earn more in a supermarket,” one teaching assistant told the survey.

Two-fifths (41%) of respondents said they do “cover supervision”, which entails providing an adult presence in the classroom in the absence of the teacher, but should not mean the delivery of lessons.

But the NEU said for a significant majority (73%), this distinction does not apply, and they report that they end up delivering the lesson, ie teaching.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Guidance on appropriate deployment of teaching assistants has been provided to school leaders. The Teaching Assistant Professional Learning Steering Group is also developing resources for leaders and governors on the deployment of teaching assistants.”