Support Your Classroom Assistant - Thursday 10th Feb

[thursachick]

THIS EVENT IS NOW CANCELLED IN THURSO AS THE COUNCIL HAVE AGREED TO A REVIEW - PLEASE LISTEN TO MFR OR VISIT THEIR WEBSITE

On Thursday, Highland Council will make the final decision whether or not to lose our classroom assistants from August 2011. In support of all the classroom assistants in Caithness we are asking all parents and carers of children currently in primary schools in the Thurso High School catchment to join us (with your children if you wish) at 9.00am on Thursday (10th February), in the town precinct (at the Highland Council Service Point) from 9.00am – 9.30am. Children will go back to school thereafter. It is important we get as much support as possible. Please feel free to bring along a banner to support the cause.

Please note children must be accompanied and school will be open as usual.

[brandy]

*laughs* i just posted the same thing but for wick!

[mushroom]

a greaat idea I will see you in Thurso, banners an all

[Cattach]

On Thursday, Highland Council will make the final decision whether or not to lose our classroom assistants from August 2011. In support of all the classroom assistants in Caithness we are asking all parents and carers of children currently in primary schools in the Thurso High School catchment to join us (with your children if you wish) at 9.00am on Thursday (10th February), in the town precinct (at the Highland Council Service Point) from 9.00am – 9.30am. Children will go back to school thereafter. It is important we get as much support as possible. Please feel free to bring along a banner to support the cause.

Please note children must be accompanied and school will be open as usual.

Support is essential. The most vulnerable and lowest paid members of the school service are being attacked while administrators, advisers, sports co-ordinators, gaelic and the rest of the unnecessary 'floss' survive. It is a pity our local councils and especially Bill Fernie a comlicit in ruining our excellent education service.

[Codwallop]

Support is essential. The most vulnerable and lowest paid members of the school service are being attacked while administrators, advisers, sports co-ordinators, gaelic and the rest of the unnecessary 'floss' survive. It is a pity our local councils and especially Bill Fernie a comlicit in ruining our excellent education service.
Cattach
You should get your facts right most vulnerable and lowest paid members of the school service are the primary school secretaries. This group of people who run the schools actually were downgraded last year are now paid less than a school cleaner. Without this group of people the school could not function yet I don’t remember an outcry from the public at large

[Brodar]

CATTACH - What gives you the right to say that Gaelic and the rest of the unnecessary "floss" survive. Gaelic education is not unneccessary and the funding provided for gaelic education does not affect the funding for english education. People need to get their facts right before making assumptions regarding the Gaelic education.

[brandy]

just to play devils advocate.. but the same right that says you can say it isn't floss..
all in all.. as much as i love the Gaelic language. i have to say that its not at the top of my necessary list.
that would be.. making sure all children have the equal opportunity to learn. we can not put aside certain things for some children when we have so many who can not read or write, much less speak a second language.
while it is a very worthy subject, in my humble opinion basics must be looked at before extra-curriculum is added into the equation.
That is why our teaching assistants mean so much. They are able to help many children who are struggling, and to give them that extra help on a daily basis in the classroom.
even if said children were allowed additional support.. how many hours a week would they get? would it be one to one? would they have someone on hand to help them in their day to day needs that a single teacher with a full, often composite class can not give. if they said.. ok we are going to change the teaching assistants and give you more additional needs.. but we are giving you enough to cover all the kids, and have help on hand for everyone.. on a daily basis.. then i would be all for it.. but you can not get additional needs help! for one not many people want to work this far north. for another there are that many children in need they can not get everyone and there are huge waiting lists.. even if the could fill in the numbers you would still be waiting.. as they would not be in the class rooms daily, like the CA's.
The world is growing in Leaps and Bounds, Technology is so far advanced than it was 20 years ago that it boggles the mind.. yet the amount of children that struggle to read and write is staggering.
we really need to get back to basics and look at things long and hard.. and instead of saying.. how much money can we save.. the question should be.. how many children's futures can we save?

[julman]

In response to Cattach (which is actually a Gaelic word by the way)!:confused I take it very personally that you think I am the "floss" of the earth! I am an administrator and also work in Gaelic playgroup so Im covered in two of the four "floss" that you mentioned!

For a start who do you think completes the paper work that it takes to run a busy playgroup and do you even know anything about our group????

Would you prefer that the 20 children who come here at present arrive one morning to find that their nursery is closed???? Where do you propose they go then for their education because ENGLISH medium would need then to provide these 20 children with funded places in ENGLISH playgroups! Unfortunately narrow minded misinformed people think that our money is taken away from other needed funding.......oh how ignorant!
Maybe check your information before you post your next thread!

[cormack4]

You too should get your facts straight Codswallop, I think you will find that cleaners get paid less than the school secretaries, and we to had to face cuts last year and again there was no outcry about that, when our job is every bit as relevant to the school establishment as every other member of staff. Schools and other such establishments would not be able to open if it wasn't for cleaners.

[Cattach]

Cattach
You should get your facts right most vulnerable and lowest paid members of the school service are the primary school secretaries. This group of people who run the schools actually were downgraded last year are now paid less than a school cleaner. Without this group of people the school could not function yet I don’t remember an outcry from the public at large

I know my facts and I know the hourly rates!! Maybe if secretaries had go moving to the public and stated their case they would have got support - it was in your hands and very little action was taken. Most did not even support their colleagues who fought the council and most did not work to rule.

[Cattach]

CATTACH - What gives you the right to say that Gaelic and the rest of the unnecessary "floss" survive. Gaelic education is not unneccessary and the funding provided for gaelic education does not affect the funding for english education. People need to get their facts right before making assumptions regarding the Gaelic education.

Gaelic gets funding way above that given other pupils on a per capita basis - it has very high positive discrimination as far as funding goes. The fact are there to see in the Education budget.

[Cattach]

In response to Cattach (which is actually a Gaelic word by the way)!:confused I take it very personally that you think I am the "floss" of the earth! I am an administrator and also work in Gaelic playgroup so Im covered in two of the four "floss" that you mentioned!

For a start who do you think completes the paper work that it takes to run a busy playgroup and do you even know anything about our group????

Would you prefer that the 20 children who come here at present arrive one morning to find that their nursery is closed???? Where do you propose they go then for their education because ENGLISH medium would need then to provide these 20 children with funded places in ENGLISH playgroups! Unfortunately narrow minded misinformed people think that our money is taken away from other needed funding.......oh how ignorant!
Maybe check your information before you post your next thread!

Cattach being Gaelic and having a knowledge of both 'cultures' and the funding gives me every right to express an informed view.

[Mister Squiggle]

I was at a schools "consultation meeting" the other evening and one thing that struck me, and continues to raise its ugly head amongst all this debate, is that people with various interests (schools, parents, assistants, cleaners, secretaries, Gaelic instructors etc etc) are being pitched against each other as to who is worse off, what services should go etc etc.
At the meeting, we were essentially being asked to "sell" our rural school's benefits to prove it is essential it remains open - we had to make a case as to why our school should absorb others in the area. We are being asked to justify why our children's local school should remain open at the expense of others and I'd expect that if I'd sneaked into another consultation meeting at another school, they would be being asked to justify why theirs remains opens and ours closes. The whole thing felt mercenary and sad.
And thus we are all waging a fight to the death with the Highland Council as master of ceremonies. I do think school secretaries and cleaners have been short-changed, and I think one person's idea of "floss" is another person's essential service. But it all feels like the old "divide and conquer" strategy - get us all at each other's throats and then they can do what they like because we're too fragmented to come up with a united voice against ANY education cuts.
We should be demanding an education service where every child gets a fair deal, and so do the people who work with them in all sections of the school.

[rob murray]

I was at a schools "consultation meeting" the other evening and one thing that struck me, and continues to raise its ugly head amongst all this debate, is that people with various interests (schools, parents, assistants, cleaners, secretaries, Gaelic instructors etc etc) are being pitched against each other as to who is worse off, what services should go etc etc.
At the meeting, we were essentially being asked to "sell" our rural school's benefits to prove it is essential it remains open - we had to make a case as to why our school should absorb others in the area. We are being asked to justify why our children's local school should remain open at the expense of others and I'd expect that if I'd sneaked into another consultation meeting at another school, they would be being asked to justify why theirs remains opens and ours closes. The whole thing felt mercenary and sad.
And thus we are all waging a fight to the death with the Highland Council as master of ceremonies. I do think school secretaries and cleaners have been short-changed, and I think one person's idea of "floss" is another person's essential service. But it all feels like the old "divide and conquer" strategy - get us all at each other's throats and then they can do what they like because we're too fragmented to come up with a united voice against ANY education cuts.
We should be demanding an education service where every child gets a fair deal, and so do the people who work with them in all sections of the school.

Absolutely nailed the key principle, you just have to look at postings on the class room assistant thread to see more evidence of divide and rule...thats the point...westminster cuts...affects scotland...scottish ex passes cuts in budgets to LA's...leaving LA's to decide ( through consultation ) what to cut and why....something wrong here big time eh !

[Eilanboy]

Amazes me that nobody is taking the main culprits in all this to task,The British and Scottish Governments,who slashed the funding to councils in the first place which in turn forces them to make cuts in services.Maybe if they weren,t so supportive of bank bonusses and allowed the CT to rise by small amounts each year we wouldn,t be in this situation.
Regarding demonstation in Wick and Thurso all the councillors will already be in Inverness and all you will have is staff who are in the same position as the protestors.

[rob murray]

Amazes me that nobody is taking the main culprits in all this to task,The British and Scottish Governments,who slashed the funding to councils in the first place which in turn forces them to make cuts in services.Maybe if they weren,t so supportive of bank bonusses and allowed the CT to rise by small amounts each year we wouldn,t be in this situation.
Regarding demonstation in Wick and Thurso all the councillors will already be in Inverness and all you will have is staff who are in the same position as the protestors.

Spot on, local councillors should have opposed the cuts "dialogue" on the basis that our community is being destroyed due to a loss of jobs now and potentially due to the catastophy we face

[ter21wat]

Getting back to the point of this thread.....please show your support for your classroom assistants, children and schools by coming along tomorrow at 9am, outside the council office on the precinct....its only for half an hour and you never know it might make a little bit of difference :)

[Mr P Cannop]

is mount pleasant school thurso still taking part in this ??

[Scarybiscuits03]

Not any more!!! - Just had a message to say the protest has been cancelled and that the coucil have seen the light and decided not to get rid of the assistants.