Support staff

Literacy support worker

Copeland Primary School amalgamated money from the Small School Support Fund, the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools and a fund for teaching assistants - more than £13,000 in total - and added some of the school's own money, to buy additional literacy support, some teaching assistance for KS2 and an administrative support worker.

The funds enabled the school to employ a literacy support worker for three mornings a week. The same member of staff spends the rest of the week, apart from one morning, providing administrative support to the head teacher and teaching staff. The school also employed two and a half classroom assistants to help raise standards in KS2. The support worker has taken a large amount of administration out of teachers' hands and given them more time to concentrate on what they are supposed to do, which is to teach. They feel more valued and can put more of their energies into teaching. They are definitely less under pressure as a result.

Having a greater number of learning support assistants has also been beneficial for the pupils. 'Not all their time is spent with the lower ability kids; they help the top groups too, but with those children of lower ability, having someone in the classroom most of the time, specifically available to help them, is especially useful.'

Although it is too early yet to see the benefits in terms of results and SATs scores, the head teacher is sure the children have started to improve academically.

'They have also improved behaviour-wise, because there's an extra person in the classroom now, helping to keep control,' he said. And you can see the children of lower ability answering more questions in the class, simply because the teaching assistant is there to prompt them.

The extra administrative support has been particularly useful for the head teacher, relieving him of some of the basic clerical aspects of the job, tasks that most head teachers of small schools have no option but to do themselves. 'It certainly saves me time,' he said. 'Because I always put contact with the children first, there were some things that didn't get done, or not as quickly as they should have.'

Bedfield Voluntary Controlled Primary School used the £6,000 provided by the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to increase the hours of one of the classroom assistants so she could do some classroom administration work as well. It has also paid for extra hours for the secretary. The major impact has been to reduce the head teacher's teaching commitment from 80-60 per cent of her time, allowing her more time to reflect and monitor, and be a strategic manager. The extra non-teaching hours mean she has been able to organise new initiatives like a weekly team teaching session in which a group of children has the full attention of two teachers and two teaching assistants.

Castleside Primary School used the £2,496 provided by the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to add a part-time assistant to the staff to supplement the work of the full-time secretary, and to update the administrative computer system. The new member of staff has made a phenomenal difference, providing administrative support for both the management team and the teachers, and taking some of the load from the full-time secretary.

Many tasks are computer-based now, and the assistant is able to keep on top of those, as well as doing all the general run-of-the-mill jobs: managing the school fund, dealing with dinner money, writing letters for staff, etc. She saves everyone lots of time. 'Within a small school, one extra person can make a major difference, leaving the rest of us with more time to plan lessons and concentrate on teaching,' said the head.

Dalwood Primary School used part of its allocation from the Small Schools Support Fund to increase the hours of the school secretary by half a day to give extra time for her to handle some financial issues.

Easington CE Primary School used its allocation of £6,058 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to employ an extra part-time assistant to take over the administration tasks which the head teacher was doing, particularly those that related to curriculum assessment and resources. She is employed for 18.5 hours a week, inputting the results of curriculum assessment onto the schools computer, auditing and ordering all curriculum resources for the teaching staff, photocopying, organising buses for school trips, the dinner register and other administrative tasks which would otherwise take up teachers' time.

In addition, she has reorganised the filing system in the office so that all of the head teacher's correspondence and important records are almost instantly accessible. 'It just would never have been done without her. The pupils benefit because now we have time to monitor them and the teachers are less hassled. There is a knock-on effect, without a doubt,' said the head teacher.

East Hoathly CE Primary School received £6,344 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. It was used for administrative support and to provide a Learning Support Assistant (LSA). A support person comes for one day a week and does photocopying, laminating and other minor technical duties. His work has made the teachers' lives much easier and is a deeply appreciated benefit.

Small Sch - outside school

Highampton Community Primary School received £5,873 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. Some of this money has funded extra hours for the secretary and sometimes the head teacher calls in a replacement for herself to address specific administrative requirements at particular times of the year.

Horton CE Primary School received £6,549 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. They used it to provide a non-teaching administrative provision for the head teacher, helping to dampen the destructive effect which movements of pupils has on entitlements. Having three statemented pupils, which is proportionately large in a school of 44 pupils, would have been a more serious issue had the fund not been available. It also helped provide consistent learning support for the KS2 teacher coping with four different year groups, and for the SEN pupils.

Ormskirk Lathom Park CE Primary School received £6,507 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. It paid for extra hours for the secretary and for an additional teacher. These released the head teacher from certain administrative work and from some teaching.

Oswaldtwistle St Andrews Primary School received £6,507 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. It was used to fund extra secretarial time to relieve the head teacher, who was then teaching half time, and also the deputy. It enabled the head teacher to create his action plan and cope with an OFSTED inspection and a building programme.

St Michael's School used £6,344 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to provide extra secretarial hours and additional supply cover for the head teacher. This has had a profound impact upon the school, as the small tasks, which take so much time, are now done by those suited to do them, leaving the teachers the time to focus on teaching.

Welford and Wickham Primary School used £7,500 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools to provide extra administrative support. This gave the head teacher the time to extend ICT education from the juniors to the infants.

Witheridge Primary School received £5,456, increased to £7,542 by an underspend from the previous year, from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. The head teacher used it to increase the secretarial/administration time. This was invaluable in helping to sort out the school's finances.

Monitoring

Hagbourne CE Primary School received £6,000 from the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools. It was used to purchase secretarial support and part-time bursar duties. This released the head teacher from acting as secretary. The office can now be manned from 8.30am-3.30pm. The head teacher is an enthusiastic devotee of ICT in the curriculum and in the general administration of the school because of its power to save time. The release from duties that are better performed by others has facilitated a remarkable ICT-based monitoring programme for all pupils. The head teacher has been able to spend some of his time on creating an ICT monitoring system for all pupils in all foundation subjects as well as ICT. This makes pupil tracking much more reliable and professional.