Does any one know about the rules on TAs covering playground duty alone??

I would think it would differ from school to school.

Dinnerladies are out there on there own in our school at lunch times.

At break times it's various TA's & teachers.

We have had all TA's before when teachers have been away.

THere is normally 1 TA & 1 Teacher. But as we have an above average SEN there is loads of 1:1's out there too.

At break time we have 1 teacher and 1 TA and then lunchtimes we have 4 TA's!!! There are around 100 kids in our school

Agree with Lucybelle I'm sure it depends on the school/HT. Ive been out on my own (as a DL) covering 2 playgrounds....60 children!!! Whereas at breaktime we would have minimum 2 out there

we have 4 different playgrounds so 1 TA and 1 teacher in each.

We have over 600 pupils in our school, so break times can be interesting.

Lunchtimes are staggered.

Sorry I forgot to mention this in previous post.

Here are a couple of threads that we've had on playtimes. You might also find others if you use the search at the top of the page.

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Thanks I'll have a read!!!

We have two teachers -one on each playground and one Ta then there are other Ta's out with SEN's on 1:1 watch or 1:2.We have over 300 out

Speaking as a dinner lady at present it seems to be at my school that TA's were out together but D/L on our own until we refused to do so as have a playground isolated from rest of school. I think the health and safety issues that can arise are huge! We also have to do first aid alone and the TA's who are helping as we are so short of lunch supervisors also having to be alone despite being 2 at breaktimes! Sometimes HT not seeing what happening so not best use of staff in jobs( oh dear sounding distinctly moany now .Could go on but will shut up now!!!)

Some days I'm alone with approx 54 kids and not first aid trained, I worry a lot.

I'd contact your LEA and find the ratio of adults to children at playtime. There's no way you should be alone with that many children especially if the group includes KS1 children.

I would also suggest, as you cover playtime duty, that you ask for 1st aid training as part of your professional development.

Thanks I never thought of contacting the LEA, I know I want it sorted. I don't want to be in bother if anything goes wrong. As for first aid training, no thanks I know the basics and have done this before. It should be on the list of what not to do as a TA as you spend all your time dealing with injuries. With this responsibility it would be nice to be paid as a site first aider but your not. They just take liberties at my place!!!

I would seriously think about updating your first aid training. Every member of staff at the school I work at updates their training every 3 years. Since we last had training several bits have been changed. I'm glad to have a refresher for my own piece of mind.

I may do for me personally but won't let them know!!!

Our TAs cover playtime duty , as i am based in nursey we have seperate playtime so i do go with the children sometimes [ rarely ] on my own .