DISQUS

I thought the whole point of having a wetsuit on was that you had a pee in it to warm up !!!!!!!!!!

Many thanks Don,
Robert you are right, I often pass pupils wandering the corridors in an upset state and you are tight they may choose to disclose to me and I wouldnt really have a clue. I guess I would inform management. I talked with Alan Coady recently as this issue had been raises amongst music instructors.
Not all support staff are sessional and it would be easy to include them in child protection training or tailor a course specifically for ourselves.

I hope the school support staff were present. I carried out a straw poll recently and found that the vast majority of school support staff knew nothing about child protection issues. I include myself in that majority. I have worked in schools for nearly 20 years and even though I have frequently inquired about training in this subject nothing has been forthcoming.

At the glow meeting for East Lothian mentors, slippage was muttered but there we were told nothing officially. When we logged on to the glow portal it was self evident that there's still a lot of work to do.

Claimed my blog ages ago. I find technorati very useful.

Humour in the finest of British tradition.

We still use very similar ones to these in the physics department here !!!

Just as an add on, I contacted a colleague who is a senior technician with Dundee Council. He informs me that the IT set up in Dundee is very similar to East Lothian, with the IT division having a designated team that handles Education. The team will respond to calls within an agreed time span that ranges from a rapid response to a period of a few days depending on the problem
The big difference is that every secondary school has a member of the IT outreach team based there, this person also covers the asscciated cluster primaries. Their role is mainly network and software related, installing new programmes and downloading drivers etc.
In addition to this all technicians undertake a basic “first aid” course run by IT division to act as a first port of call within the secondary schools (where possible) whenever the outreach member is not there.

Yes please pipe up, my fingers are numb.

Thinking back what you said on demarcation, it has often been said that it was the fault of the Unions in the 60’s and 70’s but actually it has its roots in the late 19th century when the industrial revolution was in full swing and many of the skilled artisans feared that new practices would lead to a reduction in standards. Anyway, I digress.
The union I am currently a member of encourages its staff to embrace modern, flexible working practices that allow for continual personal development in order that the worker can fulfil their full potential and be an asset to their employer. For this to happen employers must offer modern flexible contracts that are reviewed on a regular basis so that, for example, changes in information technology can be addressed.

Personally speaking my contract is nearly twenty years old and can be quite restrictive. My job has changed nearly 100 per cent since and I have asked several times for my contract to be reviewed and updated to take into account the changes but have no interest from the council in doing so. Some school support staff are actively discouraged from seeking CPD training with obstacles being put in their way, whilst other council employees, for example, at John Muir House take full advantage of CPD which is, after all, of one of the councils core beliefs.

So where does this post fit in with the original discussion. Well I guess what I am saying is that we work in 21st century schools, with 21st century technology, but until personnel address the fact that there are still staff working under 20th century contracts with little or no access to CPD then the flexibility that Robert (and myself) wants for staff to be able to carry out their jobs efficiently, whether it be in a teaching or support roll and to the benefit of the pupils, will just not happen.

Yeah you are right about the test. If I wanted to I could take it. I choose not to as I fear I would spend most of my day explaining to people why I wasn’t running about in the mini bus doing this that and the other thing for them when they were perfectly able to do it themselves ( some staff think thats why support staff are here after all ).

Its possible that if IT qualified teachers started to do small, urgent, jobs that it could escalate. Once it gets round that some staff are prepared to do such tasks, other less principled staff would be calling asking to re adjust the colour on their monitor etc etc etc

I am with you on the job demarcation thing. I, personally, would back your campaign for qualified staff to install software.

I don’t know, but maybe in the past the council employed drivers to drive the mini bus and a change in policy (no doubt after several years negotiation) then allowed staff with driving licences after taking a short test to drive them.

As for the last eight years, I can assure you that with regards to the council that is a mere trifle. Don’t get disheartened it may take another eight years. It took me seven years for someone to come and replace a leaking and cracked sink in the science department !!! ;-)

I understand your frustration at not being able to put your full skills mix to use, I am sure that it happens not only in teaching but in a variety of council posts.
A similar example would be the fact that I have been driving for over 26 years and have a clean licence for the last twenty of those years. I have driven everything from mini's to trucks and even drove a BV206 all terrain tracked vehicle whilst serving in Norway with the Marines. Yet if I want to drive the school mini bus I would have to take a test. I guess it’s all down to policy.
The policy at the moment is that people who are employed to do IT do the IT stuff and the people who are employed to teach do the teaching stuff, people who work in accounts do the accounts and the people who are employed to sweep the streets, sweep the streets.
I do think that its right to flag up these issues and have a healthy debate about them. Remember the good thing about policy is that it can be changed. It just takes enough people to get round a table or in this instance a keyboard, and things can start to happen. It may be very slow but who knows who is watching, listening and taking note.

P.S It’s a bit of a pedantic thing but could I ask you in the future to refer to "non teaching staff" as support staff. We must be one of the only professions constantly identified by what we don’t do. ;-)

Although I can see the point you are making with regard to the head teacher covering a class, I think a better comparison would be the head of IT covering a class whilst you did something else. Your head teacher is, after all, qualified as a teacher which means they would be breaking no rules if they were to stand in for you.
If the head of IT was not GTC registered, or had not been subject to an enhanced disclosure Scotland search, then there is no way on earth that they would be let near a class.
I guess some IT officers would argue that if a teacher has no IT qualification then they shouldn’t be fiddling around with computers and doing stuff that others are employed to do.
Please remember that the vast majority of council staff can be sacked or made redundant if there is no demand for their jobs. An argument could be made that if the teachers did all the IT work it could lead to a reduction in numbers of IT support staff. This could have a knock on effect on the workloads of teachers and off it goes into a vicious spiral.
I know Teachers can be sacked as well, but in my 20yrs in local government I have yet to see one be shown the door apart from the obvious reasons. If there is no demand for their subject then they are placed on the transfer list and re deployed elsewhere.

I think the anonymous posters may have thought that you are having a pop at them. I thought you were only voicing your concerns about the situation and if people took it the wrong way then so be it. There's obviously a technican/IT officer with a chip on their shoulder.
I can see a little of their point when they mentioned the wages thing but I just think it was said in the wrong way.
Some taxpayers may want teachers to teach and not be wasting their money by spending all day installing stuff on computers when others are paid to do that. If there arent enough tecnicians to do the job expeditiously then surely its more economical to employ more technicians/IT officers rather than rely on (expensive) teachers. I believe East Lothian are in the process of taking on two more IT officers. My guess is that in the very near future it will take more than that to keep on top of things.
One of the answers to the problem of levels of IT technical support is staring them in the face but we shall have to wait and see how desperate things get before someone thinks outside the box.

Brian