NSW PRIMARY PRINCIPAL’S ASSOCIATION

Allocation of General Assistants to Schools

-A POSITION PAPER -

BACKGROUND: -

General Assistants are either allocated to schools as a part time component of staffing from an Area or Regional allocation, or are a full time position. Such allocation is determined generally on a basis of school enrolments and staffing, although some Area and Regional Committees do take into account submissions from schools relating to special circumstances.

Some schools and field study centres due to their unique nature and the services they supply, have received a fixed staffing allocation on a historical basis, often above normal provisions.

Secondary schools in some circumstances have been successful in retaining a full GA position even if their enrolments dropped below 500 students.

PRESENT SITUATION -

The nature  of schools and the legislation under which they operated has changed markedly. Schools now exist in an environment characterised by:

·         Client families in the majority of which both parents work, and time formally available for voluntary work is now unavailable; thus school grounds maintenance and beautification is now wholly resourced by most schools.

·         OH&S places demands on schools for immediate maintenance or repair. For much of this the GA is the only resource due to school location or/and availability of tradespersons.

·         Technological advances now have to be supported by low-level maintenance on a daily basis. Teachers cannot continue to provide this resource; their prime responsibility is their students’ education.

·         Child protection requires at least two adults present in a school at all times. Increasing GA time in small schools would provide a more flexible human resource base than simply increasing SASS staff time

·         Vandalism is an increasing issue for many schools, much of this can be repaired simply and quickly by a GA, yet if left for tradespersons availability it lowers the tone of the school and encourages further vandalism.

·         Increased GA time is an economically sustainable approach to freeing up teacher time for students, and reducing DET and School maintenance costs.

·         Schools need flexibility in resource management to work effectively in our present environment.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A scan of PPA members has resulted in the following position:

1)           That the G A job description be updated to reflect the new requirements of the position,

2)           That a flexible resource provision be used so as to not disadvantage remote and hard to staff schools.

3)           Historical allocations for special needs if greater than the base allocation indicated below should NOT be preserved.

4)           That due to the Department’s duty of care to students and staff and its Occupational Health and Safety responsibilities, that schools be staffed with a base entitlement based on enrolments with additional allocations provided for: -

1.      Split Sites

2.      Teaching allocations above that for a school in that enrolment band.

3.      Environmental Factors

§         Age and condition of buildings;

§         Seasonal conditions.

§         Unique and emergent situations

RECOMMENDED GA STAFFING FORMULA:

            This approach combines teacher and student numbers recognising that special schools , and schools with special needs have an increased need for GA support. However, it must be noted that all Primary Schools require parity of GA appointment with Secondary schools, in the first instance.

                                    Base Entitlement

Split Site Schools

Teacher Loading

The loading for teachers is determined by the percentage (or part there-of) of teachers above the  base establishment of schools  in an enrolment band

Thus a school with an enrolment of 205, and a teaching establishment 25% above the base entitlement would receive a GA staff of 1.1.

This loading would continue above 100% in the same incremental steps.

Environmental Loading

This is reserved for

·         unique and emergent situation

·         schools who can justify an increased allocation due to:

o       Age and condition of buildings;

o       Seasonal conditions.

Additional allocation would be requested by representative committees of Principals of schools in an Education Support Centre  Area from an allocation of staffing made to Regions.

FLEXABILITY OF RESOURCING

In some situations schools will not be able to find suitable staff, or indeed may face unique circumstances – viz. isolated communities. Therefore the following two provisions are made which the Principal can recommend to his or her Regional Director:

1.      That the GA allocation be cashed in, in part or in whole and that resource be used for maintenance, school beautification and resource management.

2.      The Human Resource Reference Group strongly opposes the amalgamation of GA and Cleaning positions.

CONCLUDING RECOMMENDATION

As the above recommendations would meet the needs of both secondary and primary schools, that both the PPA and the SPA adopt these recommendations, and jointly campaign for GA Staffing improvements.

Staffing & Personnel Reference Group

Principal Contact: Mr Jim Wilton

                                    Principal (Wentworth PS)

August 2004