So, I'm a TA now

Just before Christmas senior management gave the go ahead for one technician to start working and training as a TA. We had a technician meeting and neither bio or chem tech wanted the gig, so it fell to me by default.

I've been given a timetable and all my teachers know that during those periods I won't be available to help them out unless it's an emergency. They've also all been asked to be a bit more organised with their requisition sheets so I have plenty of time to plan my week. I'll believe that when I see it!

The school want me to get a qualification, so I'm being enrolled on a competence-based thing called 'supporting teaching and learning'. A lot of the stuff I do as a technician will count, but when the assessor comes to visit she will need to see me supporting in Maths, ICT and English.

Maths and ICT are no problem. Plenty of both to be found in physics. English on the other hand is not so straightforward and I've been told I will need to do 1 lesson of English a week.

So far I'm starting to quite enjoy the physics lessons, but I'm dreading English. It was one of my worst subjects at school and I don't know what possible use I could be in a bottom set year 11 English class. Apparently the English department are delighted so I hope I don't disappoint them too much!

HLTA - the next chapter

HoD is still keen to pursue trying to get me trained as a HLTA and last week he got the HR manager to present the proposal at an SMT meeting. We didn't hear anything for a couple of days, but now HR have got back to us with some feedback from SMT including some questions/concerns that they want answered.

Some of their concerns are the same as mine, namely whether the technician side of my job would be adversely affected and how we would organise the workload. I think we can manage if everyone gets properly oragnised and my teachers learn to plan a bit better. Obviously they also have concerns about the costs, but that was to be expected.

Apparently the Headmaster's main concern is that this could become a 'conveyor belt for technicians to train and leave'! To me that seems very short-sighted. Is he honestly saying that he wants untrained, unskilled technicians because then we are less likely to find jobs elsewhere? From my point of view, if this additional training leads to a pay increase I am far more likely to stay.

At the moment I am struggling financially and the fact that my daily commute is a 55 mile round trip does not help. A job closer to home would reduce my costs significantly, but a pay rise here would make all the difference.

The other aspect is career progression. The way our school is set up, we have 3 individual technicians each servicing 1 science and working independently of each other. It's not the kind of system that needs a senior technician so if I wanted to become a senior or team leader, I would have to move. What's currently being proposed would be a chance to progress without leaving. Don't know if we will be able to convince them. Watch this space!

Half term

It's here! Half term is finally here. It's been a long, tiring slog but after 1.15pm today we are out of here for 2 weeks. Well, I'm coming in for a couple of days to get some jobs done, but there won't be any kids or teachers so it still counts as a holiday.

The last thursday before autumn half term is always 'Steepo' day. Steepo is a 2.5 mile inter-house cross-country run which all the students have to participate in. Quite a few of the teaching staff run as well and this year one of the IT technicians decided we ought to put together a support staff team so yesterday afternoon I joined 3 IT guys, the H&S manager, 2 ladies from accounts, the HR manager, the catering manager, the head of maintenance, the lady who runs the uniform shop, one of the electricians, one of the cleaners,our bio tech and a couple of others for a bit of a run.

It was actually really good fun. A lot of the non-running teachers were marshalling the course and shouting out encouragement as we passed and it was great to be involved in something all the kids were doing.

I just got the results list, and apparently I came 13th out of 18 support staff, which I think is a pretty respectable result. Who knows, maybe next year I'll be fitter and quicker. :)

It was a good way to end what has been a busy but very productive 7 weeks and I'm looking forward to a rest.

Trips

The annual trip to CERN went off this morning. I'm not able to go this year, but as usual I have been heavily involved in the planning and organisation.

As I was dealing with last minute paperwork yesterday I got to wondering whether I am too much of a pushover. Surely the teachers should be doing this stuff themselves? I know that my HoD panics and flaps and is not the most organised person in the world, so I do all this stuff for him because at least that way I know it will be done properly.

For the CERN trip I have:

* Organised getting the passport details from all the students (making photocopies, recording info in a spreadsheet)
* Booked the flights
* Liased with the school transport manager to book the coach to the airport
* Printed out the boarding passes
* Arranged the groups for the guided tour
* Organised which students are sharing which rooms at the hotel (HoD booked the hotel)
* Downloaded and printed out maps of the hotel, highlighting where the nearest bus stops are
* Printed out timetables for all the buses that the group will need to take between Geneva airport, CERN and the hotel
* Organised all the above paperwork in a file for HoD to take with him

Genuine question to any fellow technicians reading this - Am I an idiot? Should I have said no a long time ago to doing all of this?

Once they get back from CERN we start all over again, as it's only 7 weeks until the trip to Rome and the Vatican Observatory. Arrgh!

12 years later...

Today is my 12th anniversary of starting work as a lab technician.

At the time I was a single mother with a 6 year old daughter and desperate to get back into work, but worried about affording childcare. A job in a school felt like the ideal solution, at least temporarily. My mum had been a biology technician for years so I knew at least partly what I was getting myself into and I was delighted to be offered the post of physics technician at my local secondary school for 20 hours a week.

After 3 years there I decided I wanted to go full time and found a job at a nearby independent school, then 3 more years later ended up in my current position. I never expected to be a technician for anywhere near this long, but it turns out that it's a job I quite enjoy (usually) and at which I am reasonably good. I've found a school I love which pays just about enough to live on. If only I didn't have such a long commute to get here every day it would be perfect.

Across 3 schools I have experienced a great deal of variation in how technicians are treated, but here I feel like I am (mostly!) respected and (often) treated as a professional colleague by the teachers and management. My job is varied and interesing, I am constantly learning new things. For all my grumbling I would have to say that for the most part I am happy with my lot.

In another 12 years I'll be 50. Will I still be a technician? I really hope so.

To HLTA or not to HLTA?

When we have our termly technician meeting with the Head of Science, chem tech is always full of ideas about what 'we' or 'they' should do to improve the science department. One such idea, which he has brought up periodically over the past few years, is that all 3 technicians should become Higher level Teaching Assistants (HLTA) The idea is that this should (in theory) get us more money and might also get us recognised as academic staff, rather than support staff.

The previous HoS used to listen politely and then completely ignore 95% of everything said at these meetings, but things are changing. Our new HoS is also my HoD and he listens to technicians! At the last meeting he seemed quite interested in chem tech's suggestion, made a lot of notes, and then went to speak to HR.

Unbelievably HR are really keen on the concept and we have been asked to put together a cost/benefit analysis so they can decide whether it's worth pursuing. I thought they'd lose interest the minute pay was mentioned, but apparently not. They have said that they would only want to go forward with one technician initially but then include the others over time and the one technician they want to trial the idea with is me! Apparently I've been selected because I'm the youngest tech here so I guess they think they'll get more back long term if they invest in me.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I want to be a HLTA.

I'm a technician. It's what I've been doing for the past 12 years. My prep room is my comfort zone and the idea of having to teach even small groups of students terrifies me. Quite apart from the fear factor I'm also concerned about what this could mean for technicians in general. Is being a technician not good enough? We are skilled people with specialist knowledge and I would never want that role to be seen as second rate and for teaching to be viewed as the only viable career option. After all that was surely the point of RSciTech - to get people to view technicians as professionals.

I need the money though. At this school there are no support staff pay scales and no additional money for taking on extra responsibilities so I am stuck on my current salary for ever. The only way I can earn more may be to go down this path, but I am really conflicted about what is the right thing to do.

It may be that HR decide the costs are too great for the potential benefits, in which case I am worrying unnessecarily. Watch this space!

Happy new (school) year!

So, we're a week and a half into the new school year and already it feels as though we've never been away!

As always there have been lots of changes to the timetable, and which student is in which set, but I think it's just about sorted now. The only problem we're having in physics is the teachers who haven't checked their timetable to see which room they are supposed to be teaching in.

We have more classes, and teachers, than ever in science this year and still only the same 9 labs which isn't enough when up to 14 lessons can be happening all at once, so we have what is rapidly becoming the usual scenario of science lessons being sent to the far flung corners of the school. Sadly though teachers don't always check their timetable and assume that they will be in their usual lab. Several times already I have had to remind them that practical lessons are not a viable option when they are in a maths or business studies room.

Maybe by half term we'll all know where we are, but somehow I doubt it. :)

Preparations for this year's CERN trip are coming along nicely. We are going a bit earlier than usual this time and amazingly the process of booking flights was remarkably painless. HoD was a lot firmer about setting deadlines for the students to get their permission and passport info in and it really seemed to pay off. 35 students and 4 staff this time - our largest CERN trip ever. It's unfortunate that the school chaplain is coming again. I'd hoped last year was a one off, but with any luck the trip will be enough fun that he won't put too much of a damper on things.