As you can imagine, I am more than a little perturbed as to why Ms Truss feels unable to respond directly to my emails! Maybe she does not wish me to be able to cut and paste her comments here?!!
Here is my most recent response to Ms Truss via Mr Graham Stuart:
Dear Mr Stuart,
Please accept my
thanks for forwarding Ms Truss’s responses to my enquiries relating to ‘the
discrimination of Early Years Professionals’.
May I suggest that
it would be more practical for my future communications to receive a direct
response from Ms Truss. This will avoid absorbing your valuable constituency
time by your having to attend to a matter for the Department for Education. It
will also prevent Ms Truss from appearing to distance herself from what may
look like a ‘thorny issue’!
As I presently
have no direct email access to Ms Truss, I will be grateful if you will pass on
this response to her latest communication.
****************
Dear Ms Truss,
Further to our
recent communications, I will be most grateful if you will in future respond
directly to my communications in this respect. It seems most impractical to
involve my local MP in a matter which relates purely to the DfE and which
effectively removes his attention from more local but equally important
political matters.
I am most
appreciative of your responses to my concerns however I remain anxious that in
spite of your rhetoric, which clearly establishes the value of Early Years
Professionals and the newly titled Early Years Teachers, there remains no
conclusive decision or plan to pay these highly skilled individuals a wage
commensurate with their level of expertise and qualification. Indeed, I suspect
that many existing EYPs may well be considering leaving the sector in order to
earn a wage that can more effectively meet the financial commitments of a
family!
May I suggest that
you take a look at the disparity between the wages of teachers with QTS and
those without QTS on the document to which you refer in your last email (http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/2013%20stpcd%20master%20final.pdf).
It is most apparent that there is a difference of almost £6000. And yet, you
continue to claim that EYPs, specifically trained to deal with the
ever-changing needs of our youngest children, are equally as important as
teachers of our older children.
With respect to
your comments regarding the other options which may be available to me should I
wish to achieve QTS, I do not currently get paid a wage that can effectively
support my family, let alone support me through yet further education or
assessment to qualify to teach another age group.
I have begun to
investigate the potential to achieve QTS through the ‘assessment only’ route as
you suggest, however I am being advised that this is not available to me
locally (East Yorkshire) and that I must be able to demonstrate experience in
another age range to be accepted. I wonder if you would suggest that I give up
my relatively secure, although poorly paid, permanent job (£8.16/hour) to seek
primary school experience which will likely be at a lower pay rate and on a
temporary contract, so that I might be considered a suitable candidate to pay
over £2000 for this route?
I must continue to
assert that my skills and training have been explicitly honed to focus on the
very different needs and education of the under 5s (as directed by the EYFS)
though I have been suitably equipped with the knowledge and understanding to
teach older children, however I must admit that I am beginning to wonder
whether my protracted qualifications, experience and skills are still considered
to be good enough?
I look forward to
your response so that I may share your comments with my fellow campaigners and
media followers.
Kind regards,
Julie Dervey
P.S. You may wish
to take a look at my Blog which relates to my campaign and the comments from
others who have signed the petition which is committed to improved conditions
for EYPs. I have provided the links below:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please let me know what you think about this Blog and if you have any ideas to support the campaign.
Thank you.