This week's Special Report 'Feeling the heat' (pages 10-11) talks to some of the support staff who are now finding themselves left in charge of the class or asked by the temporary supply teacher to tell them what to do!
Some nursery nurses and classroom assistants enjoy the challenge and responsibility of, in effect, teaching the class. Some find it a stressful experience that they did not want to be part of their job.
None, however, should be expected to do a teacher's work without the pay and while they are not fully qualified to do so. And nor should the use of support staff in this way be allowed to mask the true extent of the teacher shortage.
It is illuminating, also, that no similar attention is being paid by national media to the serious recruitment crisis in early years education and care.
