[senco-forum] School donations

Hi
  I've had a number of offers of money for extra TA support, usually for individual pupils.  My concern has always been about who is in charge of those TAs.  
  I can imagine a time when the person paying the TA has very different ideas about what that TA should be doing with the pupil than I do.  It doesn't happen often but I do have times when I disagree with parents about how to support a child, what lessons to support them in and what precisely the TA should do.  I'd want to have all those issues sorted out before I accepted the donation.
  I can also foresee issues around how long this funding will continue, who decides if it is effective, who selects the adults to be employed and who deploys them to work with pupils.  Are the TAs all to be paid at the same rate and are they all to be part of the same Team?  Who would leave if the funding ceased?
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Peter Syme <APAHSyme at compuserve.com> wrote:
  Hi All

I think this is a query for those of you who manage SEN budgets and
,possibly for those folk like Brendan, who know the legal, technical issues
that might be involved. A friend has asked my opinion on the following.

Friend has been successful in business and now makes good, thoughful
donations to various charities. He has become involved with funding things
such as providing coaches for transporting disabled pupils. Through this
he has become more involved with a particular school and has asked what
else he could do to support their provision for children with additional
needs in this mainstream school( I think we are talking about pupils with
statements here as the needs seem to be considerable). There has been a
suggestion that he provide financial support for the school to pay for
additional TA services and he has asked my opinion on this. I think he is
happy to do this but is aware that it is a differerent scenario from the
donation of funding for concrete "extras" that the school would not
normally manage to pay for.

I don't want to go into anymore detail but would be interested in people's
thoughts on this.

Thanks

Anne

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall