It is no surprise that schools are finding it particularly difficult to recruit teaching assistants (“‘Joke’ pay forces support staff to quit schools for supermarkets”, News). Anna Fazackerley gives several examples of headteachers placed in near impossible situations with the prospect of things getting worse and not better.
My daughter, a TA in a primary school in London for children with special educational needs, is often pushed, scratched and verbally abused during the course of a normal working day. The school is constantly understaffed and relies disproportionately on TAs rather than qualified teachers. All this for £73 a day. The majority of the TAs are employed through agencies, which apparently cuts costs for the school but it means that those staff face constant uncertainty, together with no holiday or sick pay.
The amazing thing is that so many of the teaching assistants show such loyalty and dedication to the children. They have nothing but admiration and gratitude from this retired teacher with 38 years on the clock.
Keith Bell
Sherburn, County Durham
Labour’s London problem
Michael Chessum alludes to the fact that Labour is a coalition of two parties in one (“Labour is riding high, but the left will never thrive within its ranks. It has to go its own way”, Comment). I sense a frustration with the Labour left that had it all and still messed up, as much as a disappointment in the Labour right. Chessum suggests further entrenching oneself into the Labour left and Labour right tribes, even to the point of a formal divorce. This leads to Labour’s greatest barrier – a self-involvement issue.
The big dividing lines in politics are between progressives and conservatives, not Corbynistas and Blairites. When Labour only talks about itself, voters (and members) feel at best forgotten and at worst collateral damage.
As a former Labour member, who joined the Liberal Democrats in part because of this infighting, I recommend my former party starts to heal wounds by discouraging the use of slates in its internal elections, moves beyond London and focuses on the needs of local people rather than internal conflicts. There are two Labour parties – not left and right, but London and the rest of the UK.
Tom Parkin
Sheffield
Who are you calling twee?
I support almost every word in Martha Gill’s article (“Even Ted Hughes has fallen to the sickly cult of the twee”, Comment) – apart from her remark that “twee is now how the secular grieve”. As a celebrant, one of hundreds accredited by Humanists UK, I conduct personalised secular ceremonies, which can in no way be called “twee”. They are detailed celebrations of life, often full of loving memories, but sometimes, frankly, warts and all.
I can only imagine the fury I would have been subject to, when conducting the funeral of a brilliant 46-year-old man recently, if I had in any way veered into the twee. We used the words of his friends, colleagues and family to tell his story. Some of these words had four letters, some were about drinking and even more were about his wisdom, insight and honesty. It was a fitting tribute. And never, ever, in this ceremony or any other, does the word “passed” pass my lips.
Felicity Harvest
Wadhurst, East Sussex
Let me tell you a story
Mina Holland’s piece about her family’s experience of art in hospital (“The fine art of feeling better”, Magazine) was a powerful reminder of the valuable role the arts can play in supporting children – and their families – when they need hospital treatment. But the visual arts are not the only kind that bring comfort to sick children.
I am a professional storyteller, and one of my most rewarding jobs is visiting children’s wards for the charity Read for Good. I tell fairytales and legends, connecting children to their own imaginative worlds and, sometimes, by telling folktales of place, to their own home areas too. “Once upon a time” offers children a gateway to a familiar world of traditional tales and respite from the unfamiliar world of the hospital.
Fiona Collins
Carrog, Sir Ddinbych, Wales
Surrogacy: the way ahead
You can create an ethical UK market for surrogacy that protects surrogate mothers, intended parents and their conceived children, but only if it is commercial, legal and regulated (“The future of surrogacy is in the balance. We should be wary of relaxing the rules”, Comment). A market limited to couples/singles with a genetic link to the intended child, with fair but affordable compensation for the surrogate mother, and with legal parameters governing the expectations and behaviours of the parties involved would address many of the ethical concerns raised.
My wife and I had a child via a surrogate after 10 years of failed IVF treatment We could not do so commercially in the UK so did it in California, as the most ethical location for the surrogate, ie commercially advantageous and legally protected. Consequently, it is the most expensive location and so inaccessible to many.
No one has the right to a family or child, but the desire for one can be profound and desperate. Where demand outstrips supply, there will be exploitation on all sides. Without an accessible and affordable UK market, developing-world surrogate exploitation will continue. Without an enforceable legal framework, child access and abandonment issues will continue. An ethical UK market for surrogacy can, affordably and safely, help intended parents have a child, protect and compensate those surrogate mothers who lovingly make miracles happen and finally, safeguard any child conceived.
George Chamberlain
Kingston, Surrey
Picture perfect
Reading the obituaries for Eamonn McCabe (“‘He captured sport’s operatic emotion and muddy pathos’”, Focus and elsewhere) seems to have made me more appreciative of high-quality photographs in newspapers. Certainly, those by Joel Goodman significantly enhance Tim Adams’s gruesomely entertaining account of the Conservative party conference (“Birmingham Blues”, New Review). They are evocative, varied and brilliantly composed. More soon, please.
Grant Tapsell
Oxford
