Anyone a Teaching Assistant - what do you do?!

[horsesforcourses]

Hi- have had an interesting time with work, had to stop standrad degree when I was at university due to family problems and never got back to it. Stumbled into secetarial and was never happy. Took time out to have dcs and recently started doing open uni degree (hopefully to be in english) part time. dcs now older and childare sorted, so thinking of gettingback into work. Would really like to teach secodary englsh and drama one day (am 26) but wondered about starting off as a TA and completing degee along side this (sounds ideal, school hours, can be part tme ish to accommodate dcs etc) but what exactly do they do, qualifications or training, pay, etc etc). Any thoughts or experiences would be fantastic - thank you.

[foofi]

Pay will be rubbish.

[LilyLoo]

Hi i have just finished my degree part time whilst working as a mentor in school.
It took a little longer than the four years due top family commitments but it means you can earn, school hols a massive bonus and tbh i think the experience you get in the classrom is a massive bonus when you go on to teacher training. I think it's ideal and you may even get offered to do your teacher training in your school if they like you.

[horsesforcourses]

Going to soudn dafe here then - what is the difference between a mentor and a teaching assistant Are there specific qualifications or training courses? Dont really want to go down the sn lie only as that will become very specialised and i want to be able to deaw on experience later on thank yu

[Happynow]

You'd really like to teach "secodary englsh"?? I think you should look at the alternatives.

[LilyLoo]

The main difference between mentor and ta is the slary i'm afraid. I started of a as a ta then got my mentors post at the same school. Usually a lot of promotions in school are internal.
In secondary most ta's are assigned to particular children and mentors tend to carry out more whole class work, behaviour mentor or assigned to specific departments i.e we have an english one etc. My specific role is with year 7 and transition.
Mentor pay is almost double that of a ta though!

[horsesforcourses]

Thank you for your comments - (its english I would love to teach ideally - and not typing - hope english classroom wouldn't compare to my home office at the moment (ds in the corner, dosed up to the eyeballs on calpol and screaming blue murder - so sorry for any typos!) Thank you for all your comments, think I knew that the pay for tas was a bit grim - had looked on council website for the last few weeks - just thought that it was a) better than nothing and b) a good way of getting a foot through the door back into the world of work and more specifically education. Did you have your qualifications before you applied for the posts of ta santaoftheopera?

[Whizzz]

I'm a secondary TA - we have a timetable just like the kids & go from lesson to lesson. Time is split between whoeber needs the support in the various classes. I am with years 7, 8, 9 & 10 at the mo. There is a lot less of 'taking kids out in small groups' than there is as a primary TA.
Pay is rubbish. Some of started with no experience at all, I volunteered at DSs school before getting this job & have also done a BTEC TA qualification

[Whizzz]

To be honest, I get the feeling that TA qualifications count more at Primary than secondary. Plus there seems to be less primary TA jobs around (I think a lot of them get filled by 'in house' people!)
For secondary, you certainly need a good basic education across the board I'd say, as obviously you have to pick upwhat's being taught in class very quickly so that you can effectively support.