To think that this can't be right

The advice being given is correct for "teaching ". Teaching assistants are not teachers and are support staff. Therefore treat it as you would any other job and if a better offer comes after you call and decline. They will then presumably call any other short listed candidates

You are correct that you shouldn't take a 6 month role if offered a permanent one.

Teaching assistants - I'm not so sure. The issue for the school will be they only have 2 more weeks until the end of term so if you keep them hanging on until next week then turn them down, they will run out of time to recruit and will have no one in post for the start of the new academic year in September

But they will have interviewed more than one person so if the first candidate doesn't accept, they offer it to the second best. They don't have to start again from scratch.

How would they even know?

This is definitely the way it's done for teachers. They ask after interview if you would accept the job if offered. Then they ring at the end of the day with an offer or rejection. Very little time to consider. I have friends who have said at interview they have other interviews lined up and the school don't offer them the job based on that.

Teaching assistants - I'm not so sure. The issue for the school will be they only have 2 more weeks until the end of term so if you keep them hanging on until next week then turn them down, they will run out of time to recruit and will have no one in post for the start of the new academic year in September. They will likely have to take on a supply member of staff and recruit early in the new year.

Now some would say that's not really your concern and you should do what's right for you.

Others would think it's not the done thing. Is there any chance you may want to work at this school in the future? As this would affect your chances of that.

It's happened in my school a couple of times with support staff. I only recall one teaching member of staff accepting then changing their mind and although it was seen as particularly bad form, the priority at that point was getting someone else.

Last term we were expecting two new TAs and neither turned up for work. One said 'she just changed her mind', the other just never responded to calls. There seems to be a very different attitude to manners regarding employment these days.

I am a teacher and there is an expectation that if you accept you are committing to working with them, even if it then takes a couple of weeks to get the contract out to you etc... There is a 'rumour' that if you then turn the job down later that you get 'blacklisted' but I don't know if it is true. I think it is partly down to circumstance as I know of people who have done this. Someone due start in my current school has done just this and then later said that they would take the job and are now starting a term later (not sure what went on there). Teaching is different - you have to notify them when you apply for other jobs, regardless if you even get shortlisted or not. But you are not going for a teaching role, it is a fixed term, and your life is more important to you than your future employer will consider it to be.

Perhaps have an honest conversation with someone there? I can see the bind you are in. Good luck 🤞

spare me. Recruitment is the cost of business. The OP needs to do precisely what’s best for the OP - have the contract job in her pocket and hope she gets offered the permanent positions. "Poorly regarded" 😂

It's normal in education for this to happen.

It's a common source of worry for teachers and teaching assistants.

You can ask for more time to consider, and particularly if it's a temporary position they are likely to allow this.

It's one of the reasons so many candidates pull out of teaching/TA interviews - if you are offered at a previous interview and accept then it's generally considered binding.

This is not the legal situation but a teacher/TA who accepted and then pulled out (except for obvious reasons like unexpected cancer etc) would have a black mark and education is a small world.

frequently paid more per hour than teachers

Maybe they should think about that when only offering fixed term contract can’t have it both ways

Lots of people accept job offers and then turn them down when they get a better offer. People do this where I work.
Teaching assistants are not the same as teachers. Like a previous poster has pointed out, the job offer will be subject to satisfactory references. This is a provisional offer so either party can retract the offer/acceptance.
Do what is best for you op.

of course you can change your mind imo

would it be a couple of weeks later though?

it is a TA position.

It's considered very very unprofessional as movement between schools is limited to very small windows of time. I haven't ever heard of someone being offered a job then suddenly turning it down a couple of weeks later.

if they offer you the job, you are welcome to give them time to consider, explain you have another interview,
see what they say,
they can always choose another person from their list of candidates if you say no. they would be unfair imo to make you confirm immediatley

Firstly you’re applying as a TA, not a teacher. Secondly, the introduction of academies has pretty much obliterated the old honourable, respectful ways of doing things. Teaching is now cutthroat and staff are just a commodity. Do what you need to do.

They’re not a teacher…….

You can do it but it is considered very unprofessional. Recruitment is hard in schools- costly and time-consuming. A teacher who did this would be very poorly regarded.

What a load of rubbish! 🤦
accept then turn them down later. It’s about you, not the employer.

It takes time to formalise the offer and likely at this time of year, no-ones expecting to start until September anyway. Reference checks, DBS checks etc. The second/third choices won't be told they haven't got the job until the first person has passed these and signed a contract.

We've been recruiting a lot recently and many people who've been offered jobs haven't actually started working with us because while the onboarding process has been going through the motions people who've attended multiple interviews at the same time have been offered other jobs that they've accepted instead. So we've then moved on to the next best candidates. It's totally normal and expected.

Not necessarily so. Creation of a contract can be verbal provided the requisite parts of contract creation are there (offer, consideration, intent to create legal relation).

Very hard to prove and action in reality however

..if it's only a verbal acceptance it's not actionable legally, but yes I agree about it possibly not looking very good.

Yes, but it’s not fair to expect unqualified teaching assistants to be held to the same standards as postgraduate professionals.