TA jobs

My current and previous school use agency TAs but the one I was in before that does not. They just keep readvertising and shuffling people around to fill the most urgent need. They also use TAs to cover lessons (primary) frequently even though they have employed TAs with minimal qualifications.

The position I have now (secondary) the advert stated that being educated to degree level was preferred.

When I started, TA jobs were like hen's teeth with lots of competition. Now they get barely any applicants around here.

That's not the case in NI and it's term time and no holiday pay

For the money I'm not surprised people don't want to do it. 19k for a 30 hour week in my school. My last TA left as she couldn't afford it.

Re Primary Schools:
Many of the TA jobs advertised in South Devon-ish are temporary.
and many of these positions are for SEN children so being temporary makes sense as the child could move school and the school loses the funding for the TA.

Usually it is a Level 3 that is required, tho some adverts will say Level 2.
Level 3 is the old NNEB qualification.

A lot of TA's / HLTA's in schools are actually qualified/trained teachers that have decided not to be teachers for various reasons.

I have no idea what the requirements would be / are for secondary schools.

TA recruitment is a huge problem now that they are frequently being used to cover PPA for teachers.

The school I worked for - secondary - only recruited graduate TAs, who earned slightly more than minimum wage. School increased the job role, expecting far more than salary deserved, TAs left quite rightly, not unusual to work 40hrs per week for 30hrs pay, which meant that they were working for less than minimum wage. Trust then froze support staff recruitment. This is a huge school with higher than average SEN students. Shocking and so wrong. Ex teacher here, who thinks TAs are worth their weight in gold.

You’ll get £12.40 per hour, rising to £13.35 per hour. If you're in London, you'll get £13.65 rising to £13.95 per hour. Not too shabby.

You were saying?

Good TAs re like gold dust

I'm shuddering that they want to put sen units in high schools as they won't be able to staff them

They can't fill TA positions in high schools here in parts of NI. High schools are crying out for them as there are so many statemented children with TA hours. BUT the pay is minimum wage, usually temporary contracts, don't get holiday pay, usually only around 25 hours a week and you have to deal with sen teens.

Would you like to link to some?
used to say gcse in English and maths but that went a few years ago

I've seen plenty of adverts asking for teaching assistants to have degrees in psychology or similar, or at least that this is "preferable", "ideal for a psychology graduate!"

Do you actually have any experience of this?
They totally take on people with no experience and they go straight into classrooms.
no qualifications or experience required

there are not
the shortage of support staff is worth than teachers
all qualification requirement have gone- if you can speak English and have a dbs you can start straight away

@haapynot Do you fancy training as a teacher? It might be worth considering.

There are some very talented TAs, who work well with intervention groups, know the children really well and really enhance the classroom. It’s true that it’s all about relationships and it’s also true that it’s not so much a job that is as popular now.

I had some brilliant TAs and HLTAs and I was very grateful for their expertise. It’s never had the financial remuneration it deserves and It will get worse.

Yes but there are also a lot of TA vacancies that can't be recruited for because it's not a desirable job anymore. As for midday supervisors mentioned uptrend, not seen one in years. Our TAs do it which just takes them our of class more. We don't often use agency TAs though because the role is all about relationships. It's certainly hard to do effectively in a day.

There is a shortage of TAs but at the same time, as someone has already said it's a job that will always attract people because of the hours and the holidays.

Despite the shortage, in my experience a teaching agency would not take on someone unqualified because it's a hard job and being on supply makes it even harder. It's not sharpening pencils like in the good old days. It's having your own phonics group or supporting a child one to one for the whole day with little guidance. Sometimes it's changing nappies for seven hours.

My agency pays supply TAs about £70 a day but that probably varies enormously. Holiday pay is included in the daily rate.

Agency is massively a thing, but schools try to avoid and redeploy wherever possible, so it's always hard, hard work if you're called in to cover. It means someone very high needs will go unsupported otherwise - so you're either doing intensive support with someone who doesn't know/trust you, or a nightmare timetable to cover someone else.

The school pays more and you earn slightly less than a standard TA.

It's a role I love, but one where I need to be physically strong and am regularly assaulted. It's nothing like teaching (apart from occasional whole class cover. That's too much like it...). It requires massive emotional and physical resilience; strong SEN knowledge; an ability to swap what you're doing extremely fast and to keep on with a smile even when someone's just hurt you, with only the time between classes to get over it (as too stretched for anyone to cover you while you have a cry...).

I love it, but I'd not do it if I didn't have disabled family who need me at home. I do 37 hours a week TTO, which brings in enough to live while I also look after them and be available in the holidays.

Do you have any relevant qualifications @haapynot? Most of the TAs I work with are educated to degree level, some are qualified teachers, although one has no qualifications, not even Math/English at level 2, but she's been there forever and is brilliant at what she does.

If not, it might be worth volunteering while training - most TAs these days work with SEN children. The school I work in has only used agency TAs to cover for children who need a 1:1 when the usual TA will be absent for more than a short period. It can a really tricky job supporting a child with SEN you haven't build a rapport with. It takes a special person and the pay is pants for the skill required.

If you can get a permanent position, over time training would be provided and you'd be able to build up your skills.

Many schools prefer more because of the level of responsibility and requirements of what you do- intervention groups, medical need ( sometimes quite complex), S&L & MH programmes, EHCPs, planning for the above…More and more is being expected of TAs and yet the pay is still really poor.It’s so wrong.

Yes Aldi round by us pays £16+ph. And you apply with minimum English and maths skills but you're not going to get that job. The TAs in a lot of primary schools are (like the staff in the office) working with an aptitude well beyond their pay grade.