"Gold dust" school jobs

[Smartsub]

I am currently trying to recruit for support staff in school. I need kitchen, staff, admin and TAs. All term time only and all school hours. The jobs I've previously seen referred to on here as "gold dust".

We are getting hardly any applications and those we do get a poor. Admittedly the money is poor, but that's always been the case. Until a couple of years ago the difficult part was sifting through the 100s of applications we'd get for such jobs, now we rarely get more than a handful.

What's changed?

On our teaching forums, these jobs seem to have hundreds of applicants or very few...all depends on the areas.

Schools struggle to recruit good support staff because the jobs are just not worth it any more.

Relatively low pay for a start, can't take holiday in term time, spoken to like children by teachers, unreasonable demands by SLT, child- unfriendly hours so you need both BF & AS club. Behaviour in schools is mostly awful too if you work with the children & you're not really supported to deal with it. If you are on the ops side you'll be asked to do all kinds of stuff that isn't in your job role but they can't recruit to whatever that job is so more and more gets piled on you.

The 'gold dust' thing dates from a time when parents, usually women, wanted jobs that fit round school holidays. There's much more flexibility on offer now than there was pre covid, so that particular cohort of workers can get what they need from their working hours in a much wider pool of jobs.

@Smartsub

Also the respect some ta's get is very low. All ta's should he respected but many are very educated people with some specialist experience, it's very hard when they are spoken down by teachers, heads or admin staff.
Ta's often see more and hear more because they are literally jn with the dc and unfortunately I've known of ta's spoken too like they don't know what's going on.

@HipsterCoffeeShop

🤣 Cross post.

People I know who have don't this role know the pay is low but it's still pay and they do get the holidays.

What they didn't expect and couldn't tolerate however was the way they were treated and spoken too by teachers and slt.

It's was too undignified and demeaning

Arghhhhhhh "do know"... The pay is low

I know what you meant @ICanSmellSummerComing

The way some teachers speak to non-teaching staff is appalling. And it's not like most of them are particularly intelligent themselves.

I feel for the site/cleaning team as they are often spoken to like absolute shit. They work so hard as well but it's just taken for granted.

I was a primary school bursar for 7 years. For the first 5 years I loved it, but Covid seemed to change everything - the workload increased massively, everyone was stressed.
The way I was looked down upon by some members of the SLT was shocking - so that combined with the poor pay was the reason I left.
There were 5 of us in the office and we all left at the same time!

I'm currently looking for remote accountancy work which will pay so much better!

I had a job in a school once as the first aid/welfare lead. Seemed good on paper.

In reality, I was expected to do the job of 4 people.

I wasn’t allowed to leave the medical room incase a child came in needing help (it was a huge school so break times /lunch times always a queue of injured children out the door and there were a constant stream being brought out of lessons too, also a sick child or two waiting to be picked up), but I was expected to do many tasks which I had to go all all over the large site for.

I was responsible for all the uniform sales, sorting the new and second hand stuff which was on one side of the site, and putting away and keeping a constant track of school books and supplies which were on another side of the site.

I also had to deliver the post to all the different offices around the school - but remember, I wasn’t supposed to leave the medical room (I had a half hour lunch break but I did this task instead of taking it).

As well as having to do all the admin for medications etc in my room with a constant stream of sick kids interrupting that.

Then at the end of the school day, I was responsible for looking after kids and contacting the massive amount of parents that didn’t pick their children up on time (lots of them everyday, sadly).

I was spoken to like shit for not being able to be in four places at once, shouted at for leaving the medical room but shouted at if I hadn’t done the tasks outside it. I brought it up numerous times to be told that I should be managing my time better?!

I was supposed to work 8:45 until 4pm but worked 7:30am until 5:30pm so I could do everything, making me pay for extra childcare for my own children.

All for 16k a year!

I lasted 6 months, it was impossible.

And I hated the dynamics of the school office and the teachers. It was the most toxic environment I’ve ever worked in, never again. Oh, and the parents who thought they could scream in my face and try to physically assault me.

Been in the job 13 months now and it's shit! DO NOT RECOMMEND!
If I didn't have a SEND child who manages much better with me around in the holidays I would leave in a heartbeat. In fact I am looking but I'm not sure what type of role to for for that offers the flexibility about my child. So any tips will be greatly appreciated.

No one and nothing can ever prepare you for the workload. It's shocking and alot falls way outside your job description. And the way you are spoken to. I've often ended up in tears. Because I get so angry how I am spoken to and treated!

I always thought working in a school would be the ideal job when you're a parent. I don't regret it and had to move on from where I was before as it had reached the end of the road for me BUT I cannot see it being long-term

@Needanewadventure2021 - so why not say that? Why not work to rule? If you didn’t cover the cracks in the system, SMT would have to listen.

All this!
I've put in 10yrs as a School Sec. No pay rise at all in all that time means I'm now on min wage.
I'm expected to do everything from what you'd normally expect of an admin role, but additionally 1st aid, medications, organising residential and trips (there are a lot), sports fixture organisation, SEN admin support such as arranging dyslexia and dyscalculia tests, insurances, school admissions&showrounds, event planning and the list goes on and on. Oh and I'm term time only, but am strong armed into working for free every holiday checking emails and dealing with queries.
I eat lunch at my desk (unpaid) as it gets too stressful to try and leave at the end of the day otherwise with unfinished tasks. It is thankless, but my god, you'd know about it if you did leave anything unfinished.
Our boss contacts us all times of the evening, weekends and holidays with various requests for information and to respond to random parent queries. It's such a chaotic and selfish approach to employees.
I've grown to resent it like hell and my fabulous secret is: I'm leaving very soon and I haven't told them! I can't wait to leave and honestly will feel for the next mug they get in, with a job as demanding as this for min wage.

Enough is enough! I can feel your exhaustion through your words. Having an exit plan in place is the most wonderful feeling in the world.

So liberating! My only regret is staying so long, but I love the children and have some fab workmates.
But it's all about putting on the staff and saving money by wheedling favours, rather than pay a decent wage and staff up.
Anyway - soon to be bye bye and good luck recruiting!👍😂

@Eaumyword may I ask what is the next role you have gone for?

You've explained it so well. I'm actually working now and have been for the last 4 hours (6pm to 10pm). It NEVER gets recognised! Neither does all the lunches I work through and times I work over at the end of the day. All the extra i do is seen as me not being able to manage my workload which infuriates me as you will never be able to manage your workload in school admin! However if I am 2 minutes late due to traffic in the morning I will know about it!
If you are poorly you are made to feel guilty so I never feel like I can be open about how run down I am feeling, most likely due to the job.
When I think back to the job description when applying it was vast but nothing like the reality it is. I'm sure they would get us to cover classes if they could get away with it. I've even had to act as security on several occasions and not for nice reasons!
I have raised how unhappy I am to my immediate manager but I'm told it's just the way it is and they wonder why there is a high staff turnover!
When you hear a school wouldn't function without the admin team, it is so true because everything feeds through you.
Admin is such an undervalued role within a school. I wish it didn't work around my primary aged child so well as I'm miserable. The kids are absolutely amazing but the job is awful!

@Needanewadventure2021 I'm so sorry you have the same situation.
I'm not planning on doing anything other than a rest, then some volunteering. Then I'll have a think about what's next.
I fell into this job for the same reasons as you - at the time I had a school aged child and I needed term time/school hours. I'd originally qualified and worked as a solicitor, but left that profession when I had DS.
No advice to offer unfortunately, but I can offer solidarity!
It must sound crazy to others - but there is a core of responsibility you feel towards the children, the team, the parents and your role, that is hard to turn your back on and say no to.

Admin is such an undervalued role within a school

I worked as a TA for many years - I think we all know the admin is secretly the boss and should be treated as royalty! They truest are the glue that keeps things running.

I now work for a very flexible insurance company - we can do long days or short weeks

You can pretty much choose your hours.

I have 25 days holiday - add in the bank holidays and you can eek that out to 6 weeks - we can buy 4 weeks extra a year - with my pay going up by 3 months I can afford the extra month - That’s 10 weeks covered - and I’m sure you could manage a few clubs.

The biggest change is wfh, people can work from home and have much more flexibility which trumps term time and school jobs. Pays more and can do chores at lunch. Can do drop off and pick ups too (still need childcare, unless they’re at school).

Could I just offer a different view? I am a recently retired SBM of a large secondary school. I was well paid, worked in a supportive SLT with an outstanding Head. Yes it was long hours with huge responsibilities but I was respected and put firm boundaries in place. I took a 40 minute break away from my desk everyday and spent it doing playground duty so I could spend time with the children to gain a better understanding of what they wanted in terms of catering, toilets, play facilities etc but in return was given a two course lunch. I've read such horrendous stories from admin staff on here but wanted to offer a positive view of the job.

I think so.

Remote working is going nowhere, which means sooner or later we're going to have to accept that we'll need to pay more for jobs that require a person to be in a physical location at set times or they won't get done. However, we still seem to be in the denial phase about that one.

I agree with others the change is WFH. I used to go into the office 3-4 days a week and that was seen as very flexible. But this is now seen as office base in my role. I now am only recommended to be in the office one day a week and that's not compulsory. It's only so everyone in the department all come in on the same day, if they want to go to the office at all. I'm able to do school runs, and even take my child to music lessons after school. DH job is fully WFH and allows for even more flexible pattern, including 9-3 every day + evening/weekend to catch up to a full time week.

@PinkCherryBlossoms maybe it's going nowhere and maybe it'll disappear soon. But we are using our flexibility now we can. DC2 is in KS2 now and even if it lasts for only another 2 years, she'll be able to get home from school herself. DC1 is already in secondary and by then will be old enough to get paid for babysitting. I'm sure she can babysit a 10/11 year old for a couple of hours a day.

There isn't a chance in hell it'll disappear soon. More remote working was happening anyway pre 2020, but slowly.

@PinkCherryBlossoms interesting. I think a lot of employers want to see their employees at their desks. It's easier for them to say they are all working hard. Instead of measuring other valuable performance metrics. It's in jobs that have short supply currently that we can still demand WFH. DH and I are both in tech and a lot of roles are advertised as hybrid with one day in office. But who knows where we will be in 2 or 3 years time with all the redundancies in the US. But I'm going to make use of it to my advantage while I still can!

When I left the school job, I actually went back to the job I left for it. I had to get a reference from the school for the sake of box ticking, my old boss jumped at me coming back.

They wrote that I had terrible time management.

I actually asked the school business manager what she meant (my old boss I was going back to had shown me and was WTF when I said I had to work up to 3 extra hours a day to fit in everything they wanted me to do).

She said that my coming in early and leaving late showed I was incapable of doing my job properly. I told her a few home truths about her not being able to do her job properly. Cheeky cow.