"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?

@Smartsub can I ask why parents wouldn’t be an option for you? I promise I am not being goady; I just wonder if there might be an untapped workforce in your community.

But it is you saying we perceive it which is even worse

I worked at my DC’s senior school at one stage

👏👏👏👏
Could not have said this better myself.
The pay is dire and the responsibilities are immense. As soon as my youngest is old enough, I'll be leaving education despite my degree and early years teacher status.

midday supervisors are not responsible for the safety of the children they are supervising? Not responsible for clearing spillages?

I’m primary SLT. Every level of job in a school has a high level of responsibility with regards to children’s safety, well-being and (some roles) learning.

The pay is bad. That is the reason you can’t recruit. The pay is very very very bad.

I used to work in a school on TTO. I then moved to HE but TTO and got made redundant. I am still in HE but now with hybrid and flexible working it is a lot easier in the school holidays. I work part time but on more money than full time TTO. I can do drop offs and pick ups, and during the holidays I work early morning till lunch from home and then have the afternoons with the kids.

For a long time we've been fobbed off with the line that our crap pay is due to supply and demand.

Interesting that now there is a big demand, with so many vacancies remaining unfilled, yet still the pay isn't increasing to reflect that.

It's such a shame as there are a lot of positives as well but the paperwork and responsibilities are increasing but not the pay

Some schools also don’t advertise the actual wage just the FTE

Do a FOI request for your local secondary academy to find out how many "teachers" are unqualified. My school isn't an academy and almost all teachers are qualified or working towards qualifying, but I'm close to the business manager at our nearest secondary and they have c. 20% of teachers unqualified. It's really very common, parents won't know. It's not right, I agree, but it's much bigger than TAs being used for cover.

That's a big concern, unless they have other qualifications that make them the best person for the job, rather than being a money saving exercise.

At my school (primary) every single teacher is fully qualified, with QTS.
Our HLTAs are fully qualified to level 4 as a minimum, with some being qualified teachers with QTS.
Our LSAs are all fully qualified to the various TA levels, and all have a minimum of GCSE English Maths grade C+. Some are qualified teachers with QTS, often who have made a career change following having children or coming towards the end of their careers.

The only 'unqualified' or 'working towards' teachers we have are official trainee teachers who are doing things like SCITT and are supervised throughout. Or someone like the PE specialist coach who comes in to the sessions - has sports coaching qualifications but it supervised by teaching staff throughout the sessions still.

Perfectly put. Even if, in the OPs school, TAs work exclusively within the lesson supporting using the teacher's planning/instruction, they have the responsibility for supporting and knowing the children and enabling learning. I have taught with truly talented TAs who amazed me with what they 'got out' of the children. Its telling that the OP has worked in admin roles within the school rather than directly in learning. From the outside the 'classroom support' role might look basic but only if you're not seeing the situation in terms of what the TA does in maximising learning.

OP You lost my support when you said single parents don’t tend to have qualifications or experience.

TA-ing isn't what it used to be though, is it? Nowadays more and more are being pushed to cover lessons etc. HLT's everywhere being given a schedule that includes weekly teaching! It's utterly disgraceful, nowhere near good enough for the kids and of course, the workload is in no way reflected in the wage.

I always thought a lot of my TAs. I'd hate to think of them being in the position I see support staff in at my son's school but I'm sure they are!

You can't hide behind the NJC pay scales re responsibility. Yes you get paid more if you have financial responsibility or manage staff but every member of staff working in a school has responsibility for child protection, safeguarding, prevent and a myriad of other statutory duties. It's ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

Rubbish. Speaking as an administrator, there is a huge amount of responsibility. Constant need for checks and as for a TA having no responsibility, I have no words

I used to work in a school. I have now moved back to the private sector, I’ve lost term time working but I can WFH most of the time and can do the school run (no meetings between 3-4pm is the norm). I work far fewer hours for the same pay and I’m treated with respect. I hope schools will now have to start paying their support staff a proper wage that reflects the responsibilities they do have. I enjoyed WFH during the pandemic I really don’t want to physically be at work being shouted at by parents/teachers/the head.

Not many people want to work a couple of hours during the day. Its just not worth their while. And TA's are poorly paid considering the amount of responsibility they have. And quite often these positions are temporary or hours can be cut if the requirements of the school change.

One of the biggest change in employment since lockdown has been an exodus of 50+ women from the workforce (ONS). That will include a large number of people doing these low paid , part time jobs. The ONS are not clear on why but many will have effectively retired and other will be doing unpaid childcare for younger family members. However it may well be the cost of living crisis will drive some of these back to work

This is an excellent thread explaining it
twitter.com/miss_mcinerney/status/1526244491883167745?t=t7AEc5tbIz3UYFJ5HIQF3A&s=19

Things have been getting worse in schools for years but I really think Covid has caused a shift.

I got out years ago but I'm now seeing so many friends leave the profession.

Life is too short to be treated like shit on the daily. Non-educational staff would be shocked if they saw how evil many SLTs are. I've never seen bullying like it.

Because … 37 weeks salary over a year is crap. The pension you will get when you retire is also crap. School holiday holidays…. Prices are ridiculous.

forever counting down until the break. Being unable to take time off when you fancy a cheeky day off. Returning after the summer holidays, full on term with only a week off until Christmas.

Returning after the holidays, no one can be bothered to talk about what they did as it’s just all full on.

I’d give my right arm to do a TA job but I simply can’t afford to. I’m lucky I have a part time job that pays reasonably well and is massively flexible.
A school job would be great for me but I’d end up taking a pay cut of about £400 per month for probably more responsibility.

Yes always counting off days. Whatever you do it's never enough and lots of politics

Well anyway OP I am sure you've got your answer now. Your posts have made me feel quite angry and your attitude is typical of the SLT I have dealt with in the past.

Support staff in education are often treated like crap, have expectations way beyond our pay grade thrust upon us and huge responsibilities of safeguarding and educating children.

I have a degree, eyts (not Qts) and years of experience particularly with working with children with SEN. I am also a single parent (despite your beliefs we can actually be well qualified despite our marital status).

The reason you can't get staff is shit pay, dismissal of our responsibilities (they aren't "perceived") and the fact we are sick of working for free in our unpaid lunch and holidays.
My rent and council tax is more than my salary ffs and I work 30 hours a week.

Schools will be losing a lot of fantastic support staff soon if pay and status doesn't change.

I don't disagree with any of the points raised here, but they're not new. Something has changed.

I daresay schools will have to increase pay or (more likely) find ways to work with fewer staff, but that's not going to happen overnight.