"Gold dust" school jobs

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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?

@Purplespup16 Did you know if I witnessed a Safeguarding concern of a child in my school out of school hours/holidays I have a responsibility to report it to the LA?!

I should jolly well hope so. We all have a responsibility to report safeguarding concerns about a child, particularly if you know who the child is. Who wouldn’t?

Excellent point and same here. When I started, the salary was several ££ above min wage. However, no pay rise in 10yrs vs annual min wage increase has completely eroded that.

Thats a common story throughout jobs requiring education too. If other people are anything like me, we are demotivated and disillusioned. There is also, as I said before, little incentive to make me want to push a bright kid in education when low-responsibility jobs pay the same with no tuition fee debt. Trust and belief in the system has been lost.

This exactly. I'm afraid these type of jobs, for the workload and stress involved, are so poorly paid that you tend to almost feel like you're working in a voluntary role for a charity. I work in a primary school office as an admin assistant, have done for a year. I worked in a different support role in a difficult secondary school for 12 years before that and the money was much better. With the primary, it's a fantastic school with perfect colleagues, SLT are just the best, lovely kids and mostly lovely parents. I get a lot of job satisfaction from working in a proper team where we all work well each other and each of us knows we really make a difference and are so so needed. It's a lovely, lovely school.

But by god, I have never worked so hard in my life (god, the multitasking and mountain of information that is just thrown at you every minute - my brain sometimes has a meltdown and I have to stop talking just so my brain can catch up!) or experienced so much worry over the responsibilities and constant deadlines and "action points" involved. I go in early and leave late (8.15 - 5.15 most days, so it's not the gold dust hours you'd think), work through lunch most days etc, as do lots of others at my low grade because the workoad is so huge it's the only way you can keep up. We do this for the children's sake and often it's a thankless task because you still get parents taking your precious time up by phoning to complain about trivial stuff.

I don't understand how you can say there is no responsibility - I think you must be looking at it from a litigation/compliance viewpoint rather than the every day responsibility of meeting important deadlines or remembering multiple things which need to be passed on or acted on or something goes to shit. While as a head the buck stops with you regarding Ofsted result or safeguarding, it's your staff underneath you who are doing the day to day work which helps to lessen that burden of responsibility. If you know you've got good staff who you can trust to have the eyes and ears to notice concerns to report to you, and the willingness to go above and beyond for the sake of the success of the school as a whole and for every individual child then that makes your job much easier. Every member of staff knows they have a n important role to play in the school's outcomes and reputation in the community so everyone has to care about the contribution they are making. THAT is where the responsibility lies. In a lot of jobs you just have to turn up and do a half decent job and you'll get paid a reasonable amount for it. If you do an excellent job you might get a big bonus if you work in that type of industry. In schools, there is no money for bonuses for doing excellent work, instead there is just a big Ofsted or council stick to hit staff with if they think you're not meeting their often ridiculous expectations.

You may wonder why I took the job when I could have stayed earning a higher salary. Here's the interesting part. I literally did it purely for the job satisfaction and only because I got an interitance and paid our mortgage off and put a huge chunk into retirement savings and had some aside to pay for university fees. And DH also got a promotion at work too and told me to go for it. Under £1200 goes into my bank account each month (plus miniscule amount for workplace pension), DH often gets 3 times as much. There is no way on god's earth that I would have been able to afford this job otherwise. These jobs have always been poorly paid, yes, but years ago they literally were "nice little jobs", often with part time hours. Now, the expectations and demands that have piled on over the years by the DfE and Ofsted (and parents) mean that it's really quite a stressful, demanding job requiring a lot of different skills and personal qualities. The money is frankly rubbish and not liveable on. With my skills, qualifications and experience I could be earning nearly double for half the stress and workload elsewhere. The pool of suitable candidates is going to be EXTREMELY low simply because it's a demanding job which is very poorly paid. I think it's very patronising to think of these jobs as "gold dust" or holy grail jobs. It's not the reality at all.

I'm going nowhere because I love my school and the job satisfaction is good. But as I said it's the top of my post, for what I do, it's below minimum wage and I am lucky enough to have been able to prop it up with an inheritance.

I'm desperate for a job like this. However I'm better off remaining a parent/carer. Had to give up city corporate a decade ago because of DS. There are no other viable options. I hate all of it. Pay properly, pay a living wage?

I work in schools and have done recruitment. The pay is too little, there is no flexibility and if you’re a secondary school the early mornings are a killer with childcare.
I’ve worked in schools where it’s expected I am in by 7.30am at least. I did do it, I can’t now. I have a secondary school child whom I don’t want locking up the house and doesn’t leave till 7.45am. I was often expected to stay very late as well. Honestly there’s better money to be made elsewhere.
One of the biggest issues for me has been lack of respect from SLT. Not all of them, in fact some of the most senior people have been the best, but some Deputy Heads etc talk and treat support staff like idiots. They act like the jobs are badly paid so there can’t be any skill in what people do.
Ive seen a small shift in that some jobs are now being filled by younger childless people rather than mothers looking to work around their kids. Which is a pity as often being a parent can be a
help in many of these roles.

And you may well live in the community of the school you work in. One of our lunchtime supervisors was physically attacked in a local shop by a parent who didn't like her child being told off by the woman at lunchtime.

Your catering staff if they're older and close to retirement have probably a very small mortgage or it's already paid off altogether. The increase in house prices and longer mortgage terms over the years will mean that most people need much higher paid roles right up until the day they retire. It WILL become much harder to recruit for roles like catering staff.

A legal duty- not a moral one
Not the same at all

When my dcs were little, most of the TAs I knew were women who’d been SAHMs and wanted jobs which paid a bit of extra money without being too taxing and fitted around children. The job is no longer like that. So much more is expected of TAs. The role has become more professional but the money hasn’t. I have a high earner dh so can ‘afford’ to do it. I have a wonderful and dedicated colleague who is a widow and has a dc in uni. She was in tears today as she is so worried about money. She is considering leaving, despite being so happy in our school. She is an absolute rock in our school and they will be screwed without her.

At the end of the day, you are actively parenting a class of 30 children for a large portion of the day. This includes taking care of all injuries, disputes, teaching manners, boundaries, work ethic, fostering good mental health as well as supervision while eating (choking risks etc) and all the admin. Plus actually teaching. Our classes are split 2 or 3 ways and we teach as much as the teacher, we just don't do the planning. Aside from the emotional literacy planning and implementing programmes, speech and language etc, cleaning the class, changing books and listening to readers daily etc etc. Taking photos of all work done and applying the learning objective for evidence too. I could go on...

I haven’t rtft but for me, working school hours didn’t help me out with childcare, which was my biggest obstacle to getting back to work, and this was particularly true of secondary school hours. My youngest child’s school hours were 8:45-3, secondary school working hours were 8:30-4.

I don’t know what is happening in recruitment but I also keep hearing that businesses are desperate to fill minimum wage jobs and nobody is applying.
I honestly think the application processes many companies put in place (computer says no) does not help.
My DC have been applying none stop for shop work, hospitality, supermarkets etc. All minimum wage jobs.
They are doing something wrong because they haven’t got anywhere despite having great qualifications 7,8,9s at GCSE and A/Bs at A’level.
They have been applying for weekend work and evening work (advertised hours) and nobody wants to know!
I honestly don’t think there is a minimum wage recruitment crisis at all!

I think we’re at the brink of a massive recruitment crisis in teaching. People have had enough of working their backsides off, only to be given more work or pulled-up for the few things they may have done wrong. Not recognised the 100000 things they’ve right.

TAs see what’s happening too. They are run ragged. Often taken on with one year contracts now so no job security.

It has always been offensive to justify low pay by claiming lack of responsibility, especially in relation to any job dealing directly with vulnerable people (eg children). Yes, the Headteacher is accountable for the failings of staff, and for ensuring that there are adequate procedures in place to minimise the risk of harm, and relevant insurances in place, etc, whereas those staff are not accountable for the failings of the Headteacher, but I don’t know any headteachers who, eg, take actual responsibility for doing the first aid and administering medication themselves, only for ensuring someone else is actually taking responsibility for doing it… and they would not be happy if the person taking actual, rather than notional, responsibility, took the attitude, “I don’t think I can be bothered with this - I’m not really responsible and won’t get sacked if someone dies on my watch, or we run out of first aid supplies, or don’t have up to date medical information to hand about a pupil with a serious condition, because the Headteacher is the responsible one…” And don’t tell me that the low paid midday meals supervisor or TA who seriously failed to safeguard the children in their care properly would actually get to keep their job, because it “wasn’t their responsibility” to look after the children at lunchtime, it was the people on higher pay grades who were all indoors at the time, having their lunch break…

If you are directly responsible for another human life and don’t have a superior watching you like a hawk, ready to step in at a moment’s notice should you make the slightest error, then you are the one who is responsible for ensuring nothing bad happens. TAs assist the teachers in the classroom, but teachers do not often assist TAs and midday meals supervisors in the playground at break times, so support staff massively reduce the responsibilities of those above them, not the other way around.

@CurlyhairedAssassin I have never read a better description of the realities of school admin work - you completely nail it. I feel precisely the same - lovely school, lovely job, but huge responsibilities, crazy workload, no flexibility, and ridiculously low pay given how hard I work and the skills required. I can only affotd to do it because DH is very well paid. But finally, and in some ways reluctantly, I'm out. I'm moving to the private sector, for OVER double the pay plus completely different working conditions (like actually getting a lunch break and no longer having to deal with blocked toilets and vomiting children). IME school offices are stuffed full of talented and over qualified people who are only there for the school hours, and because they care. But factor in the inflation rate, and the greater availability of flexible work elsewhere, and it's no surprise that things are changing.

What area of the world are you in OP?? I’d be interested in applying for one of those roles if you happened to be local to me 🤣

With basic maths and English there are a multitude of jobs open to them. Apparently unemployment is at the lowest level for 48 years. People can choose jobs that start at a suitable time and finish at the end of the shift. There is no work to take home, no early starts because of some school thing, no late finishes because of some school thing No week long residential trips for the TA in year 6. A week of hell for pathetic pay. No bodily fluids, blocked toilets, menial ,awful jobs to deal with.

Where on earthth do you work that pays £23k FTE or those roles?! Are you sure about that?!

With what money?

There is no money in schools.

TAs were the first to be made redundant when the Tories came in and started cutting school funding. Now the few that are left have a huge workload due to there not being enough of them by far.

Yes. £23k pa works out at about £12800 for 25 hours pw, term time only.

Why doesn't the one with A levels go to Uni?

Agree that 23k FTE sounds high. Around here that would be the pay for a mid-level finance officer or maybe an office manager in a big school with responsibility for other staff. An admin assistant or TA would be much lower paid.

I worked as an HLTA in a primary school for less than £15000 and I planned and delivered cover lessons in RE and drama each week, ran the school choir, attended multiple meetings, plus all the usual safeguarding stuff..I was rarely out in time to walk my kids home. Now i childmind instead, lots of responsibility but less pressure and more fun. Would be more money too, but I work part time now.

Also, if you think it's hard to recruit TAs, try recruiting a computer science, physics or maths teacher. Or a headteacher.

The government have treated the education workforce like complete shit for far too long and the chickens are coming home to roost.

Oh yes, that lack of responsibility.

The only person who knows how to enter, book and run exams, train invigilators, handle a JCQ inspection potentially every day, design and maintain strict security procedures. No responsibility.

The only person who knows how to interpret the Admissions code, policies, operate multiple bespoke systems, deal with queries, ensure documents are in place for appeals, tell the head that their refusal to admit a child is illegal and get shouted at for it, follow the safeguarding rules of the (generally inept) LA, shouting and crying applicants, and get people to actually give them what they need to handle the applications. No responsibility.

The person who looks at a crying child and identifies symptoms consistent with a fracture. Spots the signs that this child isn't just having a bit of a cough, they're going into anaphylaxis, administer the EpiPen, help them use an inhaler if the parent has bothered sending one in, hold a kid's head still covered in blood for hours until the ambulance gets there whilst senior staff run around demanding that you move them because it'll upset the others to have them bleeding there and ordering someone else to get a bucket and mop and clean up that blood. No responsibility.

The person who works out that there's something more than a tummyache on the 9th visit and then goes on to find out there's a huge safeguarding disclosure.

To treat self harm cuts or have a vulnerable kid telling them if they can't stay there, they'll kill themself because there's nowhere else for them to go. No responsibility.

To turn SLT big ideas into practicalities when SLT don't have a scooby what is involved and will shout at them if there's one tiny thing not how they envisaged it because it was impossible to do it that way or because they dared to want to sit down rather than stand up for five hours on parents' evening. No responsibility.

To know that whatever goes wrong, whether it's a pure fluke, SLT idiocy, not having the correct equipment or sudden thunderstorm, SLT will move heaven and earth to blame them for it. No responsibility.

To be the one trapped with the angry parent who wants to have it out with a senior staff member whilst SLT stay in their offices. No responsibility.

To know that if they work their arses off and do everything right, somebody in SLT will use their hard work to get themselves a payrise. But the person working so bloody hard won't get one 'because there's no money'.

No responsibility. No credit. But all the blame in the world.