Teaching assistants quitting schools for supermarkets because of 'joke wages'

[noblegiraffe]

Finally getting some mainstream press attention:

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/09/teaching-assistants-quitting-schools-for-supermarkets-because-of-joke-wages

The article is very clear that schools cannot afford to pay higher wages for support staff. The DfE comment at the bottom says it is up to schools to improve support staff pay.

The education sector is falling apart. Teacher redundancies mean bigger class sizes. Fewer teaching assistants means zero in-class support unless your child has an EHCP. Recruitment issues mean that even if your child has an EHCP, they might not be able to hire anyone to support them.

The way provision for the most vulnerable students has been eroded over the last decade of school underfunding is devastating.

That isn’t acceptable.
Violence towards teaching staff and other pupils and schoolchildren in nappies ?
If a child isn’t toilet trained, or violent,Mainstream schools are not the place to be.
I’d rather stack shelves than be abused and have to change messy nappies.
Why are so many children still in nappies when of school age?!

It's true that many of these pupils would be better placed in special schools. For their sakes as well as they are set up to meet their needs.

But you do realise they still need TAs to support them in special schools? These TAs also are expected to get paid the same to work with the same cohort of pupils - just in a different building.

They are also struggling to recruit in special education too.

Why should people work for free? If you want them, pay them. A decent living wage.

If you think that behaviours like smearing in the toilets only happen in failing schools, I an afraid that you are wrong. Overwhelmed, unsupported children (remember resources like CAMHS, social services and the health service for both mental and physical health are also overwhelmed so diagnosis and support for children with a wide range of difficulties are delayed and lacking) in schools of any Ofsted ‘flavour’ are capable of extreme behaviour.

In fact those that are historically ‘great’ schools with ‘easy’ intakes are often least well equipped to manage such behaviour and it can escalate really rapidly.

@No63637373744 - this is exactly what is happening with my Dc as well. I fought very hard and applied and got the EHCP myself - it has 1:1 in lessons. TA is being used as class TA and to support other children so my DC continues to be disadvantaged. School made the decision for financial reasons not to allocate a TA to the class.

Its really not OK.

Having worked with organisations relying on voluntary labour, eg charity retail, it is very different to managing paid staff

They don't want to do something? They don't have to.
They don't want to train up in something? They don't have to

They can't work on a certain day they were supposed to? They don't have to.

Yes the charity can part ways with them but if they are otherwise useful, something is usually better than nothing.

Tis a pickle,

as a question would two types of schools, improve the situations, one for the well behaving and high achieving with also support for the special needs, children.

then another school for the bullys, and ones that refuse to achieve and are disruptive to lessons ect.

I should add at my DC school ( although like anything some aren’t great) it’s actually been the TAs who made the most effort and seemed to have the best understanding of him ( he has ADHD). I think the way they are treated - both in pay but also tbh by SLT in quite a few schools is awful.

Tory government: People struggling with cost of living should get a better paid job.

Also Tory government: People should now volunteer for a role that used to be paid.

I resigned from being a school governor after 8 years last year because I finally had enough of the shocking budgets, the staff in tears, the shit parents and childrens’ life chances being screwed.

Fuck the Tories, and fuck this Government. And I say that as a natural, small-c conservative who should be a voter the Tories could bank on.

It’s not just TAs, it’s a whole range of support staff in schools who are paid a pitiful wage. Cover staff (employed to cover short-term teacher absence if they haven’t got time/can’t get a qualified teacher in), learning mentors, pastoral staff, attendance officers etc… It’s a very demanding job and no wonder people are walking away when they can get better pay for less stress elsewhere.

Our state education system is heading for a bigger crisis than it’s already in.

The UK is the last of the big spenders.

Extravagance galore and nobody with a pot to piss in.

I'm late to the party but i have to add my bit.

• TAs paid for the holidays. How many people still believe this rubbish?

• For info: just because a TA is on the pay roll it doesn't mean they're trained, or even about to be trained. (pp seemed to think their DCs TAs are trained). The lack of funds for schools which is resulting in shite pay also means lack of money for training. You learn 80% of it on the job.

• However - 'Grey Army' volunteers - pensioners - isn't the answer. Not enough of them will be willing or able to cope. ''5 jobs at once, running round like a blue arsed fly with a broom up your arse while remaining highly professional, calm and kind''. For free? Consistently and often? Really?

And a lot of the children which need the most help do need that consistency in their lives. The same face doing and saying what they always do and say, every day.

I did the job for nearly 9 years. TA + 1:1 for SN.

You ARE expected to do jobs like the wall displays and tidy up the classrooms and sort the library and mop up the flooded girls loos and photo copy 1000+ sheets for year 4. Usually 2 or 2 of these at the same time ...

BUT, you'll be routinely expected to drop it all to take the 4/5 most challenging pupils out of a class and re-deliver the same lesson as the teacher has just delivered (who's on three times the money you're on) because those children don't (ever) absorb it the first (or second or third) time around for varied reasons which you are expected to remember, understand and overcome before the bell goes.

Then it's the cheerful doing of unpaid overtime to do all the things which you had to drop earlier. Because there won't be time tomorrow.

It's hard work and sometimes it's REALLY REALLY shite. It really does deserve good pay and not the assumption that kindly volunteers could come in twice a week instead and get it all done just as well.

Unison has been trying to get Support staff to ballot to strike for years.

They are unsuccessful. I think it's mostly because no one can afford to strike!

This too

Our state education system is heading for a bigger crisis than it’s already in.

And more is to come. This Government’s proposals for SEND reforms are very worrying www.ipsea.org.uk/news/send-review-is-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-government-proposals-will-mean-complete-overhaul-of-send-law

These professionals (who work extremely hard and a much needed resource to schools, especially for SEN pupils) have often spent years in training in specific areas to support children's learning. It is a really important job. This training and experience is needed. Why is nobody blaming the government for cuts to schools? Simply suggesting volunteers is as bad as when people say, "can't they just use food banks?" about people affected by cuts! WE SHOULDN'T NEED TO HAVE FOOD BANKS. And we SHOULDN'T NEED VOLUNTEERS when we have highly skilled staff with expertise.

You think that they're going to give money to anyone? They're brutal b**

As you can tell, I’m not a Teacher, Is it all down to funding,
(Or lack of)
Mum used to teach years ago in a deprived Primary school in East London- She loved it, and the children.
However, bad behaviour was rare.
Maybe because more “ Specialist” schools were available then for the violent and aggressive children (?)
However a Tutor at a College says Learning Support has been cut to the bone , so lack of funding appears to be a problem.
This was at a College that used to have plenty of paid support staff and lab assistants.

Budgets are so tight that contracts can sometimes only be for a very low number of hours. I’m a school librarian paid on the TA payscale. I take home £100 a week. I cover lunch times, so my hours are spread over 5 days, which limits my options for taking on other work. There’s no budget, so I fund some resources out of my own pocket.
I love everything about my job except the pay. It’s challenging, interesting and makes a real difference. I’ll keep doing the job for as long as I can afford to, but I can fully understand why so many are leaving and why recruitment is so hard.

We get hospital volunteers to do stuff like give directions on reception, push the tea trolley, and hand out masks in outpatients. We don’t have them assisting in theatre so we don’t have to pay nursing salaries.

I would not want a rotating cast of random volunteers providing support for children with ECHPs - those children usually need consistency and familiarity, not any warm body the school can rope in.

I am a newly qualified Teaching Assistant, and at 51 it is the hardest job I have ever done. I am in a year 3 class and at least 2/3 of the class are very behind in their education thanks to covid. They have missed half of reception class, and half of year 1 and it shows. There is me and the teacher and we have two children who have special needs without a 1:1. I think about those kids and how I can help them every waking hour. I’m paid minimum wage and I am able to do this because my husband earns a decent wage. There should be at least two qualified (or very experienced) adults in every primary school class in this country to help these children get to where they need to be, and that means recognising the worth of everyone. And yes, if the teacher is ill a TA will sometimes need to cover the lessons ON THEIR OWN

The Venn diagram of people saying "use volunteers", "it wasn't like this when I was at school in the 70s" and "I'll vote Tory every time" is blatantly a circle

The teaching profession seems bad at treating people well. I got QTS at 55 and was unemployable in secondary schools. Too old and far too opinionated came the judgement. I volunteered, and no response, not even a thanks for your interest. So schools and teachers are getting it back as a deafening lack of interest. I like adolescents and would like to volunteer, but I'm absolutely not interested in dealing with extreme special needs. That sounds horrid but it's my line.

I have just started a course to qualify as a TA and am on an unpaid placement as part of the course.

On the whole I am enjoying it and am sure this is the job I want to do, but I have noticed it's quite hectic and a lot is expected of me even as an unpaid unqualified member of staff.

Last week in one lesson I was asked to help 30 kids (age 6) to log in to iPads, help them with their work on the iPad and corresponding worksheet, while simultaneously laminating and cutting work sheets for the next lesson.

This meant during one lesson I was paying attention to raised hands and going over to help, going back to the laminator and feeding through the next sheet then taking each one to the guillotine to cut into 8 pieces.

The teacher was also doing the logging in and helping but also trying to teach the actual lesson at the front of the class.

I am fast and I can cope with multi tasking but it's frustrating not having the time to commit to one activity at a time and make sure you are giving the children the attention they need.

The class I am in has no TA so I have become the TA while trying to learn how to do the job at the same time.

It's a lot and it's definitely not paid well enough or valued.

Libraries have been decimated as a service and a lot of the more enjoyable and worth while work has been taken up by volunteers, who are eager and willing to do it, but in our area there is no longer a professional library service and volunteers are no substitute. I hope our schools don't go the same way.

I would also add that there are 4 children on the SEN register in this class that don't have a 1-1 so I am expected to cater for their individual needs too.