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.

First of all, a lot of teachers prefer to work for agencies because they have fewer responsibilities and can pick and choose which days they will work, etc.

I have literally no idea what you're going on about here.

If all the babyboomer TAs quit, then classrooms are in crisis mode.

@XingMing and that’s exactly what we need on a temporary basis to facilitate change…

It’s well known that the only people able to afford to stay in these roles are (usually) older women with wealthy partners or young people living at home with their parents. These roles never needed to pay more because the salaries were seen as pin money, pocket money, a little extra for her indoors! As soon as this changes, and TA roles are classed as proper jobs, worthy of proper salaries, the better.

Sorry, I know. I didn't mean that school won't pay. I felt so angry reading this post, and me being non native English speaker didn't help to express what I wanted to say. But I understand fully, that school isn't the problem.

Plenty of money in the budget for Exec Heads, Heads, Deputy Heads, Assistant Heads, Phase Leaders, Team Leaders etc.

That's fine as they don't get it in schools either.

Every TA tole I have ever seen is paid pro rata.
There is 4 weeks holiday pay and mandatory bank holidays paid. The rest is unpaid.
Lunch time and mid morning break is also unpaid.
They are also only paid from a short time before pupils arrive and a short time after, yet are almost always there well before and well after that time, again all unpaid.

The salary listed in job adverts is normally quoted as the full time, full year figure. This is NOT what they will get though. It will be pro rata so much lower, albeit spread over 12 monthly payments to ensure they don't get nothing in August.

This thread is eye opening. So many people really don't have a clue what a Teaching Assistant, or Learning Support Assistant, actually does these days. Times have changed since a TA was there to wash paint pots, listen to readers and out up displays!

Our LSAs are really well trained, qualified and experienced members of our teaching staff.

Every one is trained in at least one high quality intervention programme. This is from externally provided and paid for training. They then cascade knowledge to other teaching staff, including both teachers and other TAs.

All of our TAs have a minimum level of education themselves. At least half have university based qualifications such as an undergraduate degree. Some have professional qualifications too and at least 3 have teaching qualifications and QTS, and some level of teaching experience prior to being a TA.

Our TAs do so much more than the old style image some posters seem to have of them. They are integral members of the teaching body and work hard, often working unpaid hours before and after school, at weekends in holidays - not because they are forced to by our school management, but because they care and know they can't get the current job done to the level they want in the hours they are paid to do.

Times have changed massively since TAs were just the odd school mum who wanted to earn a bit of money whilst their child was in school!

Oh and we have volunteers in too - they listen to readers who don't get to read at home for various reasons, help on trips and help to do specific activities with the children, such as craft sessions, etc. They do not do interventions nor are they doing any of the critical teaching and support our LSA/TAs do!

Don't supermarkets mostly pay minimum wage? How can schools pay less than minimum wage? Minimum wage needs increasing so less people need benefit top ups.

@Falooda - exactly!

oxfordshire.education-jobs.org.uk/Vacancy/Details/101942/L1ZhY2FuY3kvU2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cz9yZXRyaWV2ZUZpbHRlcj10cnVl

Less than £10 an hour! In the SE! What a joke indeed…

MrsHamlet
@justasking111 what do your volunteers do?

Work within the premises caring for and entertaining . Sit with them if they're doing educational courses, think computers, cooking, arts and crafts. Escort them on days out, push wheelchairs when needed, take them for toilet breaks, help them with their food. Drive the minibuses.

---

So nothing like the role a qualified, trained and experienced Teaching Assistant does then?

Most of our TAs are NEU but have said that they don’t want to strike as they can’t afford to drop a whole day of pay.

Again, not what a TA does every day supporting the teaching and learning within the classroom.

A useful role yes, but not on the same level as what your typical TA/LSA is doing.

I come back to my original message. I have time and QTS. Why am I not being chased to teach?

By whom? Who knows that you have QTS and aren't currently using it?

In theory, the DfE, but I can't see them doing anything with that knowledge.

I think perhaps that things are very different in London, where the agencies are thriving and very powerful, and won’t even place permanent candidates most of the time because they are making so more much money via their daily rates.

When did TAs appear?

Exec Heads fair enough but how much do you think the rest get paid?

Or support? or even be present in a classroom? I really dont get it. I would volunteer to do three afternoons a week for free, but I don't even get an email back.

Who are you emailing?

I didn’t dare voice this before-
But without backup from the children’s parent/s, what hope is there?
The “You can’t tell me what to do!” kids, who probably run rings around parent/s at home.
If they won’t behave at home, how on earth will they behave at school?

A very good horseman (Barry Hook) says “ Discipline is a dirty word now in this Country “ and it’s true.

Parent/s who are happy to tell a Head teacher to Fuck off are hardly likely to have children who are willing to sit still and listen for five minutes .

What becomes-of these children?
One severely Autistic, non verbal teenager worked in a Stables
He was a good worker, understood and respected by the staff.
If he became overwhelmed and ran off, he was allowed to, until he felt safe again.
People knew not to physically touch him, or look him in the eye.

My local community college. I am not planning to move far at 66 frankly. Forget moving to another area... it won't be happening.

As someone who was a TA for years just wanted to chip in a say I agree and also if I was a parent with school age kids I would obvs be concerned about what’s been said above but can I also point out the lunch time staff the ones who cook and serve the lunches and the ones who supervise on the playground these roles are also in the shit nobody wants these jobs anymore either as they’re also absolutely awful and you’re only earning £2-400 a month

Around the time they started to close SEND and other non-mainstream schools and establishments, meaning that almost all children are in mainstream together, iirr.

More children of ALL abilities and behaviours in one classroom, and with a stricter and more packed national curriculum, starting from reception and year 1 up, led to the need for more staff in schools, but obviously schools couldn't afford more teachers so needed an alternative support system - TAs.

When I taught secondary I had the odd TA within school for the 'lowest' classes - no more than one in the class, definitely not 1:1 though, that was late 90s to early/mid 2000s.

TAs have always been in primary schools when dd was that age, so from mid 2000s onwards, though were initially more likely to be school mums. It was a pretty different job back then in primaries compared to now though.

We get dozens of emails a day to our generic email. Might be worth tracking down a name for the person in charge of teaching and learning or Sen or the heads pa

A dog- walker gets more than that !
£15 per dog per hour here, ( South West) and they can pick and choose their dogs.
Teaching Assistants are woefully underpaid , Insultingly so.

Dan Moynihan CEO of Harris Federation is paid £450,000 a year in his not-for-profit trust with 4 other staff on £200k+

Any of them on top up benefits will now also be told that they need to look for a job with more hours. I think lunch staff will be impossible to recruit. The jobs need to be done, but there’s no one who can afford to do them.