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.

Then that’s teaching an SEN group, and should be done by a qualified teacher.

When the weakest students are taught by the adult without the requisite qualifications (I know some do, but there’s no requirement to do so) they don’t improve.

TAs are often lovely people but being cynical about it it was always ‘teaching on the cheap.’ Most people don’t care, as a PP alluded to. Most people don’t have a child with SEN, so not having support staff in the classroom isn’t something they worry about.

Then that’s teaching an SEN group, and should be done by a qualified teacher.

We have repeatedly said on this thread that the proper way to resolve this would be to dramatically expand and resource special schools, including making these a positive option for parents. The idea that every child with significant SEN in a mainstream primary classroom - always at least 10% of the class, often many times this - with the dramatic range of needs they have, should somehow be placed in suitable 'SEN groups' for their needs, each taught by a teacher, is laughably out of touch with today's reality.

I can see, btw, that from a secondary perspective these 'SEN groups' might seem a possibility - many but unfortunately not all of the children in upper KS2 with a level of needs that should enable them to access special schools do move at secondary transfer. From a primary perspective it is laughable, and in many secondaries the range of extreme needs needing to be met in mixed ability classes is still very wide.

@HazeyjaneIII - so why do you do it if you know you’re underpaid? Aren’t you simply supporting and enabling a broken system? From what you’ve said, you could earn more elsewhere. Why prop up the failing system we have at the moment?

if you think it’s a decent wage for a job that doesn’t require any planning…

try being given a child with complex needs who is nowhere near the level of the rest of the class and being expected to adapt the morning curriculum and design the afternoon curriculum from scratch

before anyone asks - I don’t do that job any more

Sorry I have to disagree, some children will really struggle in school and lash out a bit like a toddler who doesn't understand but never they never get past that stage of development.

Some children will have physical issues which mean they are incontinent. Things like spina bifida can mean a child can walk and have normal cognitive development but not have normal feeling in the bottom area.

Like many other women in my position, it's a job I can do that fits around my child, and I don't really have the luxury of choice!

I also think it's an important job that has many wonderful aspects to it.

It just needs to be valued, respected and paid a decent wage.

It is utterly outrageous if staff have phones out in classrooms. Not that anyone will stop them - my experience is that most teachers are allowed to act with impunity. They are bullies and impossible to manage.

That's a good number of responses? Particularly when it was quite a technical consultation.

Incidentally, there should be an SEND improvement plan by Christmas www.tes.com/magazine/news/specialist-sector/dfe-send-improvement-plan-promise-christmas

@HazeyjaneIII why don't you have the luxury of choice?

I get the impression that the hours are more important to a lot of TAs rather than the job itself.

No childcare or holiday club to pay out for

No qualifications required

It's a convenient job, not a career.

It is utterly outrageous if staff have phones out in classrooms.

During Covid, I was required to have my phone on and visible in the classroom, as to ensure the integrity of ‘bubbles’, key information (including the shutting of the bubble due to infection) was relayed by message or call, to avoid anyone else having to have contact through entering the room.

I am sorry about your poor experience of teachers in general.

Yeah but phones in classrooms since Covid bubbles? What's the excuse for that?

Well a variety of reasons that limit choices, like many people... but number one being that I have a disabled child and that can make it difficult to find work that fits around their needs.
This, however is also one of the reasons I want to do the job, I know how important it can be to children with complex needs and their families.

None except for emergencies- and as a teacher, I would be ashamed to admit that I managed my TAs so poorly that they had any time for phone use during lesson time.

Why aren't you telljng the TA what you would like/expect? They are there to assist you in the running of the classroom with you in charge. If you are repeatedly asking them eg to not do the work of the child you either haven't explained the level of scaffolding you require in enough detail or they are wilfully ignoring you and it needs to be discussed with your line manager.

I disagree, it is a pitiful number of responses. It is not even anywhere near 1 response per school. 355,566 pupils have EHCPs and 1,129,843 are at SEN support level. That’s not to mention the effect of SEN provision on the rest of the 7,514,622 pupils. Even accounting for pupils being from the same families there should be more interest and responses. Then there are those involved in education who don’t have school aged children.

Ah yes, the health board that was in special measures for FIVE YEARS, still in need of targeted interventions and has the worst performing a&e in wales...a beacon for good performance!

Plus the fact that, you know, its not a school!!!

Anyone know what a teacher's hourly rate is against a teaching assistant?

@TugboatAnnie (and this answers @cantkeepawayforever as well) - because it suits me. They don’t help when they work with the children, they talk when I want silence and generally end up doing the work for the child. It’s much easier for me if they are not really engaged.

I am quite capable of teaching a lesson without another adult present. That is not a reflection on them as a person, but they do not add anything and in fact make my job harder.

I am quite capable of teaching a lesson without another adult present.
...how do you ensure children with complex needs (...and other children who need work adapted to their needs)...can access your lessons?

I am quite capable of teaching a lesson [with children with the range of needs to which I an accustomed] without another adult present. is I think the point you are making?

if you have a class in which a-child is working on a curriculum for 6 years younger, or is violent, or has severe autism, or is non-verbal and non-continent, or has cerebral palsy such that they need full time physical assistance, or has no English and needs translation, for example, I would suspect that would be more difficult. I think our experiences are very different in terms of the value of a skilled and specialist other adult., and I also suspect that you are secondary not primary.

A woman that used to sell class A drugs in her 20s (now late 40s) is a teaching assistant at a local high school.
She was well known about town. Used to be quite violent, hitting people, sold drugs etc. It's pretty shocking really. I was absolutely horrified when I heard. I'm pretty sure she's moved on in life and isn't still behaving this way, but still, you wouldn't want your children looking up to her

I am really disappointed but not surprised at the lack of understanding of the TA role in Secondary displayed here by teachers and others. There are too many things I'd like to engage with but I don't feel I'd get anywhere over a forum like this. I just thank God for my own school where I know I'm appreciated in part because I have abundant evidence of the difference I make to children who would otherwise fall off every chart. I would invite you to examine your own prejudices though.

I am quite capable of teaching a lesson without another adult present. That is not a reflection on them as a person, but they do not add anything and in fact make my job harder.

How do you ensure you meet everyone’s needs, including those who have 1:1 specified and quantified in their EHCP, without any TA support? A teacher can’t meet DS’s needs if he doesn’t have a 1:1.

Research shows a sufficiently trained TA used correctly can have a positive impact on pupil engagement and attainment. If TAs aren’t trained or deployed correctly that is another matter that should be addressed specifically rather than not having TAs at all.