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.

🤷‍♀️ my school puts the relevant info into a document that I do have access to.

But I don't see the EHCP so I can't comment on how it could be improved and therefore could not answer that question on the consultation.

Yet another school with poor practices. It doesn’t mean many other people can’t answer that question. Although if, as you say, you have all the relevant information you could still answer the question as you would have read the EHCP without actually reading the EHCP document.

I see a cropped down version of the ECHP, With information relevant to teaching.

I have read full ECHPs but only due to another role that I had at the time.

Although if, as you say, you have all the relevant information you could still answer the question as you would have read the EHCP without actually reading the EHCP document.

No, I haven't read the EHCP, I have no idea how the EHCP compares to the document the school provides.

I read the SEND consultation, I didn't respond to it, and I don't think that was wrong of me. I had nothing useful to add to the excellent submissions from other bodies, and I didn't understand a lot of what it was on about.

And yet here I am, discussing concerns about the SEN system like I actually care. Weird.

So you would be able to comment on which sections you think could be improved.

I didn’t say not responding was wrong of you. Again, neither did I say you didn’t care. I have no idea why you have taken my post that I think 6,000 is a low number of responses so personally.

If a teacher knows they have all the relevant information from EHCPs they would know what was in the EHCPs and therefore be able to comment on what they felt could be reviewed/amended/improved. But if you didn’t feel able to that’s fine.

If a teacher knows they have all the relevant information from EHCPs they would know what was in the EHCPs

How would I know what I don't see?

I think you are grasping at straws in an effort to suggest I could have answered that question in any meaningful way when I've never seen an EHCP.

I am not grasping at straws, but thanks for that. If your school extracts “the relevant information” from the EHCPs and puts it in to another document you are still reading the same information minus ‘the irrelevant bits’ therefore you would know the information was in the EHCP. For example, If the EHCP had X, Y, Z in and your school had extracted ‘the relevant information’ of X and Y in to another document which you read you would know what the EHCP included (X and Y). Therefore you could comment on how the sections X and Y are in could be reviewed/improved/amended. Again, if you didn’t feel able to that’s fine.

Have you reported these TAs to management?
The teacher's use of their support assistants always comes up on observation sheets locally, ime.
Are they not included within observations or have anyone checking what they do and how the children they are supporting are progressing?

Your experience of teaching assistants is a world away from my own experience!

A teacher that hadn't seen an entire ECHP I wouldn't have been able to say much about the ECHP only the section about classroom interventions/reasonable expectations. .

There’s more than one section with information that is relevant to a teacher, so you would be able to comment on what you thought could be reviewed/amended/improved about those sections. Obviously if you hadn’t read/had access to all the relevant sections you wouldn’t be able to comment on it all, but you could still comment on what you had read.

Say TAs were paid a salary of £15 per hour would that entice them back? Or is it working conditions causing the shortage? Or something else?

£15 per hour for an unskilled job?

😂

Unskilled? 😂As if.

It is an unskilled job though? As in you don't need any formal training/qualifications that can't be done 'on the job'.

It's a bloody demanding job that deserves a hell of a lot more recognition then it gets, but saying it is unskilled is factual.

That is where you are wrong. You do nowadays normally need qualifications and there is an awful lot of ongoing training required. These misconceptions are why people don't value TA's.

There aren't any compulsory qualifications you need to become a TA, some experience is desirable but not a formal requirement either. More senior TAs tend to have qualifications either from on the job training or their own experience and learning but to become a TA you don't actually have to have any qualifications to start the job. I guess that's why it falls under the category of unskilled worker.

An unqualified role, maybe. But certainly not unskilled.

It is a bit of an outdated term I agree but jobs which do not require any sort of formal qualifications prior to starting is classed as unskilled.

You mostly need at least an NVQ nowadays, very unusual not to.

I’ll repeat what I said earlier in the thread for the hard-of-reading. Around my way they are asking for teaching assistants to be graduates. Partly because they can, or rather could, as there are so few jobs for women in the area.

Many on this thread have attested to the fact that they are expected to plan lessons and are in fact replacing teachers. On TA wages.

TA is not an unskilled job any more. It was once. It has suffered from the same mission creep that can be seen throughout the public sector. And, as in the rest of the public sector, wages have not kept pace. We are still paid as pot washers. That is why schools are now struggling to recruit.

They can ask, which may be good practice and hire candidates with their preferences, but it's not currently a compulsory requirement, hence the unskilled job category. It is outdated yes but still true.

1. So much gov money is wasted. Better budgeting. Better money allocation and management within the public sector.

1. Government that actually gives a fudge.

(3. Tax the rich.)

And I actually do think TAs should be better qualified as well as better paid.

Exactly @ParsleySageRosemary . I (and several others I know of) even have a PGCE. It is no longer an unskilled role.

Sorry yeah, unqualified is what I meant.

I was a HLTA and loved it. But the "unqualifiedness" of the role needs urgent attention.

🤷‍♀️ if you want the role to be taken seriously then the quality of staff needs to be better. As PP mentioned!

I've never met a TA with a PGCE and it's great that some have them. Those are the TAs who need a pay rise.

Simply, the job needs grading as PP said.
If you're a TA with a PGCE = £15 an hour
Unqualified / no GCSEs = Whatever they get now

Are the TAs in a deprived area less likely to be well educated? Anyone know this?? 😊