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's not true for teachers either though.

Yup, I have 3 kids in my class who need 1-to-1 support, as per their EHCP. We have 1 TA and I only see her about 2 hours per week because she's constantly being roped into doing cover as we didn't manage to fill all the teaching vacancies by September and some days we can't get supply.

Teaching assistants almost never get asked to teach a class in secondary school. So, that's not the reason they're quitting secondary in their droves, along with primary. We can't replace those who leave for love nor money. Children are going unsupported in lessons every single day. Their behaviour worsens. It impacts everyone in the room's learning and wellbeing.

No one wants to do this job any longer. It's minimum wage, term time only, 26-32 hours a week, with no choice of holidays or ability to have any time off in term time. They're all leaving to work in supermarkets on 20% higher hourly rate, choice of hours, ability to take term time holidays and nobody punching, kicking or shouting at you or running around after you with scissors.

I have zero idea what is going to happen but replacing them with volunteers is the most ridiculous thing I've heard this week.

Going from this thread, being a TA is quite a part time role (people have spoken about working 18-30 hours a week, with several weeks unpaid leave a year on top of statutory annual leave). Does anyone know how the pay compares to the supermarkets etc if you look at pay at an hourly/full time equivalent basis rather than just looking at monthly salaries? Obviously there's other differences between the roles, but curious how they compare financially on a like for like basis - its not clear if people are comparing a part time TA role with a full time supermarket one.

@justasking111 So I'm sure you DS has no problem with the staff turnover as they can just call in the grey army as and when?
Don't get me wrong, there is a place in schools for volunteering and many should be utilising it more, but this idea is just absurd. If a volunteer doesn't come to help entertain your patients it's not the end of the world. For many kids it means no school as it's not safe for them to be there 1:1. For others it'll be safe but lack of 1:1 attention in the class means they may as well not be there as they won't understand it. There is a crisis of epic proportions when it comes to spaces in SEN schools. Your DS is teaching the lucky ones who have manage to get a space. Many mainstream schools are having to deal with kids who are working on p levels. An ad-hoc volunteer who wants to budy up their day is not a replacement for a TA.
It's crazy to me that you have a family member in education and instead of being disgusted at the state of funding within it, you think the solution is getting retired people to roll their sleeves up.

TA’s where I worked don’t get 12 weeks paid holidays, teachers do

No, teachers don’t.

Never mind, someone's just posted saying they're on minimum wage!

So many of the grey army are committed to childminding DGCs. Maybe not full time but still do you want to be in a school too, I doubt it?

@Singleasapringle they are comparing hourly wages.

Yes, TA pay is minimum wage. Some supermarkets pay £12 an hour, so a lot more (similar to teacher or nurse starting salary).

It also takes at least one full time paid person to do the organising. Trust me, getting people to commit to volunteering and then show up and do a professional job (plus the safeguarding training etc and being dbs cleared) is a massive undertaking. And then people don't show up or won't want to work with the kid who is throwing things and spitting at them (my dsis is a TA and endures this on a daily basis) so the school is back to square one. A better option would be to pay TAs a fair wage and attract dedicated members of staff. My sister is a qualified teacher, frequently takes the class on her own and yet isn't even paid enough to take her over the tax threshold. It's nuts.

Perhaps some people don't understand that in secondary schools, TAs are the SEN department.

DS SEN school gets a much bigger budget to start with. Ratio of children to adults much higher. Even then they get burnout.

The volunteers are a stop gap. I agree TA salaries are too low.

Cut taxes to the wealthy.
Give bankers big bonuses.
Don't pay essential staff a CoL wage.
When they complain they can't pay their bills, tell them to get a better paying job.
Expect other people to fill those vacancies for free.

Trussterfuck economics folks.

I swear they did Brexit so we couldn't escape.

I've worked in the charity sector, been a TA and am now teaching.

If you want an NHS comparison to schools to help you understand: Head is the Manager, Deputy/Assistant heads are the consultants, Teachers are the junior doctors, TAs are the nurses (so still qualified and unable to operate without them) and volunteers are....volunteers.

Very helpful, we definitely need more volunteers, but we cannot just replace nurses/TAs with volunteers.

I was an HLTA at an inner London comp in my early 20s after doing my psych masters. My time was split between working with the most vulnerable and very difficult to manage kids, and teaching classes during teachers' planning times. It was absolutely hellish. I had no training. At all.

I have a child with ADHD and dyslexia. There isn't enough support from TAs as it is, will get much worse if a supermarket is seen as a better prospect.

They don't now

They are only paid for 44 weeks. They get the same holiday as many other jobs. 4 weeks plus bank holidays.

If a volunteer doesn't come to help entertain your patients it's not the end of the world.
This. Volunteers should be for non-essential roles. Teaching and assisting teaching are essential and should be fine by qualified, decently-paid staff. Othrrwise why not just get volunteers to do everything and lower taxes? Can't you see how ridiculous this idea is?

Surely the term time only is an advantage over supermarket jobs? I can see some TAs leaving but the benefits of a job in a school are huge speaking as a single parent.

Have you considered doing it for free? It would be fab if you could. Thanks muchly.

If there's charities out there brimming with volunteers willing to do the job then why don't they contact schools and offer that?

IME schools cannot get volunteers anymore.

They can't even get TAs willing to do it for pay.

And volunteers generally want PT work or a few days. That doesn't cover someone to work with a child FT to cover the needs on an ehcp.

And let's not even start on the fact schools don't have money to train paid staff - let alone volunteers.

It is for that brief period of having your own children aged 4-12. After that, no, full time is preferable as you might stand a chance of affording a holiday out of peak time.

Our TAs who have grown up children, no children, pre school children or have a partner who is a SAHP are all leaving. None of them need term time only.

Not enough.

More jobs working from home means less need for holiday cover and more flexibility to do the school run. Some supermarket shifts can fit around school hours too.

Schools used to rely on that to get people to work for peanuts and that's not working anymore.

I was a CSW in school m, it took me years to become an experienced BSL user , eventually I left because the pay did not reflect my skills. There are lots of children in schools who need 1:1 support, we should be training TA's and paying them accordingly