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 DH is a TA in a secondary school.

In addition to working alongside supporting kids in class, he is running nurture groups and clubs outside of teaching time. He is expected to cover classes if needed.

He deals with challenging children every day and also provide support to those coming from horrific backgrounds so having to deal with safeguarding issues on a daily basis.

He puts his heart and soul into his job because he wants to make a difference.

He has undergone numerous training to enable him to learn and develop his skills better for the benefit of those he works with.

The majority of TAs are well worth their weight in gold and yet so undervalued and paid. TA definitely need to be paid better.

My DD who has only ben out of school for just over a year is a TA in a local primary school. She has A levels but no relevant qualifications at all and applied as she wants to gain some experience with children before applying to Uni for a related course.
She has been given a child to look after 1:1 who shouldn't be in a mainstream school at all. He is completely non verbal and can't engage with any classroom learning at all. He disrupts the class so needs to be taken out, hits at her and pulls her hair. She has been given no training at all by the school, possibly as she is still a temp (has been offered a permanent contract which starts shortly). It is a ridiculous situation. She seems to be coping after feeling rather desperate initially.
There is no way a volunteer is going to do this, no chance.
Volunteers help with reading or go on school trips. I've done a little myself in the past and it is easy and enjoyable. in any case, in more deprived areas with far more children who need extra help, the schools are much less likely to find volunteers as less SAHPs, lower educated adults, parents having medical problems, etc

@oakleaffy see my previous message about lack of special schools. There aren't enough and none are being built. Tons closed down years ago. Schools have no choice and many secondaries have mini special schools running within them with the amount of ehcp kids they have.

@oakleaffy children are still in nappies as they have medical issues. Schools have to accept children still in nappies.

I am a LSA. I spend most of my time doing maths and literacy interventions for groups of children at a time. Two mornings a week I am one to one with a pupil. I also do break duties and the occasional lunch. Yes a volunteer may be happy to do that... but would they still come back the next day after having a chair thrown at their head, breasts groped, doors slammed in their face? No... I don't think so.

And I forgot to mention... I work in primary

Did you have any children in your class who were like the child I currently work with? Non-verbal, still in nappies, very limited understanding of language, unable to be left alone for even a single minute?

No, because in those days the children like him would have been elsewhere.

Why is there nowadays such a need for TAs? What role do they play now that wasn't being fulfilled in the 90s?

In addition to SEND there are few jobs out there now that do not require basic maths and English qualifications as a minimum. All children need to become literate and numerate at school. The number of qualifications needed for every job has ballooned. The pressure is high, and at the same time there is less parental involvement for various reasons (not least having to work) than ever. No child should be left sitting at the back of the class gossiping and learning nothing for 14 years, which was fully acceptable 40 years ago.

If a child isn’t toilet trained, or violent, Mainstream schools are not the place to be.
so where should they go?

Yep. It’s 100% a TORY government problem. for choking off funds for years on end.

I’m supposed to be starting a job in the school vaccine service. I accepted in August. They’re still faffing about with references and checks and I could walk into Aldi tomorow and get paid more. So why ever would I bother with the faff?

It's a race to the bottom. Maybe all those saying volunteers can do it should think about their own jobs and can they be replaced by volunteers!

Working in a supermarket is not necessarily easier, supermarkets are working on bare bones policy and automation when it comes staff. l work in a supermarket and we have TA s working part time alongside us, there's no fixed hours as such, and they will be expected to work ridiculous hours over xmas etc. If your on dot.com its a very early start, 5.00am, and there is a very high pick rate you need to adhere to, there are always long queues at checkouts because they don' t want to pay staff and prefer customers to scan themselves, working on self service is a nightmare, you need eyes in the back of your head and rushed off your feet. We have a high staff turnover as its far from the stress free job people imagine, customers can be vile and aggressive and managers talk to you like shit.

Jesus wept. The ignorance on this thread is astounding. The lack of understanding of what this means for your children is equally astounding. Suggesting volunteers can plug the gap is beyond ridiculous.

I hope none of you have children with even the mildest of learning difficulties or who require any additional support to manage health conditions or disabilities. Because lord knows, it is those children who are struggling. Do they not matter? Or do they only matter if yours?

I’m a food teacher. I absolutely would not want a volunteer in my classroom, I want trained staff. I would rather have nobody than a volunteer with no training and no clue of how a safe and successful lesson runs. I would
be terrified of an accident happening through their lack of understanding and I don’t have time to train staff myself. They also wouldn’t be trained on how to actually support the students rather than just telling them answers or doing the work for them.

I dont for one minute imagine it's easy or non stressful working in a supermarket. But hundreds and thousands of TAs and admin staff are prepared to give it a go in preference to working in stressful roles in schools where they can barely clear 11k.

Agree!
I used to volunteer in an “
Outstanding” Primary- It was lovely kids who were engaged and “Easy” - EG non violent and definitely all continent.
No one gives up their time to be physically hurt.
School trips were great fun and there was definitely tea and biscuits.
There were pupils with disabilities at the school, but they weren’t aggressive.
Makes a big difference.

Seems they think that highly skilled support staff in schools are babysitters.

Volunteers will not fill the gap of trained professionals (and I include teaching assistants in that category) Schools need consistency in staffing in order to deliver quality provision for children and young people. And that is now a challenge because staff are leaving in droves and there is a real time recruitment crisis.

But yeah, Mavis or Geoff volunteering to hear kids read and entertaining teenagers will solve the crisis.

Schools are also massivley struggling to recruit jobs such as science technicians and caretakers - the caretaker issue especially so as when the job came with subsidised housing there was interest - all the primaries in my area which were able to sell of the caretakers house have long done so, the only ones that remain are one or two where the location of the house/bungalow in the school premises makes that impossible. Several schools re-advertising all the time for "premises managers"

@flaggingitup
Deprived areas having more problems is hardly surprising, sadly.
Parents who just don’t give a shit a lot of the time.
It’s very sad.
One lad came on a school trip with no lunch or suitable clothes- Child bought a postcard for his mum, and she used it as a roach card to make spliffs with.
Very sad for the child.

My friends son works for one of the big education recruitment agencies.
He says that in the last year in particular, supply ta’s will specify that they will not work one to one with children who have special needs!

I'd also like to point out that our understanding of how children learn has improved and changed over time. For example, nowadays there is emphais on in class immediate feedback on the work a child is doing, rather than teachers spending hours marking at the end of the day. This would be an impossible task for a teacher with 30 odd children, several needing extra help to complete the work and others needing to be challenging, whilst others still are struggling emotionally in different ways. TAs are partly there to ensure that all children get a good level of education in a way that ensures all children can access learning and that no one is left behind.

Because lord knows, it is those children who are struggling. Do they not matter? Or do they only matter if yours?

The thing is, it's affecting all children, not just the ones who would normally have TA support. Because they are still in the classroom, only now the teacher is trying to do the job of the TA as well, meaning less time for the rest of the class.

Yeah, filling water jugs and being "cheerful"

They are an add on, they're not doing triage in A+E, and neither would they be of any use filling vacancies in schools.

You clearly have no idea of the TA role and the training involved.

Race to the bottom is it?