If you think that teaching assistants should be paid more....

[noblegiraffe]

There's a debate scheduled in parliament in a response to a petition to increase the pay of teaching assistants.

They've put a call out for contributions to the debate, it's a really short survey, with a free text box where you can write a longer comment. All are welcome to contribute!

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=nt3mHDeziEC-Xo277ASzSpMLsAawCSdBvMh9cdt5o9ZURFpIV0paQzUzVzFYSVU0TFRSUFlBMllVQy4u

[Daisythecat15]

Thanks, I've just done it. I'm a SEN teaching assistant and strongly believe we should get more pay. We don't even get SEN allowance where I live.

[MrsWombat]

Thank you. Just did this and I'll send it to my colleagues too.

[deeplybaffled]

Done!

[Justfeckoffwiththeovulating]

My daughter needs a 1:1 T.A and they are worth their weight in gold. I cried when her last one left and it took six months to fully get over the transition to a new one. I get why they are burnt out though.

[Eomt]

Done, thanks for the heads up.

[noblegiraffe]

What needs to be also made clear that if teaching assistants are to be paid more, schools need to be given extra money to account for it.

Because otherwise the outcome would be fewer teaching assistants and more redundancies.

[Unexpectedlysinglemum]

@noblegiraffe

What needs to be also made clear that if teaching assistants are to be paid more, schools need to be given extra money to account for it.

Because otherwise the outcome would be fewer teaching assistants and more redundancies.

Yes.
However, they should also be trained better, and teachers should be trained better in how to use them effectively. If you look at research from the eef, teaching assistants being attached to a child usually makes that child perform worse than if they had no teaching assistant help at all.
I'd rather the funding when to more teachers running intervention groups and covering to give class teachers more SEN specific planning time

[MollysBrolly]

Told London weighting was in our 15k wage! Making the TA wage approx £12k a year.Teachers get SEN allowance TAs get fuck all.

[Lostinplaces]

I certainly don’t get paid enough for the bruises I come home with, kicked in the chest, strangled and bitten. It’s not the children’s fault (SEN) but it’s a bitter pill to swallow when you need the foodbank to survive.

[lavenderlou]

I have signed. It's nigh on impossible to recruit into what was once a popular job. Almost all of our most experienced LSAs have now left, mostly to work in the NHS.

[lavenderlou]

Sorry, not signed, completed!

[Kpo58]

@MollysBrolly

Told London weighting was in our 15k wage! Making the TA wage approx £12k a year.Teachers get SEN allowance TAs get fuck all.

The TA post would still be more than 12K per year full time as that's the prorata amount as most TAs are only paid for between 42 & 45 weeks per year. It's still not enough though.

[noblegiraffe]

Loads of people come on teacher pay threads to point out that teaching assistant pay is crap (and they are, of course, correct) so I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of interest in this thread.

Anyone with a child in school - schools are having real difficulties in recruiting and retaining teaching assistants because they can often earn more in Aldi.

Children with EHCPs which legally mandate 1-1 hours are not having that legal obligation filled because of a shortage of teaching assistants.

This is creating problems where children go unsupported.

Teaching assistants who used to be hired to do things like literacy or numeracy intervention - those interventions are going because schools cannot fund them. Class teaching assistants at primary are now non-existent or shared with other classes.

It's not just about children with EHCPs.

[avocadotofu]

Thank you!

[HiAlisonItsCookie]

Thank you! Done!

[JessicaBrassica]

Dh is a TA.
DS needs a lot of TA support.
I work with a lot of TAs.
DS's favourite TA is leaving this term. He says it's because school hasn't enough money.
DH has finally earned £15k because he plans and delivers the curriculum 2 days a week (he trained as a teacher). He spends the rest of the week as 1:1 for a child with additional needs.

Pa rises for TAs HAVE to be funded and have to pay more than working in a supermarket, to reflect the skills required to make a difference to kids.

[BlissedOutCat]

Thank you!

yes, they need to be paid more, but what so many parents don't seem to understand is that it needs to be funded too. It shouldn't be a choice between a TA or books.

[BiscuitsandPuffin]

As a trained teacher who doesn't want to teach anymore because I have ADHD and can't manage a whole class all day every day (18 different classes, in fact), I would love to work as a TA and having worked as one before I trained, I know I was really good at it. Instead I'm in a soul-sucking corporate office job because it pays enough to cover childcare.

[Idratherbepaddleboarding]

I’ve filled it in as I left my much loved career as a HLTA this year due to how shit it got 😢.

[winewolfhowls]

Done. Thank you for sharing this, I would be absolutely lost without my LSAs support. Bloody Angels they are .

[winewolfhowls]

I think that's shocking pay. If your husband is doing the job of a teacher two days a week he should be paid at a teacher rate.

[titbumwillypoo]

Done and sent it to my Head for further dissemination.

[Veryverycalmnow]

Thanks- done!

[JessicaBrassica]

@winewolfhowls

I think that's shocking pay. If your husband is doing the job of a teacher two days a week he should be paid at a teacher rate.

He's paid as a hlta 2 days and a l3 for 3 days. He spent years as an l2, doing cover but not teaching.

[CatsSnore]

I think all public sector jobs need a payrise. Buut I think TAs should just be TAs. The responsibility they have is way too much. In my head a TA should be a lovely person in the class who notices if a dc is struggling and steps in to bridge over the struggle, do the displays, get the milk, be a lovely and well needed extea pair of hands. They are expected to do far too much for the money they are on.