Would the role of a midday assistant suit /entice you

[Mickeyfish]

Our school is applying for 2 midday assistant positions. 1 and half hours a day. Weve had not one response to the advert and no applicants have came in its made me think as to why is that ? Do people not find the job ideal if you had children of school age

Honestly as a teacher I'm always amazed anyone takes up mid day roles. I genuinely can't think of many other jobs that are less convenient time wise, so few hours and with such poor pay. Why anyone applies at all is baffling to me.

I've been trying to get a midday supervisor job for months! There's no before or after school clubs at my daughter's school and nobody else to pick her up/drop her off. I had to leave my care home job with she started school because of the hours clashing. I've applied to every ad that comes up and never even hear anything back.

Any school I’ve taught in for the last 25 years has used TAs as MDAs as it was never possible to hire people just in that lunchtime role.

If you are not working already, working for only 1.5 hours right in the middle of the day was a pain in the neck so people never applied.

1 1/2 hours is rather short. Could the role be expanded to helping with admin/displays/cleaning? If it was 9-2.30pm you could walk the children in , work and then walk them home again.

Also chances are if it’s a primary school you may have younger children at nursery either in a morning or an afternoon session so hours are not compatible, if you have even younger children you couldn’t afford childcare out of a minimum wage job.

1.5hrs a day, so 7.5hrs/ week at minimum wage. £10.42/hr.

£78.37/week in term time only.

If a parent of a child over 5 is on UC, they'll be pressurised to be working 25hrs a week. Those hours won't cut it.

Factor in getting to/from the school, assuming their kids are at the same one, 3 times a day and that is a LOT of faffing about for peanuts. People are likely to look elsewhere for more hours.

Are you putting up signs at the school gates for these roles alongside the online ads? Might be a good way to hit your target audience.

That's honestly so surprising to hear. Where you live must be an anomaly because around here the only way those roles are generally filled is by TAs who do it alongside their current position or by offering more hours for the role e.g. working as a mid day and working at breakfast or after school club.

There’s still all the other issues mentioned to consider but perhaps offering it as a job share might offset some of the inconvenience that people have mentioned. So only 2 or 3 days are affected rather than 1.5 hours every day.

As someone who could walk to the school and could fit it in around my other work it’s still a nope here. It’s just not worth the hassle for the price. Maybe if I was a bored retiree who had nothing at all ever else going on since it locks down the middle of your day every day.

My mum used to do a midday supervisor role after doing a morning as a TA.
It wouldn't appeal to me for all the reasons people have outlined. (I already work ft anyway)

If you were only going to work (or only needed to work) 7.5 hrs a week , working 1 day a week or a couple of mornings/evenings would be more appealing than 5 x 1.5 hrs

Local schools to me have been advertising for a lollypop person for literally years I imagine all the reasons for not doing that job are the same with the bonus risk of potentially being run over

@YourNameGoesHere I'm in a fairly big city, I've been applying for school catering assistant jobs too and again, nothing.

To echo PP - 1.5 hours is too short, unless maybe you live next door. It also disrupts the whole day, every weekday, so it'd be hard to go for a wander around town/shopping/lunch with friends etc etc or to fit it around a second job.

My DH was a school lunch assistant but was also involved in setting up the tables and chairs in the main hall (no separate canteen), food prep, supervising and serving the kids then cleaning up and taking down the chairs and tables again. That made it more like 3.5 hours per day which was just about viable but he still would have preferred 2.5 normal full days per week for the same amount of hours and money but without having every single day disrupted.

That's honestly very surprising then. It's generally a role which is left unapplied for because it simply isn't suitable for 99% of people. Have you contacted the schools after to enquire about your application?

Breaks your day up

Needs to be AM or PM

It's a massive pain in the arse for pretty much zero reward.

I agree, the hours are too short to attract many people. The only ones I can think of are those who live a short walking distance from the school, are either already retired but quite fancy some 'pin money', or SAHMs who don't need the money as such, but would quite like to get back into some sort of work that fits in with school hours.

I have done it but only in addition to also doing some TA work in the classroom. I used to do 9-1, 3 hours in the classroom then an hour mid day.

As everyone has said above, why would anyone want to work 1.5 hrs in the middle of the day for minimum wage where you can't even take a day off in term time.

I did the above job as a way back into working after being a sahm for a few years. The hours suited me until the kids were all at secondary and I no longer had to worry about school drop off/pick ups.

I’ve seen midday supervisor jobs work best as job shares else you’re giving up five days a week for around 6 or 7 hours work. These jobs aren’t like the 1980s which involved holding hands with the kids and making daisy chains. Now you need to come in for safeguarding training on inset days. I did the job for a few months and had to stay unpaid afterwards for up to thirty minutes writing up every playground incident which occurred on their ‘special forms’. Absolute joke. By the time I got home, it was time to go back and pick up my child.

Five years ago maybe. Now, parents (usually mothers let's be honest) who need jobs that work around school hours have a lot more choices. Most of which are better paid.

If you're on UC don't the government expect you to work a certain amount of hours? So midday meals supervisor job probably won't be enough hours.

I'm a carer for my son and thought it was something I could do while he was at school, and still get carers allowance, but now he's at college he only does 2.5 days a week, and can't be left at home alone, so I can't do it sadly.

Seriously?

For 1½ hours of what I assume will be minimum wage (£10.42) so £15.63.

From which they will have to pay transport, spend time travelling, be smartly dressed.

In my town I reckon £4 return would be an average bus fare. Or 2 hours parking would be £2.50. And maybe an hour spent door-to-door (on the bus) or ½ hour by car.

So for 2 - 2½ hours of their day, they would end up with £11.63-ish to £13.13-ish.

And you think people (by which you mean SAHMs) would find that ideal?

It's a real faff if you have kids at the school though, take to school, walk home, walk to work, walk home, walk to pick up, walk home. Anyone who can afford to only work for 1.5 hours a day isn't going to want those hours to be slap in the middle of the day.

I guess it was different when schools had kitchens and dinner ladies cooked as well, possibly working 9-2.

I’m surprised you aren’t attracting retired people into that role. You’d think those who would have historically been lollipop ladies might take you up on a midday assistant role.

It’s a typical pocket money job. So great for somebody who doesn’t need the money but likes to have something to keep them busy. But it’s daily and inflexible, so not great in that regard. There are easier options for “keeping busy”

5-10 years ago it was a popular job, I know some people used it to gain school experience and then apply for TA roles. Times have changed and there are so many more WFH opportunities that can also fit around kids and pay much better.

Also it is bang in the middle of the day so restricts what you can do and where you can go when you are not working.