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

My school was absolutely lovely so no behavioural issues, it was just helping cut up lunches and organise lines.

It was a few years ago then... this resembles precisely no school in the country in 2023. Not even an absolutely lovely one.

Haha yes I was wondering where this utopia was. I'm a supply teacher and visit a LOT of schools and none of them sound like this school.

Unless I was living literally next door to the kitchen buildings and also earning proper money commodity trading from home, I couldn't do this.

Your whole day taken up for about £15- don't know who could afford to do this job, really.

For people who need to work for money, that's not enough. For people who don't need to work for money, it's a lot of disruption to your day for very little in return.

This!

Nope, it’s not a fun job, with shit pay and stupid hours.
It’s becoming more and more common to have the role combined with a part time TA role. Thats seems to work well. Behaviour at lunch times is better also when it’s supervised by TA staff.

I live 5mins walk from school. Still too much like effort because of the committment issue.

I would agree with this. It used to be seen as an ‘in’ to working in a school.

Is there anyone who can afford to make ends meet on 1.5 hours of minimum wage work a day?

Schools have to realise that the days of the baby boomers are gone. You’re dealing with people who have to pay rent into retirement now, not those who could pay off their mortgage by age 40.

Around my way, TA work doesn’t attract many takers either, for the same reason: and at least that’s a few more hours a week, albeit ridiculous expectations for the same minimum wage.

Absolutely not. Puts the kibosh on any all-day plans, and for what, like £50 a week?? Hard to find a second job to work around it I’d imagine too.

All of the above and add in that anyone on universal credit with children over 3 have a 30 hour work expectation now so would also have to be applying for other work and attending appointments in the job centre.

Same issue here, no-one applying and loads of vacancies. Where schools can they do add it to the TA role, but of course that means lessons are without support as TA’s need a lunch too.

At the minute head teachers and senior leaders are supervising lunch in many schools, to make up the staffing. If they stop, pupils will have to go home…

This. I’d wonder what decade a school advertising for this kind of role is in tbh!

You need to pay them for at least 4 hours

Or make it worthwhile financially

Or it's not worth the petrol/bus fare

Schools do realise but there are agreed pay scales for support staff.

Even if they could offer more pay, schools are suffering from budget cuts that would prevent increasing wages.

Round my way the TAs are retiring at age 50 because they've had enough of the poor behaviour in class. They are sick of being hit and kicked and sworn at.

They are well off enough due to husband to do this.

The retirees older than this would laugh at the suggestion on this thread about doing it. They don't need the money and there's so many other voluntary opportunities where they don't have to commit or efficiently are 'the boss of' rather than being accountable to the head.

Then there's the families who have kids in school. House prices have gone up so much you can't afford a house here now without two professional wages. So both parents work and there's very very few SAHPs at all to even consider the role.

The house prices have started to effect the size of the school intakes too.

There's a really stark divide between the over 50s and the under 40s around here. It's worlds apart. People who could afford to buy here twenty years ago wouldn't have a chance today if they were in similar jobs.

DH and I are right on the boundary point (I think it falls roughly between age 42 and 46 and is connected to where you were in 2008 and whether you were on the property market before or after then).

Our school has put out an advert for exactly this role in the last couple of weeks!

It could be our school. But I think it likely that it's a pretty typical problem tbh.

Imagine you have a school aged child and live 15 mins walk away

Drop off at 9am
Run home , back at 9:15
Leave 11:45 for work
Finish 1:30
Home 1:45
Leave 2:45 for school pick up

All for £20 ?

Nah

No, definitely not. Low paid and 1.5 hours a day (as if anyone can live off that) and I have no desire to work in a school or with children. It’s the sort of thing that would appeal to someone who just needs something to do to get out of the house a little without needing to actually earn money to live on, which I think these days is not most people, given cost of living.

I fit the latter. I wouldnt do it cos it's five days a week.

There are so many downsides for most people for all the reasons that people have said. I'ts not a nice job really. The hours are just SO restrictive to what you can do with your day. I think schools would attract more people if they created part time roles which covered, say, 2 or 3 days a week but more hours on those days, to include a lunch duty and some TA work so people didn't have every day of the week impacted.

It's just not attractive to many retired people, who may like to travel, visit relatives, go out for lunches, shop at quiet times. The little they earn probably gets eaten up by the extra cost of taking a holiday during school holidays. Some retirees like the daily connection with people, the routine etc. And the kids of course. But doing it for the money makes no sense.

It would probably most suit someone who needs some school experience/work with children to apply for a better paid job with more hours, or a FT TA job.

I'm a midday supervisor, but its a full on shift, we're literally expected to do the impossible, three of us are expected to take lunchtime register, seach for children who haven't come in, assist 240 children while eating, deal with emotional issues and arguments, first aid, safeguarding and reporting issues to teachers/senior leadership, put away approx 22 tables and 140 chairs, wipe everything over, mop the floor, empty and clean bin, all within 75 mins.
I've done it for years and enjoy being around the children, but we don't have enough time to have fun with tge children any more or just sit and listen if we really need to. I can understand why others don't want the job.

It’s truly a horrible job.
I did it for year last year and left.
it’s so mentally draining and so stressful.
You have a huge responsibility for the kids, I was forever listening to girls saying that Denni doesn’t want to play with Alexis.
On the top of it the head was absolutely mad about impending Ofsted visit, he was testing all staff daily about safeguarding, saying if we fail, then we will see what would happen.
It’s was just a terrible job.
Not to mention standing frozen outside on the playground in the cold Autumn/ Winter and dealing with 1st aid or having wet play days stuck with 90 kids ( yes the whole year was always put together ) in one class!
Also we had to stay extra 15 mins for free to fill forms about bumped heads and other incidents.
So no for £15 peanuts it’s not worth it!

I think schools would attract more people if they created part time roles which covered, say, 2 or 3 days a week but more hours on those days, to include a lunch duty and some TA work so people didn't have every day of the week impacted.

I don’t know of any schools that don’t have MDA as part of the TA role-they work 8.45-12 in class, 12-1 as a MDA and then have their lunch. Then, they either finish or do the rest of the afternoon depending on the contract.

Most schools here have done this for many years.

This.

30 years ago it was much harder for mums to find work that fitted around school hours, and the internet / work from home wasn’t really a thing. Many women were grateful for this kind of low paid high commitment inflexible role. Also back then there were lots of sahms who didn’t mind giving up and hr or two a day for free to help the school, particularly as the cost o fliving was way lower.

Now women need money more and can do better 😬

I live 15m walk from school, a pretty average distance I expect. If I my did this job my day would look like this:

8.20 -leave the house for school (5m contingency)
9 - back home
Just over 2 hours free time
11.10 - leave to go to school.
11:30-1 work.
1:20 (including 5m faffing)
1 hour 35 free time
2.55- leave to go to school
3.30 - home

I'd be doing an hour and a half walking for an hour and a half work, it would mean I'd have huge restrictions on my time (a maximum 2 hours free), and it would cover about half the weekly groceries.

No thanks