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

It would definitely interest me but only if they employed me to do something else as well to make it upto 4-5 hours per day. Otherwise not worth the fuel.

It's obviously a completely necessary job and vital for children to have adult supervision at lunch time but largely unappealing and impractical for the majority of people.

I wonder whether any 6th form students would do it....? My DD finishes at lunch time 3 days a week and would work for £10/hr but I'd imagine it might not work because of safeguarding or high turnover as they will likely only be able to do it for a year....

I would be much more interested in doing the 7 hours over 2 days personally. I am a SAHM with school aged children looking at these sorts of jobs but the main thing which puts me off is the jobs taking an awkward chunk out of my day every day.

Only works for absolutely tiny % of people who live within 3 minute walk of the school. Otherwise cost and time of travel to the job, and commitment required, is totally out of proportion for what it pays.

A lot of casual jobs have min hour agreements for a shift- eg, my place of work is 4 hours regardless of time on site, so for a 2 hour mandatory training we'll still get the 4 hours. It's recognition it takes up your day and your costs of coming to work.

I think at DSs primary the TAs generally do this role as well. Can see why it's not attractive as the time slots mean you're not able to do very much at either end of the day.

It's the worst job I've ever done and I've had quite a number! You're responsible for a large number of children who mostly have nothing constructive to do, wet play times are the worst!

You're paid next to nothing and you can't plan anything because with travel you've got a 2hr chunk out the middle of your day. Round here the only way they can find anyone to do it is by combining it with another role and I lost a role and refused a role because they wanted someone to also do lunches and I didn't want to.

I wonder if it’s worth approaching local colleges or similar, targeting childcare students.
maybe they could do the hours work then volunteer/ get apprenticeship hours in the classroom for the pm .

it was just a stray thought. Our school had a similar problem and we never replaced the ladies that retired.

shit money shit hours sadly

I think as it is a job right in the middle of the day it won't suit most and the pay is NMW or slightly above not sure.

In our school only 2 are TAs, the rest are MDAs solely for that job. I think people can underestimate the role as it is a lot of responsibility for very little pay, especially our first aiders with how precious parents can be as well.
I think it's one of those things, it works for some and not for others, our MDAs say they don't need to work so it's not a monetary thing and they want to be around for school drop off and pick ups,, mostly they like working with kids but don't want the stress or the hours of becoming a TA or a Teacher, so it keeps them with no gaps in their employment CV, gives them experience, or are retired and they get to do something they enjoy.

They absolutely need reliability. I doubt a 6th former's timetable allows for that - what about exams, trips etc that they won't be available for?

One of our lunchtime supervisor posts was agency. It just didn't work. They weren't reliable enough.

Most 6th Formers aren't 18. If they are 18 they are doing their A levels that year. And they should be studying in that time even if not in school really.

Could you put the feelers out to see if anyone already working there wants to got to half days or job share or something. I work in the school office. I'd love to go part time now. Mornings, say. A job could be created for someone who'd come in to do the lunch duty then finish off the day in the school office.

I think schools are going to start having to think outside the box a bit when it comes to employing people and offering flexibility over what people want, even if it's a little bit "bitty". Many TAs don't want to do any lunch duties and actively would not choose a job where there was no choice in the matter. It's hard to find decent TAs these days. These school jobs need to be made much more attractive, and schools should recognise that while they absolutely should get good people, they ARE getting paid peanuts and the job isn't very attractive to a lot of people because they can't afford to live on the wage.

I do this job. But my circumstances work perfectly. I live next door to the school and also run a small creative business from home. Unlike most people, I actually wanted something to break up the day. The money is not essential but a nice top up to other wage. There won’t be many I’m my situation though! So can see why it’s very unappealing to most.

Totally agree with this. I'm a lunchtime supervisor and I'd love a few more hours here and there but some of the TA roles are just too many hours for me especially alongside doing the lunch role, it's too much. Really hard going. I find it's either all or nothing. Coming in early and doing full days/expected to stay late just doesn't work for me when I have my own kids to pick up.

Every single school in our area employs MDSAs
(...and have had ongoing adverts permanently for the last few years!)

Could you tie it with another role so there were more hours? Does it have to be for 5 days a week?

For the pay it's extremely restrictive, you have to do something to address that.

I think it's because as most pp's said, the pay is poor and it's at an awkward time of day.

I also think it's less likely for women to not already be back at work by then now so are unavailable because they are already working.

That is a good way of making it work so that one person does two days, the other person could do the remaining three.

At our school TAs do all the meal time supervising. We do half an hour each and have half an hour lunch. It’s quite nice to get some fresh air during the day.

@DisforDarkChocolate what do you suggest they do?

I do this job, 2 hours a day.

It suits me because I can do school drop offs and pick ups. I get school hols off, so no childcare cover needed and no costs.

There's 8 of us in the team, some with younger children because it fits in with childcare, and a few older women working for a bit of extra money.

And that surprises you?

If people want a PT job they’ll be looking for a minimum of 4 hours a day.

You couldn’t earn enough in a minimum wage job with such minuscule hours to be remotely worth it and it would be in the way of getting anything else.

How are you this clueless?

Other people's children are generally bloody awful and the pay is terrible.

Commute would probably cost more than you earned.

Even before you take into account bus fare would probably eliminate at least half the pay, there's the little problem that for Universal Credit, that will not be sufficient hours to be acceptable - and by being in the middle of the day, makes it impossible for them to take on (or be hired for) a morning or afternoon role.

It's not worth it, most can't afford it and you're making them almost unemployable for any other roles. It's a thing of the past from when women were able to stay at home and do a couple of hours a day to keep them busy.

You would need to already have money to be able to take that job.