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

Presumably yourself and your co workers all have partners or husbands who earn enough to pay the mortgage and bills?

Do you also get paid during the holidays out of curiosity? I know some schools pay over 12 months but not all.

Our most recent playtime supervisor is often in tears. It's a tough job - outdoors all year round and hundreds of children to supervise.

Ideal? No, what's ideal is having a job that actually pays the bills. I'm a single parent.

I've done it for 5 yrs.
It's easy work although stressful at times.
Fits around picking up and dropping off ds

I did this role for a while. It's not the nicest. You have to work very fast and in the one I did I had to put up and take down tables. I hurt my shoulder doing this. On one occasion I also slipped and fell badly because there was food on the floor.

It's around £250 a month and on top of that I get paid for reading with children 2-3pm.
Around £430 a month in addition to my dh well paid job

Also, if you're doing it to fit around your children and then they're sick you've got problems doing your job.

Yes most have partners who are main earners. It's a way of getting back to work but not needing any childcare. School never have a problem filling the vacancies.

We're paid term time but it's spread out over 12 months so still get a pay packet in school hols.

Wow I'm really surprised your school can afford to pay someone to listen to the kids read for an hour a day.

The problem is without that extra money for reading you're only making about £250 for a months work which restricts you to having no other plans 5 days a week, it's not hard to see why that's doesn't appeal to most people even those looking to get back to work after a stint at home with their children.

For people that need to work, it won't pay enough. For people that don't need to work, it won't pay enough to bother. They may as well volunteer.

Yeah it's definitely not for everyone and yes I'm surprised they pay me and my colleagues to read with the kids.
It's a foot in the door though and many go on to be full-time TA.Im currently applying to work in our school office as I can work FT now ds is older

This pretty much. A school about 7 minutes drive from me has been advertising for months. I have thought about it, but the pay is lousy and it would mean that most of my day (after doing the school run- DCs go to a school a 35 minute drive away, so there and back twice a day) would be waiting to go to work.

Also, the pay is for hours worked and you are not an employee of the local authority so no pension etc to make it slightly more palatable.

School welfare are usually employed by the local authority the same as the other staff, so we are in the pension scheme.

In the ad I saw and was considering it specifically made a point of saying they would not be.

That's a bit crap isn't it

It should be across the board shouldn't it, our MDAs are included on the council scheme, it must be council dependant.

I did it after 7 years off as a SAHM. It was a great way to get back in to work and I loved getting out and meeting people. I also enjoyed the work. No two days were the same and I loved chatting to the kids.
However, I only lasted 7 months. I only got paid £250 per month. Once I got used to earning money again I wanted more! It was also a hassle that it was right in the middle of the day. Not much time to do a thing between the school runs and work.
I left and got a part time admin job in an office which suits me much better. It still fits in well around the kids and I earn 5 x as much as I was earning as a lunchtime assistant.

Different term a and conditions in academies. Our maintained LA schools are all council employed with agreed rates of pay, pension and other included terms and conditions.

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