AIBU to think being a teacher/teaching assistant is worthwhile just for the holidays?

[MrsCD67]

Just that really!
I'd love to know what teachers/TAs think of their jobs- pros and cons.
Of course it would be unreasonable to take a teaching assistant job just for the holidays but it's just so tempting for me as I want a work/life balance!

What are school holidays like for teachers/TAs in terms of workload?
Thanks!

I don't teach but I work in a school in a safeguarding role so know many Teachers and TA's.

There is no amount of money in the world you could pay me to be a Teacher in a secondary school. The pressure they are under is insane, the workload completely unsustainable and the lack of support and ridiculous expectations from some parents immensely frustrating. There are reasons why we have a massive recruitment crisis. The holidays may sound great but a lot of the teachers I know work through a significant chunk of their holidays just to keep their heads above water. I am told that Primary is somewhat less stressful in terms of workload but can't say from personal experience.

TA's don't have as much responsibility and aren't expected to work evenings, weekends or holidays like Teachers are. But they are vastly underpaid and unappreciated for the skilled and very challenging work that they do. They also increasingly lack job security due to budget cuts.

I can't believe the OP is serious.

I teach a secondary, core subject and although the holidays are nice to have with my son, I do have to work through a lot of them. In addition, I work evenings/weekend's, particularly this time of year when the exams are on and any free time in school is spent with students who want to go through things/just need support.

I, however, mostly love my job so it is worth it - might not be if you don't feel that way.

I wouldn't be a TA as the pay is awful.

DH is a head of faculty in a good rated comp. He's very well respected, gets excellent results, but never quite gets why other teachers are working so much in the holidays. He stays late (e.g. 5ish!) and that's enough to ensure he rarely works evenings or weekends and only the odd day in the holidays. It's frankly fantastic that we never had to pay for childcare in the holidays and it makes for a fab work life balance.
There are schools where there is a lot more work to do and in your first few years of teaching you do spend a lot longer over planning and marking.
However, what stands DH in good stead is his excellent subject knowledge (so less prep time), good rapport with kids, his ability to shut his door and get straight on with stuff and he doesn't' stress out at high workload times. There are a lot of anxious, perfectionist teachers,even some who don't like kids or their subject very much! I am prepared to be flamed for that btw😁

MrsCD67 I'm a TA in Special School.
Full time (30 hours) is between 12k and £13,250 a year (after 14 years in my case)... spread evenly across the year. So utterly shit pay.

Today I changed 7 children's nappies 4 times, complete with poo smearing from 3 of them, was bitten (only once) had my hair pulled quite a few times, tube fed two children, did physio on three children. fed two children, did various educational activities...

I left for a grand total of 7 week, to a better paid job but missed the children , the school, too much so have returned.

I love the kids, love the job but it is very challenging. On an average day I will be hit, or hurt in some way, deal with challenging behaviour every day. BUT the good bits.. seeing a child achieve, overcome behaviours or obstacles in life, learn to speak, or communicate in some way, is AWESOME.

Special School TAs are paid better than mainstream generally so that tells you how poor the pay is. It's a job you do because you fall in love with the children, NOT for work life balance!!!

However I do go home and not have to do anything work wise until the next morning, which suits me as I have an adult son with autism at home!

My friend works as a TA and a cleaner. She earns more per hour as a cleaner.

I was speaking to my dc's nursery nurse about this last week. She said after 27 years of working evenings/weekends in hospitality that retraining and moving into the nursery was the best thing she ever did.

She's quite bonkers though

How does it work with TA’s not getting paid for holidays? Not at all? Surely all workers part time or even temporary “accrue” Annual Leave and are entitled to X amount of paid leave based on their hours worked?

I have several friends who are teachers - in one case Deputy Principal - and contrary to what I read on Mumsnet they don't work crazy hours (one runs a catering business in her spare time) and definitely don't work holidays, as they use them to travel.

I must say I still don't envy them. Thinking back to my schooldays you couldn't pay me enough to do their job.

I wouldn't go in to teaching if you want a work life balance. The holidays are fab but the long hours and inflexibility during term time are not great! I work part time now which is fine but I had worked my way up the pay scale before I dropped my hours.

TA pay is spread across the year evening..as in monthly salary. Grand total of between £900-£1000 after tax NI and pension contributions.

TAs get paid for 39 weeks + 4 weeks holiday with a few variations e.g. long service

Just remember TA salary is lower than the one advertised so it’s very poor. I am a teacher, albeit one with middle leadership responsibility, and work insane hours in term time. However I do take almost all of my holidays off. I only manage this through working weekends in the run up to holidays though. I think if you averaged it out i probably work the same hours across the whole year as someone in another job with set hours e.g. civil service, social worker etc.

And teacher workload depends quite a lot on which school you work at too. Some are more sensible when it comes to work life balance.

Also TA pension 'years' are pro-rated as well unless you are lucky enough to be on a 52-week contract.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Ho ho ho OP. Nom nom to the troll.

If you'd like to spend from 7.45 to 5.30 in school on performance mode all day teaching 30 kids, dealing with their fears, happiness, behaviour issues, helping children who finding learning difficult, then at least 1hr out of school every night preparing, planning, marking then deciding their next steps while managing your own family it's really not for you...

Oh and holidays? Ha ha ha, extended planning, class preparation and report writing you mean...

Don't get me wrong, I adore teaching and working with children, however I have a very understanding family who realise this is a vocation for me.

I think TA jobs are advertised with their salary as if it were full time, eg £25k. Sounds reasonable.
Then you take out 13 weeks holiday and knock off hours each week it’s actually more like £10- 13k. That is then spread out across 12 months.

The teachers I know all do 11+ lessons in the evenings or extra GCSE private lessons at £30 hr.

I work as a TA and I used to be a teacher so know what it's like from both aspects.

I love being a TA, but the money is rubbish- I couldn't do it if DH didn't have a good salary which supports us. I work hard while I'm there, sometimes have to cover classes, but mostly work in the class with a group, take out intervention groups, work with children one to one who need more help, do classroom displays, baking, marking, go on school trips to supervise groups, go swimming with the kids, reading, changing reading books etc. I find TAs often end up doing extra time without pay too- going on residential trips or school trips which are much longer than the school day for no extra pay, coming in early for special events, helping out at fundraising events, losing all your break time because a kid injures themselves etc. However, unlike teachers when I leave the building my job is done! I would never want to be a full time teacher again- the parental/ofsted/political pressure, the time-consuming planning, the ridiculous curriculum imposed by the government, the constantly being told your best is not enough, whole bureaucracy!

@defineme, I do agree some teachers are perfectionists to a fault. However, I really do think the school you work and the leadership team you have makes a huge difference. I have friends in different schools who are expected to submit their written planning in detail for each week and mark each piece of work in detail for their 180 or so kids. If I worked at a school like that, I’d have a nervous breakdown.

No amount of holiday would be worth it for me to go back to teaching. You have to spend all day with hordes of children.

I'm a TA and the pay is shocking for the amount of workload and pressure you're put under. I'm often left to run the class single handedly.

Yes the school holidays off are convenient for your own DC but as a pro it's not that much of a bonus in the grand scale. My DC are in morning and afternoon care and I miss all their school concerts, assembly, sports day etc.

I'm far too poor for any kind of holidays and I'm reliant on tax credits despite working 5 days a week.

I work at a sixth form college and do very little work in the holidays. Maybe two days over Christmas and Easter and the last week of the Summer. It's definitely a perk. The results pressure does get to me and has made me very unhappy on occasion but if you get in the right place teaching is a very rewarding job.

It's very hard to generalise. We had a full time nanny ( I arn a lot more) so my teacher husband didn't have childcare in the holidays although he certainly still did his bit then - eg children to the dentist and that kind of errand, catching up on garden work, DIY etc. Sometimes he did a month's summer camp and he usually did private teaching. He is pretty experienced so tended not to have quite the work load new teachers have as he is kind of set up for what is needed.

Also he mostly worked in private schools so much much longer holidays eg 8 weeks in the summer, than in most state schools.