TA salary

[ionising]

I live in a North Eastern market town. A few years ago I was a TA only level 3 so not a HLTA. I earnt 23k PA. level 2 salary was around 21k and Level 1 around 18k.

My friend down south says she earnt 12k as a TA. Really?

I thought it was meant to be grim up North.

[Everyoneiswingingit]

It is shocking because the pay is based on what TAs used to be. A classroom assistant would wash paintbrushes, wipe noses etc but now we teach.

[ButchyRestingFace]

Yes the money is atrocious but I do like e 13 weeks off a year.

Is that 13 paid weeks per year?

[ionising]

Really shocked how high it is up north!! Wonder why it's so high(what it should be for what we do!)

Totally agree. It should be around 20. As I say the only thing that irked me was the HLTA earning more than an M1 teacher but that was only for two years as the teaching scale moved faster.

[Everyoneiswingingit]

Our HLTAs get about £10 per hour so not much more.

[Everyoneiswingingit]

No Butchy you get paid every month but it's 38/39 weeks pay over 12 months.

[MeanTangerine]

Which market town is it? I've worked as a Ta in the north and the pay was nowhere near 23k.

[TruelyTruelyScrumptious]

Lots of factors:
Living wage LAs
Schools vary- highest I know is £31,000- not pro -rata
Learning mentor- often £24k

The term TA covers a range of roles.

[Pleasehelpme433]

Isn't the reason it's low paid is because it's spread over 12 months though? So in other words you will get paid the same in the month of August when you work zero hours? In which case it doesn't seem quite as bad - although I agree TA's deserve to get paid far more especially those who work with SEN

[Sockwomble]

I'm in the north. Just looked at at a job advert for a TA. It is offering 17.5 hours at £9.50 and then 5 hours at £12.30 for the higher level part and is all one job so only a higher level assistant could do it.

[ButchyRestingFace]

No Butchy you get paid every month but it's 38/39 weeks pay over 12 months

Me no like that.

[HolyMountain]

I think we get 4 weeks of the 13 off as paid holiday, off the top of my head.

[Everyoneiswingingit]

Partly Please but the hourly rate is much the same as Aldi staff here. I do the job because I love it and because it has been great to fit around my children.
Teachers also have long hols but their pay isn't docked in that way.

[MagicFajita]

A TA's salary is £17.5k pa before tax around here (London). That's before tax and deductions and with many years experience (after pro rata). That's the highest I've seen anywhere.

[User9870]

I get about £8 per hour level 1 ta.
Yet get paid more for hours I do as a dinner lady!!!

It's low but I can work around DC school days and holidays so don't have to pay for childcare which is a plus.

[happinessiseggshaped]

When I was a TA in 2004-5 I started off on £8k pro rata, then with a big thing in the LA about sex discrimination we got put up to £12k pro rata. That was for a basic Level 1 TA (although I did a lot more than that). Going rate now is about £14k pro rata. Looked at a job recently I really wanted, but after petrol and wrap around childcare for 2 its not worth me working even in an SEN type setting where the pay is slightly higher.

[Bowerbird5]

Starts at £18,319 pa here also in the north. I’m a HLTA and earn slightly more than a NQT but I have been in the job for 25 years and since 2008 as a HLTA. I’m also a Learning Mentor and Nurture Practitioner. I have a lot of other qualifications too. Most TAs have more than one certificate.
It is pro hrs

[theworldistoosmall]

Just realised they've stopped advertising them with the pro-rate. So yes some Ta's are now on over 20K a year. The last school I worked in the hlta was on 28k a year, which used to really piss off the teachers and the level 3's. Level 3 ta's are on 23k and do more hours than the hlta. This is a SEN school, in none sen schools they are paid around 18k and 22k for the hlta.

Some La's pay better because the ta's and unions had basically fought for this years ago. JD's can be sent to an external adjudicator I think it was, who basically looks at everything and makes a decision based on what the TA's are doing. The school I was working in went through this because at one point we had a high number of graduate ta's who basically felt robbed and started demanding extra pay (they truly were assholes who nearly got a lot of the JD changed for the worse). Union rep sent the jd off somewhere as obviously the school and the LA were saying tough shit, leave then. When the JD came back, the ta's could have had a wage increase from the above figures, but the JD would have changed dramatically for the worse. The school were then saying awesome let's go for it and the ta's were saying not a chance, and so were a few of the teachers.

[Holidayshopping]

I have never heard of a TA salary being so high-even more surprising as you’re talking about being surprised at salaries being so low down south, when this is never usually the case.

What sort of school was it and how long ago? We have got rid of most of our (minimum wage) TAs as the budget simply can’t stretch to it-I’m amazed that other schools can afford to pay TAs nearly the same as an NQT!

[Bowerbird5]

Oh what happened there.
Pro-rata. No one has 37 hrs at our school. The most is 32 hrs in Reception.

[youarenotkiddingme]

I'm TA level 3 which is also payscale for HLTA.

Its paid pro rata circa19-22k and is for 30 hours a week for 40 weeks of the year so 46.3 when you add holidays.

Actual pay is C 16.5k a year. £11.80/ hr.

But job description is to plan and assess and take classes and I do this 1.5 days a week. The rest of the time I am class lead TA and also responsible for the training of all staff (including SLT) under my responsibility.

Training is currently delivering 15 hours per year.

[Holidayshopping]

@youarenotkiddingme I have never been trained in anything by a TA-what sort of things do you cover?

[SouthWestmom]

Off topic but it's really interesting to see take home rather than just gross:

I'm 30 hours £29,000 full time equivalent and take home £ 1,680 after tax and NI.

I might start a thread on this.

[Bowerbird5]

Large primary we have about 14. TAs, STAs and HLTAs.

[fishfingersandketchup]

My pay is around £900 a month, I work 25.5 hours a week. I'm in the South East. It is really low pay given the responsibility we have and the pressures on us. Luckily I work in a supportive school, previous school was awful.

[Everyoneiswingingit]

TAs training SLT? Very unusual.