To think Teaching Assistants are vastly underpaid for their role?

[altoran]

When the role of Teaching Assistant was created, the idea was that they would help with basic tasks like photocopying, wall displays, etc. It was a very basic role with no real responsibility.
Now Teaching Assistants have a lot of responsibility and are very involved in children's education, although under the supervision of a teacher. But they receive very little over minimim wage for this.
AIBU to think they are vastly underpaid?

After tax I earn £11.31/h as a highly qualified ICU nurse, with years of experience. Not many of us around so in this case it's not 'supply and demand'....

Also when I started in schools TAs' hours were often 9-2:30/3 so possible to work around the school run
Now starting at 8 / 8:10 and finishing at 4ish you may have to factor in childcare on a meagre wage

Many vital jobs are underpaid whilst others seem ridiculously overpaid. The pandemic showed us that. In the second lockdown it was only TAs keeping our school open for key worker children as teachers all taught from home. So yes, I would pay TAs much more, ditto ICU nurses, binmen and care workers. There'd be a few pay cuts for some jobs though to pay for it, starting with university chancellors and CEOs who earn more than 10x what junior staff do..

DS had an amazing 1-1 LSA in primary who was worth far more than she was paid.
His mainstream secondary 1-1s were babysitters who didn’t understand DSs needs.
The LSAs in his specialist school are all really well trained and also worth more than they are paid.

@altoran

The average secondary school teacher earns £39,000 a year.

This is a misleading figure as most secondary school teachers earn a lot less. The median average is nearer to the median average for all employment, about £28000 (or was a couple of years ago when I last looked). The mean average, which you use, has also been quoted by previous education ministers to dismiss teachers’ concerns about workload and pay, by focusing (disingenuously) on pay.

Though I agree that a good LSA is worth their weight in gold and vastly underpaid for what they do.

I know we have a different system here in Ireland as we don't have TA's as such. They are SNA's (special needs assistants!) they are paid on a salary scale starting at 25k and it goes up to 41k! And they are paid during the summer! U.K. wages are shocking!!!

Although I will add SNA's are NOT allowed to take over role of a teacher...not even for a day! And they do not count in the adult to student ratio as they are designated to a particular child due to their needs.

"The LSAs in his specialist school are all really well trained and also worth more than they are paid."

I agree. Some LSA roles are very specialist. As are some care worker roles. When you have a child with specialist needs and you know the amount of expertise is required to care for and teach your child, you understand how specialist those roles are.

The young people at ds's school all have challenging behaviour of one form or another and there is a constant risk of being punched, bitten and grabbed and the staff have to manage that behaviour in certain ways. It also a risky role as is some care work which is also not recognised.

At the school I used to teach at they introduced performance management appraisals for TAs the same as teachers. It was instrumental to me leaving. They barely got paid 16k.

They are hideously underpaid.

@FlowerArranger

Some years ago my son worked as a TA at a 'sink school'. £18k. The responsibilities that were heaped on him were extraordinary. Not only was he used as an informal supply teacher (often in subjects he knew little about, such as chemistry!), but he was 'in charge' of very damaged pupils with horrendous special needs. Think refugees from war zones and girls who were being abused, sexually and otherwise.

He had virtually no support. Because he played the guitar they even asked him to start an after school music club - for no extra pay. It was horrendous and he burned out within 18 months.

And if he hadn't lived with me I don't know how he could have lived on what he earned.

Not 18k now unless by exception

It is basically minimum wage- 26 hours a week paid for 44 weeks a year-

Yanbu, yanbu, yanbu

Amazing talented (mostly) women doing amazing work

PaplnApram, well I must have dreamt that I was in everyday online teaching and teaching key worker children through two lockdowns!

In our large high school in lockdown 2 all teachers taught a full timetable online, whilst SLT and TAs on a rota came in. I'm not a TA or teacher BTW.

We struggle get TAs as we dont have any room in the budget for general classroom assistance they are all contracts to cover childrens ehcp/statements which can be anything from 8 hours to 30 hours but usually around 12 hours given by power that be. People dont want to work 8 or 12 hours. Most can only afford to work the minimum of a 9-3 day

@PupInAPram

In our large high school in lockdown 2 all teachers taught a full timetable online, whilst SLT and TAs on a rota came in. I'm not a TA or teacher BTW.

In the lockdown our TAs cam in on a rota system but then had to wfh online the rest of the time

I think they are underpaid. I want to work with children but I don't think being a TA is a good idea because of the joke salary😭😭😭

I don’t think it’s as bad as people make out tbh.
Ive been doing the job for about 6 months. I work 34 hours term time only. My take home pay is about £1350 per month after all deductions. I was working part time before in an admin role for a National company and my basic salary for 24 hours per week was about £1000 per month albeit that was before the minimum wage increased. I left there 2 years ago.

It’s far less stressful than any other job I’ve had, I have very little responsibility as that all falls on the teacher. I do take groups and help supervise them, it has its moments but it’s mostly stress free, not to mention the fact the the LA pay 4 times as much into my pension than the company I worked for before and I get 13 weeks off a year to spend with my children.

I plan on continuing in this role until my kids finish primary and then see what comes after. I love what I do, the hours are perfect around the children and their busy lives.

I'm guessing you own a house/share financial responsibilities with a partner or something like that because more than half of that salary goes on my rent and bills, I'd have to just exist and not spend any money on anything beyond that to save for a deposit and even then, no bank would give me, a single person a mortgage on this salary. I really like the job but am literally priced out of doing it long term if I want to own my own home. Even then, I don't want to work 2 weeks of the month just to pay the rent. So yes it is bad.