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?

Yes we are! That said, I do absolutely love it. On balance, I don't think I do too badly as I work just the mornings, term time only, and take home around £700pcm, I'm also a full time student though so I'm absolutely shattered. But, I can't wait to train as a teacher so I can do it my own way. I find it quite difficult to be in a 'difficult' class with a teacher letting them get away with low level disruption and it makes my job harder when they leave me in charge as the kids clearly have no respect for any of the adults, not least a mere TA!

School staff, nursery staff/childminders and caring staff in care homes and the like are all, generally, underpaid for what they do.

Working with children and old people just isn’t valued by society as a whole in terms of pay rates.

@billyt I could say that I’ve worked with TAs who have refused to do anything more than the bare minimum, but it adds nothing to the thread as it’s anecdotal. I’ve never had my TA cover my class, nor have I ever had the opportunity to “go and do something less strenuous” unless it’s either my PPA or NQT time, both of which are mandatory.

It’s different in every school. TAs are underpaid and so are teachers, along with anyone in a school who isn’t SLT.

Yes. Same with nursery workers and care assistants.
But, to be fair, teachers and nurses are underpaid too. The support staff are more underpaid. Everybody should get a rise, IMO.

I don't think that TAs are qualified enough or paid enough to work with SEN DC as 1:1. Why should the most needy get the least qualified? Especially So called HFA DC with social skill issues that impact on learning but have very good mathematical skills. DS2 was pretty scathing about TAs baby-sitting him who expected him to have learning difficulties and therefore thought he must be 'fine'. How can a TA in a maths lesson help a child with more understanding/qualifications than they have?

Hand on heart, I love my job as I work with some absolutely wonderful SEN students however I’d earn more money cleaning the school.

@Findmeatthebeach

Speech therapy interventions daily, meetings with therapist with the child, interventions for a child who is a selective mute, lead and prepare for a letters and sounds group every morning, planning and making resources for an area of the classroom, medicine and first aid administering. The list is pretty endless. I absolutely love it but the pay is very poor.

Well I mean that's your job? You make your pupil sound like an inconvenience because he has a medical condition

Pro rata, the take home salary for a 30hpw contract is less than 13k.

The TA role has changed beyond what it was ever intended to when it was initiated. Which was essentially an extra pair of hands.

The official qualifications are also not in line with what many TA beyond early years (by that I mean Y1 max) are expected to perform.

I agree that entry level teaching is also low paid, but a good teacher will quickly go through the scales, and the entry level salary is expected to be 30k soon.

I am a voluntary TA. I am disabled so struggle to hold time a full time job. But I've got a degree in a cute subject and a masters in something else that's related. I also have TA qualifications. I run literacy intervention groups for the SEN kids and have developed a creative writing programme. The head teacher told me what he washed from me and then had faith in me to create a suitable set of seasons for each kid. It works a treat. Since I've started 3 years ago I have worked closely with the library and have massively increased reading levels across all years and signed them all up to the audio book scheme run by our library so even the very poor readers and young readers can engage in literature. It's amazing to see what a difference an engaged and active member of staff can make, especially when they aren't up against a deadline like an overworked paid member of staff. I love what I do and am hoping to do my ITT next year if my health improves. I just love being in the class room and thinking of ways to get them all to engage.

I was a TA until Christmas 2019. I left due to bullying from my line manager sadly, she also did the same to a few colleagues.
I was on £15850 per year which I believe has now gone up to £17500 due to a national increase.
I was 37.5 hours a week, and I supported whole classes as well as planning and delivering various interventions, ran a lunchtime and after school club, liaised with externals such as occupational therapists, parents etc. Keep medical records up to date and create learning plans for each student.

I agree, it's far too little pay for what it involves. I'm now a care assistant, still on minimum wage. Jobs that involve supporting and caring children and adults are paid a pittance, it's such a shame.

I have a degree, was a teacher for many years and I’m responsible for implementing important interventions, sometimes get left with the class etc. My 17 year old earns more in Costa than I do. But, I love my job and that is worth a fair bit. On the one hand I chose it but on the other hand I do think it’s ridiculous such an important job is practically minimum wage.

I don’t think so -

I’d have no problem with them getting a bit more, but I am far more interested in teachers getting more, and getting more teachers in to fill the gaps.

I value TAs, but I think it’s a nice job, with gentle hours and no worry outside work. I know they sometimes/often cover classes but the solution to that is more teachers -TAs aren’t qualified to teach and they shouldn’t be - it’s bad for kids.

Yanbu, the pay is insulting for what has become an important job. My school used a TA for solo teaching work for over a month when the teacher was poorly.

I’m quite depressed about how little our society values children or the raising of children. Other countries aren’t like this. Like in South Korea being a teacher is a very prestigious job done by the top 5% of graduates.

Problem is in UK the policy makers rarely have children at state schools so they don’t have a stake in the system they run. It’s a problem.

It's the same for any "non-teaching" role. I'm a pastoral lead, I manage teachers, I'm expected to cover lessons, I train teachers in certain aspects of their role, I attend parents evenings and celebration evenings. My salary is pro-rata'd to term time only, I'm not paid anywhere near a teachers salary, and I don't get their benefits.

The way support staff are treated in this country is atrocious.

To be blunt. If teaching is so easy and overpaid then train to do it and get stuck in. It seems like every TA and pastoral support poster could do the job so much better than the teachers that they work with - so go for it!

This post seems to have lost it's way somewhat. Yes, I agree, good TAs are underpaid and often exploited. However TAs and pastoral support who thin poorly of all teachers need to walk a mile in their shoes. It's not a race to the bottom.

I'm sure we would get a similar thread from GPs and other staff who work with them.

I'm an ex teacher and married to a teacher so this isn't a teacher bashing post but this is why I get a bit irritated when teachers on here say they don't get paid for the holidays- tas literally don't as their pay is pro rata - so a job advertised as say £18000 will actually be about £15000 a year as they only get paid for the hours they are in school averages out through the year ....this isn't the case with a teachers advertised salary !! A lot of tas I know work second jobs to get more income. Also it's only child friendly hours if your children are at the school you work in - otherwise you'd need wrap around care for the time before and after school which quickly adds up if you're only being paid for six hours a day

An LSA vacancy came up at my sons school recently, we live in a fairly expensive area of London.

The actual salary worked out at £1,024 a month.

“TAs aren’t qualified to teach and they shouldn’t be - it’s bad for kids.“

Well isn’t that the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. TAS are teaching some of the most hard to teach kids most of the time. The ignorance re what the job entails is quite telling. It’s important that staff delivering interventions and all the many other jobs TAs do are well qualified and well trained.

I think a lot of people think we just wash paint pots all day. I wash paint pots about once a year. That is it. The rest of the time I don’t stop and draw hugely on my teaching skills, qualification and experience daily.

Massively under paid and under appreciated.

DS is diabetic and through reception, yr1 and 2 the ta was managing it all as he couldn’t do any on his own.

A typical day is
Finger poke and inject for snack time
Finger poke before PE
Finger poke before lunch and inject
Finger poke before home time.
Extra snacks before clubs and any strenuous activities.

And that’s with perfect blood glucose levels. Chuck in a few highs, that’s more injections, lows need treating and rechecking until fixed.

His grandparents don’t want to learn any of it as it’s too much responsibility when it goes wrong.

Every year our TA gets a bigger Xmas and end of year gift than the class teacher.

I used to work a 39 hour week in a SEN secondary ( very challenging students)
Earned 18k as level 4 qualified.
I now work as a PA for young adults with SEN.
Work 25 hours and earn 19k.
No brainier

As a previous poster said - its supply and demand.

My friend was a highly qualified NHS director, she took early retirement and became a TA at her youngest son's school.

Massively qualified, hugely practical, resourceful, reliable, been there 4 years now,

Almost every TA there is a person from a prior career, happy to earn a low salary and do school hours.

Economically - why would you pay more unnecessarily if you had a very tight budget?

Brainer 😬

I’m a TA and I love that I don’t have to work outside of school hours. I can go in and do my job and come home. I also get all of the holidays free. But it can be tough. I help with the behaviour management of the whole class, I’m on the playground for break and lunch times and deal with any injuries. I help with lunch itself and serving puddings and drinks and clearing away. I do speech and language interventions and other SEN interventions and keep all the records updated. I also hear from the kids about all the things that happen in their little lives and I think that’s the toughest part sometimes. I don’t think I’m underpaid as such but if I didn’t have a dh I wouldn’t be able to survive on my wage I don’t think. I do feel that TAs often know the children a lot better than the teachers do.

The argument is that they could earn more at Tesco- but they would be doing nights weekends bank holiday etc- it's a pretty good wage for a job with lots of time off and easy hours!

Most TAs I know hold qualifications far beyond the basic requirements. Half of us have degrees and one is a qualified teacher. Some are hoping were thinking of but have changed their minds to go in to teaching in the future. None of the TAs at the school I work in do it because of the hours. (Although initially I was looking for term time work when I applied as I had a DC who wouldn't have coped with holiday care).

I could earn more elsewhere, but I do love the job, even though it's the most stressful and exhausting job I've ever had. The only reason I can afford to do the job at all is because DH earns considerably more than me. One TA who was a single parent received quite a lot in benefits. It not a job which always pays enough to be able to support yourself.

I'm very lucky that I'm paid from 8:30am - 4pm, with an unpaid lunch hour that I always work at least half of. I know most schools don't pay for such a long day. On an average day I will work an hour for free, but that's because I want everything to be lovely and organised, so I spend a lot of time sorting out things the class teacher should do but doesn't (not all teachers are like that!!!) and creating resources.

I don't think most parents really understand the role of. TA. They see us on the door in the morning, and letting out at the end of the day, and won't see the behaviour management, the many interventions, the first aid, the vomit,making sure children take medication at the right time, put their eye patch on, keep their eye patch on, the planning for when teachers will be out of the classroom, the cleaning up of pooped pants, coaxing a child out of a toilet cubicle, coaxing a child off the roof, the teaching of phonics, speaking with S&L therapists on how best to deliver interventions....we are accountable for children in our intervention groups making progress, but ultimately if they don't it's on the class teachers head. I'm certainly not expected to sharpen pencils these days. As a reception TA I'm also constantly facilitating children's play and making observations on the children.

I have no idea if TAs are underpaid. I think I do a damn fine job, I know I could earn more elsewhere, I know my teenage DS earns more than me at his part time job in McDonalds.

Maybe I should go and work in McDonalds...nah, I'd be bored pretty quickly!