To think TAs/support staff should get a pay rise as well as teachers?

[Opensea]

Just read that teachers are getting a well earned 5% increase - okay it’s more likely a pay cut in real terms in the current climate.

But what really riles me is that TAs and support staff haven’t been given a mention.
I was a TA and a one to one for almost 10 years and I know what an increasingly difficult job it’s become, much more responsibility too.

Several TAs I work with have been to university.

Many TAs went to university but have degrees in non education subjects.
I have probably made poor career choices (I know I have!). I am a TA with a masters in unrelated subject. Primary school.
Anyway, not relevant to this discussion but don't assume TAs only educated to level 2/3.

I got paid approx £1.98 per hour more for my hlta work than I did for ta.

I guess the pay is what it is because you don’t ’have’ to have any qualifications, even though some people do.

At my DC school, I don’t think any of theTAs have qualifications above GCSE/O levels, certainly none have a degree. They now only have TAs for pupils with an EHC Plan-no general classroom support at all-I can’t see that changing. It’s sort of going back to how it was when I first started-one teacher and 30+ children and that’s it.

@howshouldibehave How do you know the qualifications of the TAs at your child’s school?
I have A levels and lots of school experience. Yes the requirement is just GCSE English and maths at C /4 or above .

I think the pay is low because our role is not valued by the government.

The pay is low because historically (mainly) women were willing to work for that little money in order to get a term-time only job that sort of fitted around school hours.

Those jobs used to be sought-after.

Now they're not. Pay will have to increase to reflect that.

Every TA I know has at least a degree.

it’s terribly paid because people are willing to do it - generally women who have given up good careers for something which fits around children. It’s not seen as valuable work and sadly I doubt that will change.

Because virtually all of them are either ‘mum’ friends of mine, I went to school with them or just know of them through other friends-it’s not a big town! None of the people currently working there as TAs went to university.

At my own school it’s not much different, though most of ours are older (late 50s now) and became TAs when their own kids were little and have just stayed because it’s been such a lovely place to work.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but there is no money from the government for this payrise. It's coming out of schools budgets. So any extra money given to the teaching staff is coming out of schools already tight budgets.

I think there probably will be a lot of redundancies relating to support staff, or perhaps more as existing ones retire or leave they won’t be replaced.

But I have to say, I don’t think a TA should be getting more money because they happen to have a degree: the job doesn’t require one. That’s like trying to argue that supermarket staff should be paid graduate salaries because some of them happen to be graduates.

I see @howshouldibehave though I only recently found out a TA I have worked with for years has a degree
yes it’s been mentally @Lisad1231981 .
We have had redundancy plans for the last two years. Luckily, both times a TA has left of their own accord meaning the rest were safe. .

• yes it’s been mentioned

The fact is that the 5% pay rise for teachers will mean redundancies for many school support staff. The government haven't given the schools extra funding to cover the pay rise so it will need to come out of already stretched school budgets. Cuts will need to be made.

Worth being aware that this is the inflation-linked pay rise, all school staff not at the top of their pay scale also usually go up one point on the scale following a successful annual appraisal. Once at the top of the scale this stops happening, but most roles (support and teaching) effectively receive 2 pay rises per annum.

Not saying they shouldn't! But misleading headlines eg/ teachers only getting 5% increase ignore this second increase which most will receive.

Not strictly true. Annual progression up the teaching pay scale (and some schools manage the performance management process to make this more difficult) only happens for 6 years. Then teachers are at the top of the main pay scale.

If they want to progress to the Upper Pay Scale they generally need to take on more responsibility (and some primary schools restrict the number of teachers on UPS so some teachers never get onto this and are at their max teaching salary after a mere 6 years) and wait two years to progress up each pay point (of which there are 3).

If this happens in an orderly fashion, they’ll be at the top of the teaching pay scale in 12 years. This isn’t a hugely long career.

True, but as someone who does payroll in a large secondary, around 85% of staff do get this annual increase in reality.

That’s a good school then.

I know primary teachers for whom UPS is out of reach and secondary teachers who have been fucked over in performance management pay rises.

Not strictly true. Annual progression up the teaching pay scale (and some schools manage the performance management process to make this more difficult) only happens for 6 years.

Exactly this.

I think virtually all of our teachers are on M6 now so are ‘stuck’ at the top. There is no scope to go through to UPS because of the (lack of) budget, so I would say MOST teachers in many schools (certainly in mine) will not get any sort of automatic pay rise.

The only ones not on MPS6 is the head and full time teaching deputy (SLT so leadership scale) and the SENco (UPS).

It’s an absolute joke. I work 32.5 hours a week for £1070 a month. My husband works full time £21k a year. We are getting a substantial amount of help from UC each month. We should get decent wages and then wouldn’t need help 😢

They might be as busy during the school day (I've worked with many TAs and they've been terrific and definitely deserve more than they're paid), but they're not paid less simply because they don't have degrees. Their paid less because they're not responsible for all the planning and resource making, the assessment, the responsibility, the safeguarding and all the stuff that had me in the classroom at 7:30 am and working through all my breaks as well as some of the evening.

That's not a teacher whinge. I was comfortable with my workload on the whole. But the TA simply doesn't have all that to do, so they can't approach a teacher's salary or no-one would choose to teach!

Ugh. They're, not their

I agree with a previous poster that TAs are generally one to ones and teachers are left on their own. In school I am in that is soul destroying for all as so much disadvantage and need.
I am considering my future. My 17 year old pointed out he could earn more than me at Subway ( not checked but sobering thought). I am in my 50s but maybe need to reassess my work and worth.