To think the general public don't understand the job role of a Teaching Assistant?

[notyourmummy]

This might turn into an "I'm a TA, ask me anything" and that's fine.
Having been speaking to both my family and parents at my children's school, I've realised that there's still a common misconception that TAs only make displays, mix paint and wipe snotty noses... what do you think a TA does at your child's school, how much do you think they're paid and what hours do they work?!!

Problem is, it's not a defined role so they can be anything and everything.

At DD's primary school they were a bunch of mums who'd started out as volunteers then done a few courses here and there. They were woefully incapable of running the phonics groups they were allocated or do Yr6 maths intervention (I'm a former primary school teacher).

It was never meant to be a career or a profession but is a support role so pay is going to be low because school budgets should be spent on qualified teachers.

SEN children need support but it's still the role of the teacher to teach.

Increasingly, in many primaries, TAs are used as cover supervisors without being payed the same wages. Without TAs, many primary schools would cease to function.

At secondary, most TAs support children with SEN or SEMH needs, either in the classroom or supervising them in small groups in a base. Some take on really high levels of medical responsibility (this is true at primary too) for very low pay - I wouldn't be willing to have the responsibility they have for their pay. Some deal with serious violence on a regular basis. Most don't get a proper break in their day.

For what they do, I think TAs are so underpaid. And the hours/workload are often not really that family friendly either!

Who has said that being a TA is a nice easy job mixing paint? Who thinks that?

There are different levels of teaching assistants so presumably some will have more responsibility than others.

But it's highly obvious that they will have to do anything required for the running of the school and that could be from mixing the paint to marking to work to running after school clubs to taking the class if the teacher is unavailable.

I'm not sure who thinks otherwise?

Stop working over your paid hours to start with. Most TAs I know only start when they're paid and go home at the time they're paid till. You are being a martyr. If your school doesn't like it there are others but if you're a good TA they'll not want you to leave, they know your worth.

It's not all that easy to fill the posts now either. We had an exodus of TAs over a one year period, where long standing staff had just had enough of all the shit for such crappy pay. At one point there were three applications to fill two posts.
I was one of the ones who left and it was the best decision I've made. Overworked and underpaid and having to deal with the most challenging children in the school every day for the rest of my working life - no thanks!

I understand what they do and I think they are ridiculously underpaid

To be honest, I'm lucky in that we're very much viewed as part of the year group teaching team at my school & I do feel appreciated by my teacher colleagues & SLT, but my pay is criminally out of line with what I do

It's a shame that you feel lucky when you're underpaid. It just shows what women will put up with if they feel valued.

In short, probably not.

But personally, having been a governor, the schools I've seen take the absolute pi$$ out of TA's and the teachers don't give them the respect they deserve. Snobbery is rife and the pay is reflected in the notion that they don't hold any formal qualifications.

Just IME so am not saying this applies to all schools obviously. But the pay is diabolical. Even worse than the issue with teacher pay in my mind.

I agree with this.
And I don't know anyone who thinks a TA's job is easy or fairly paid.

I was a secondary TA years ago. The vendors were not taking any work home after I finished for the day and the holidays.

The pay always appalling.
I worked 8.15-4.15, so couldn’t fit in the school run for my own kids.
I supported a caseload of children with EHCPs in class, which involved providing differentiated work for the children . In practice, I also supported other children with SEND, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, and supported teachers with behaviour management.
I ran a small group intervention out of class for children with EAL.
I ran a nurture group out of class for children with social care intervention.
I supervised after school homework club.

It was a tough job. Rewarding, but tough. Low status, crap pay, no promotion opportunities.

I take my hat off to those who do it long term. I lasted a year.

Vendors? I meant benefits!

@Busybody2022 I believe @TeenDivided was seeing it from the point of view of TA's being removed from their 1:1 teaching to do other things. This certainly happened in my children's primary school. One parent removed her child from the school because of it because the consistency of his support was being compromised by the TA being asked to help with reading groups, photocopying, class projects. No reflection on the TA of course, who was in a difficult position.

Oops, just realised @TeenDivided already explained what was meant!

cleaning paint pots If people believe this, they also massively overestimate how much time children spend on nice things like art. In Y3/4, the children at my school do 5 sessions of painting in the whole two years, all in a unit together.

Re TAs being the longest serving members of the school, I remember this but don't find it the case any more. Too many on temp contracts linked to children's funding and too many leaving to do other things. Unless you work at your own children's school, it's not great as you have to pay for breakfast club and after school club for you own kids which is a big cost when you only then do a 6 hour day on NMW.

This is just an observation I’m in ROI and admittedly this is mainly coming from MN but is there appears to be this weird undervaluation of teaching and by extension TAs that exists in the UK that just doesn’t exist here.

Most parents I know have always thought teachers and teaching assistants are an incredibly valuable profession and homeschooling during covid only serve to reinforce that view. There are also much much better terms and conditions here with holidays to less of the admin stuff spoken about on here. People don’t mind that either because they are acknowledged as being such tough jobs so the focus should be on the kids in front of you in the room not endless needless admin.

Having your own kids is hard enough, being in a classroom with 30 random kids from every background going and supporting them in their learning that is awesome. My son has SN and without the TAs in his school and the work that they do he couldn’t operate in the school environment they are nothing short of amazing as are the teachers.

Many, many people think otherwise! I cannot count the number of times I've seen comments online saying "they just listen to the kids read and do photocopying", or had conversations with people who are genuinely shocked that my job involves more than that.

I agree with you, OP.

I'm a teacher and haven't had a TA for 4 years. It's a killer. It's such an undervalued and misunderstood role.

No one really knows what other people’s jobs involve. I used to have a job that was well respected and fairly high status. People treated with great respect and thought I was really clever. I then moved to my current job that has lower status in most people’s eyes. It is actually much more interesting, harder to do and paid better but people treat me completely differently and often patronise me. I find it quite funny.

A good TA is worth their weight in gold. A bad one can make a teacher’s job even harder.

I’d like to thank everyone who does this key job for the school.
are Teaching Assistants and Classroom Assistants the same role? Different schools seem to call them different things but I don’t know what that signifies if anything?

TAs are used as cover supervisors without being payed the same wages.
Cover Supervisors contracted to the school aren't paid much more - we are also deemed Support Staff rather than Teaching Staff (even though many of us are QTS and do teach the lesson rather than just supervise it).
It always looks higher on the scale until you realise that Cover Supervisors are also pro-rata the same as LSAS.
If I do 5 days my take home pay per month would be approx £1200/month
If I do 4 days my take home would be approx £1000/month
If I do 3 days my take home would be £800/month
For the ball-ache that comes with the job, it pays peanuts.
How much does a HLTA make comparitively? I don't think there's that much in it.
We are all screwed over.

I think there are lots of jobs where people don't really understand what's involved

comparatively
I need coffee!

The TAs in my children’s school are amazing. My son is being assessed for ASD so we have quite a lot of contact with them. One runs his phonics group, another sits with them at lunch and does playtime duty, one did his speech and language therapy interventions with him. They do lots of important little things during the day to help him cope and he has such a good relationship with them, I’m so grateful. The TA in DD’s class does computing with them when she covers the class teachers PPA and DD loves those sessions.

DS had a big meltdown at school this week and it became clear that all the TAs afterwards had popped in during their lunch to see if they could help.

I am so grateful to everything they do!!

I think TAs have a much worse deal than teachers, but mostly get on with it without complaining. They are the backbone of every school I’ve known of.