To think most people have no idea how little HLTAs/Teaching Assistants earn?

[LorlieS]

Anybody want to hazard a guess at the average monthly income of a ft HLTA/TA?

It really is quite shocking!

@bamboo12 I'd be extremely surprised to come across any HLTA earning £26 pro-rata?!

(I meant 26k) 😀

Only HLTA (Grade 5 plus) are allowed to cover classes.

I'm support staff and the pay is appalling for us too. The level of work I do on a daily basis is that around 3 grades higher to what I'm actually paid. It's a joke! If the unions could actually rally for us to be paid full time wages rather than pro rata to 40 weeks, that would make a massive difference. The holidays are forced on us, it's not like we can take them when we want to, we have to use our allowance up in the compulsory school holidays that many of us would rather work through! Trust me, there's always work to be done whether students are in school or not! Maybe if we were all paid a fair wage, school standards would improve because the job would become more attractive to more experienced staff rather than schools just getting in someone cheap with no qualifications just to be another body on duty!

Tell that to primary HTs up and down the country who exploit their TA2s and TA3s on a daily basis!

@FindingNeverland28 Teachers get paid per annum so of course it includes holidays. They don't stop paying teachers in August or December!

Teachers are paid for 52 weeks of the year. They work in school for 39 of them including insets. They get BH like normal people (say five days so another week) and then get 25 days paid holiday so another five weeks. Total weeks so far is 45... The remaining seven weeks is usually Time off in Lieu for parents evenings, and preparation and marking time as most teachers don't work 35 hours a week. So although teachers don't seem to get allocated paid holiday it's actually assumed they have taken annual leave "any time when the school is closed to students".

If you look at a teacher's payslip you will see that they get paid for the full 52 weeks at a monthly rate for all twelve months and not pro rata. TAs only get paid for 38/9 weeks depending on whether they work inset days. Sadly the pro rata is usually worked out but paid over twelve months too. So 20 000 divided by 52, multiplied by 38 then divided by 12 would give you a TAs monthly salary. 20000 divided by 12 would give you the equivalent teacher's salary...

Agree with this. We are struggling to recruit for all support staff roles, because people these days see the ability to WFH as a key thing, and many don't want to commit to going into work every day. (And tbh I would have thought some of the jobs, such as finance and HR could, although of course that would never apply to TAs). But a crisis is looming, I think.....

I took a part time job in a school for the term time hours when my DCs were small - but dropped from a middle management package (private sector) of around £50K inc healthcare and status car, to earning virtually minimum wage p.h. Some of the work was basic admin but some was quite key legal stuff and I passed an NVQ3 while there. The pay is appalling! But they are public sector and have no money, and I suppose have historically relied on women with young children doing the work because it frees them for the school holidays.

I do think the TAs and HLTAs should be much better paid - but the same applies to many healthcare workers, and no doubt other roles that I don't know about. The whole system is wrong - but I don't have a solution.......

I've been doing it since I was a level 2 TA. Not in just one school either.

I thought a teacher on here said they are only paid for c.45 weeks divided into 12 monthly payments.

DC 6 is currently on a phonics booster at their school. This is lead by a TA who is frankly doing an amazing job and the progress that has been made since November has been phenomenal. It saddens me greatly to think that her work is so under valued... and I'm sure it more than saddens her!

I wonder why as a society we are so comfortable with such roles being so under paid. Pretty sure it's because these roles are typically held by women... and more so Mothers.

You should definitely raise it with your union!

Holiday pay is included each month on my payslip! We are all ‘part time… doing 28 hours a week, but some of us also do breakfast club . I’ve just started after school club too so I’m at school from 07:45 till 17:15 every day. We get no morning break any more, having to go outside on playground duty every day… some have elected to give half of their lunch break up to get paid another half an hour every day too as we no longer have dinner ladies on duty (since Covid).
I love being a TA, but the pay is rubbish for what’s expected of us and the crap we have to take.
If we were properly full time our pay would be £23,000+ p.a., in reality , take home is about £1000 per month without the extra hours.
We are lucky at our Primary that there is a TA in every class, so 14 plus some nursery nurses, plus 3 or 4 specialist TAs.

Our contract is “term- time plus 5 (days)” so we only get paid for 40 (? Is it) weeks but divided over 12 monthly payments.

Teachers get paid for 1265 hours per year, which roughly equates to 32.5 hours per week for 39 weeks. If you have a contract with a school (not supply) then you get a wage every month. If a supply teacher were to work every school day then their wage over the course of the year, would equate to that of a contracted teachers salary (provided they were paid according to their pay scale through the LEA). I have worked as a TA, supply teacher and permanent teacher with a contract. Irrespective, the wage that support staff is paid is absolutely diabolical. The majority of teachers do understand and appreciate this. This is exactly why, I will never ask my TA to stay 1 minute later than she is paid for, or do anything that I can’t do myself. I’ve been there, done it and got the crappy t shirt. It’s not a ‘them and us’ situation when it comes to teachers and TAs. A good teacher and a good TA understands and appreciates the work the other does for the piss poor pay and the lack of appreciation.

Not quite 26k but nearly. I’ve seen lots of jobs with this salary in our area.

The conditions we are working under are a joke. I have to cover a class of 30 all day today, but no suitable laptop available. Budget restraints, apparently. Still, at least I get paid £11.67 p/h!

I worked as support at a local college, I assisted students with disabilities. I was with them almost all day, barely any breaks and did everything from helping them understand the course to feeding and wiping bums.

I did this for 15 years, the salary started out good but by the end was pennies above minimum wage and the reason I left.

Apologies, not read the whole thread (but have read all OP's). Yes, that really is shocking. Barely above minimum wage, and for the amount of responsibility, training and hard work - both emotionally and physically - that's terrible.

May be at your school, I covered 2 full days last week and I’m just a bog standard TA.

That is for 36 hours a week over 52 weeks. It is not possible to work those hours. A lot of these jobs falsely advertise IMO. My daughter took home less than minimum wage after holiday pay was withheld.

At my school the teachers get paid for medical appointments etc, but TAs (and all 'support staff') get docked. We do get paid if off sick, though.

@BarelyCoping123 And we wonder why people don't want to be TAs? It's unbelievable.
Staff sickness again at work so again tomorrow I will be covering a class of 30, delivering a full timetable of English, Maths and Science. Plus break duty.
No TA, so I'm the only adult in the classroom.
3 EHCP children with significant need, 5 more with SEMH difficulties.
All for £11.67 an hour.
I'm looking forward to July!

@Tulipvase but just because you did doesn't mean you should. Are you in a union? Might be worth speaking to them for advice?