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!

I earn 19713 as a full time SEN TA, 34 hours per week, term time. This is £13 per hour and monthly take home pay of £1400

I think many also don’t know what TAs do, the levels of responsibility they’re given or how challenging the situations they’re often put in are.

Many are highly qualified( ex teachers or degree level)and schools are hugely reliant on them. TA absence in our school is felt massively.

I was a TA, then HLTA now a teacher.
When I was a full-time TA (which was classed as 28.75 hours) I picked up £805 would have been more but I have always paid into my pension.

As a HLTA (for some hours the rest at TA level) I picked up £943. Still only at school for 28.75 hours.

As a second year teacher I pick up £2010 for a contracted 32.5 hours but an actual average 40 hours at school and maybe an additional average 12 - 15 at home.

As a teacher I appreciate how little the TAs are paid. This makes me appreciate how much I earn and I would never complain and have never voted to strike over it. However, I also realise that the TA job is so much easier than teaching and if the wages for doing it went up to picking up over £1500 a month I would step down from teaching.

Tax credits have been replaced by Universal Credit and no, most won’t qualify for that unless the whole household is low income and renting.

Yanbu I think that's why there's a shortage of them

There isn't a shortage of available labour. It's just that roles have been slashed because there is no money.

I do think the pay is absolutely dire.

Yes it should be pro rata - but it should be more like £28k, but then that’s too close to a teacher starting salary! And therein lies the problem.

TAs at my school work 8-4 as they run before and after school interventions
They also have full 5 period days and break duties
They are of course working with the most vulnerable / students with highest needs
They, this year, now also have to write IEPs and attend parents SEN meetings

There is a shortage. Our school is struggling to retain and recruit. It’s a myth that anybody can do it and high quality TAs are hugely important.

They don't need qualifications?
Those days are gone - when it was a 9-2 job and a TA was just a 'helper'
My school want TAs with degrees especially in Maths/Science and at basic level they'll need GCSEs
So now we get TAs who do it for a year and then move on - usually into teaching so students get no consistency

There definitely is a shortage of TA's, especially good TA's. It's a bad mix of increased responsibilities (interventions,teaching etc)and low wages that just isn't worth it anymore for many people.

Many are highly qualified( ex teachers or degree level)

But you don't need QTS or a degree to be a TA. Dd's primary used to recruit from the mums at the school gate. Some of them were dire.

If they're doing extra hours unpaid or teaching classes then they're mugs.

@1y7 There's always one!
I have a degree - BSc (Hons) and also a number of postgraduate qualifications by the way. Quite a number of my colleagues also have degrees.

An HLTA on a 36 hour contract, (so unpaid lunch break) in my London school earns about 25k before tax/NI. They would be expected to plan and deliver whole class lessons for about 50% of their time, and the rest of the time they deliver lessons planned by other people, either in small groups or groups of 15+ children. They get PPA in the same way as teachers do. If they can fit all the planning in, they can leave by 4. Some of them trained as teachers, some are doing HLTA specific training. There are very few perks, but SLT do their best to be reasonable about workload.

What do you mean "there's always one?"
Aren't I correct in saying you don't need a BSc to be a TA?

Why aren't you using your qualification to get a role that will help you pay the rent and support your kids?

Then do a PGCE, honestly it's the best thing I did.
I did a teaching apprenticeship which meant I kept my HLTA role and wages while I was training, my HLTA hours became my teaching practice.
I had to spend half a term at another local school.
It didn't cost me or school a penny, it is paid through the apprenticeship levy.
It was weekly virtual lectures/tutorials a two day residential three times in the year, a visiting tutor came in to observe me teach 6 times (weekly observations from an in school mentor) I had to write three essays and have an online viva.

@1y7 Oh yes it's that simple, and I should have married a rich man so we could buy a house! Maybe then I could have even stopped working altogether!!

Have you ever struggled financially? Ah no wait - bet I know the answer to that one 😀

@Badfeet I have a PCGE and taught for a number of years. Hell.

So you have the potential to earn more money but you don't. That's a choice you make.

Some people don't have the opportunity, through no fault of their own, to get qualifications and are truly stuck in these lower paying roles, those people I feel for.

TAs are on crap wages, you have a teaching qualification which we all know is a very similar job now but takes a bit more effort and longer hours. You have chosen the easier path and thats ok but the result of that is a lower wage. You can't really complain about something you chose with your eyes open.

@Badfeet How long have you been teaching?

The low wages are what you put up with as a TA to have all school holidays off and largely child friendly work hours so short work days. I was a TA myself when children were young as it helped a lot but I don't think its a job for the long term unless you have other income. The wages per hour are no worse than other entry level job roles and although TAs ideally should be well educated, this is not always the case.

I know a forner t.a who left to work in a pet food factory as more money.Shocking.

I'm a TA and get £1300 per month. I'm a single parent so also get uc top up. When my son leaves school in two years I will lose that top up and will have no choice but to leave and find a better paying job. Which is a shame because I enjoy the work and find it very rewarding helping the children.

Here's some examples
2009 I got 600 a month.
Qualified as an hlta
2011 I got 800 a month.
2022 I got 1200 a month with subject leadership and full time lesson cover.

I'm a level three LSA. This is what I did yesterday:

• prepped the classroom for children arriving (iPads collected from IT, plugged in to charge, books for first lesson out, stuck in all worksheets)

• supported a high need child 1:1 during English

• took out a group of 10 children to pre-teach maths concept

• supported same 10 children during maths

• tidied up all maths equipment, marked maths books

• break duty

• supported high needs child in assembly who did not want to be in assembly

• got smacked in the face and nipped by said child in the process of removing them from assembly

• listened to readers

• support interventions with various SEN children

• lunch duty including 1:1 years duty with same child from assembly. Child refused to come inside after and starting hitting, had to be restrained to be safely brought inside

• set up science equipment and supported small group during science, helped marked science books, tidied away science equipment

• more interventions

• tidied classroom after school, prepped books for next day, returned iPads to IT

• 90 minute staff meeting after work for science planning (support staff are expected to be part of planning at our school)

I come home with £1100 a month.

I don’t think you can be a qualified teacher with the potential to earn far more and then complain that you choose to do a job that earns far less. TA’s do get paid holiday and it is a part time job. Our all work 8.45-3.15 with a 30 minute lunch break. 6 hour days. None hold degrees or any qualifications really. I’m very surprised that lots of yours have degrees. They work 195 days a year. Far fewer than many minimum wage jobs.
I love my TA’s with all my heart and I wish they had the opportunity to take on more hours so they can bump up their wages. I’d hate to lose them. I respect them and support them as much as I can but ultimately they aren’t teachers. Perhaps you are working in the wrong school where TA’s are treated like teachers.