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!

The thing is that there will always be some people women happy to do it because it fits well around school age children and is enough hours to pass the UC thresholds. In most areas, there's not much difficulty in recruiting so why would anyone raise the salary?

The TAs at my children's school either:

Have children at the school so it works around them
Are doing it temporarily for experience and then go on to other things (mostly to train as teachers, one recently left to train to be a child speech therapist)

TA terms and conditions are a real issue.

We are aiming for a teacher starting wage of 30k. So a TA has to earn less than that as its less training, responsibiliy accountability etc.

The killer of TA wages is the pro rata elemement where about 7.4 weeks is unpaid and its very often not 37.5 hours a week either. Lots are 25 or 32.5. There's not much room for progression in pay. Although teachers are also not paid for the holidays - their advertised salary is not then paid pro rata. Its more like an annualised hour contract and there is more career structure..

We have a system where a lot of our most vulnerable children spend a lot of time with TAs and need them to be skilled and have relevant training.

A lot of time has also been spent on evidenced based practice to ensure TAs are used in a way that improves outcomes (in some schools anyway). So an all day class TA is increasingly rare. In one of my schools a HLTA is a subject lead for the whole school for instance. In another they are an Autism lead with masses of training.

Its all very well saying to individuals to get a better job. But we then need to rethink the school system. Things like the compulsory phonics schemes schools have to use are very staff heavy for instance. The government will have to sell us all a different phonics scheme.

1y7

TAs are expected to deliver EHCP and IEPS, often planning the work themselves. They need to be able to handle and deliver any intervention dropped into their lap from SENCOs, teachers and EPs. They need to have a good working knowledge of English and maths, being prepared to deliver interventions to struggling children on say subordinate clauses and converting mixed fractions at a drop of the hat alongside marking work. Thry need to be able to support lessons, groups and individual children to Ofsted standards and cope with observations. They need to have a good understanding and ability to manage all learning difficulties eg neurodiversities, ESL,S&L etc alongside often very challenging behaviours. They need to be able to understand and handle MH difficulties and safeguarding competently,TAs are most likely the ones directly at the frontline. They need to be able to handle lunch time and play ground duties without senior staff there to support…..

The list is endless.

Now you can drag in anybody(and no school would as they are responsible for student welfare and progress) or you can get somebody well qualified for the job.

I have a degree and several years of teaching experience. I earn less than staff working in Lidl. That isn’t ok.

And yes yes re phonics. We ‘re delivering hours of high intensity phonic interventions which need a good level of competence.

So you’ve chosen a lower salary for a lower workload/hours than a teacher - you could be earning more if you wanted to. Believe me I think teachers are undervalued, overworked and underpaid but you have to accept that many people choose a TA role for the convenience of being at the same school as their kids/ the hours/ the holidays off with their kids so no childcare etc. Their actual pay isn’t much but the trade off is the convenience/hours.

Fucking hell. $1k per month it should be $1k per week.

Have you even read my posts.🙄

That was to Mnetcurious

I work in a school and was utterly shocked! The conversation needs to progress from what do teachers earn to recognise what these amazing TAs do! Especially SEN 1.1 TAs… they are absolute hero’s basically on minimum wage

And to pp's saying the trade off for the low pay is convenience - wtf!! Yeah it's just a little job for mummies to do while their kiddies are at school, not an important role in supporting children's education.

22k is FTE pay - take home pay for a TA is likely between 13-15k. And I work is HR at a school so I know. The first time I calculated TA pay I thought I was doing it wrong - could not believe it was so low!

I've been a TA for twelve years and I earn around £1200 a month Monday-Friday 8.30-3.30. The money is really bad considering the responsibilities I have such as medical needs, specialist SEN support, multi agency meetings and iLP meetings etc also parent handovers and safeguarding reports. However I do love the job and teachers do really appreciate good TAs, the children really suffer not having a TA as the teachers get so stressed.

@DwindleBug I wasn’t addressing you but please feel free to explain why a qualified teacher would choose to work as a TA yet complain about earning less. As I’ve said, I have the utmost respect for teachers, who are not valued or paid enough.

It’s not about earning less but earning an adequate wage for the job itself. TAs aren’t paid properly for the skills that are needed for the job.

Interesting that you have respect for teachers who aren’t paid enough but none for TAs who also aren’t paid enough.

@DwindleBug then to quote you “have you even read my post” - I made a specific response to a specific person, they made a choice to take that job knowing how low the pay is - they had a choice to work at the higher teacher’s salary they are qualified to earn but the trade off was the workload/hours.

As I said it’s not about the difference in wages between teaching and being a TA but the fact that TA wages are hugely lower than they should be given the skills that needed for the job.

Yes we do 🙄

I know our local school took on a hairdresser as a TA - and no, she wasn't highly qualified in education.

I also know that one of the 1-1 TAs English skills and general level of education were not great, lovely woman but appeared to have no knowledge or understanding of how to teach to a child with SEN. This child barely made any educational progress the year she was the full time 1-1.

On the other hand some are absolutely amazing and as take part in EHCPs reviews and so on so it can be a very mixed bag so people shouldn't necessarily get offended when posters say that mothers of pupils get recruited at the school gate.

You should see the rates of pay for actual teachers in FE!

Inevitably your salary was going to nose dive when you decided to change from a teacher to a TA. Should TAs be paid more? Perhaps. But the reason this isn't a highly paid role is because it doesn't require any qualifications. Not sure why you would be complaining about your financial situation when you have actively made a choice to earn £15-20k less a year. I understand the workload and responsibility of teaching is greater but that is reflected in the higher wages and requirement of qualifications (which you possess)

They don't need qualifications?Those days are gone

I disagree. Some TAs might be teachers who don’t want to teach any more (like the OP), but most aren’t. None of our TAs have a degree, the majority don’t have A levels. We have some that don’t have GCSEs (just a handful of O levels).

The TA pay is dreadful and most of the people who apply have a limited work history and few qualifications. People who have good qualifications, generally don’t want to work as a TA unless they are restricted to not working the school holidays because of their own childcare needs.

Most of the TAs at our school have degrees, a lot of hob adverts now state A level education as a minimum requirement

I have looked at the job adverts on our LA job page. There are 221 for support staff currently (I counted them).

Most say something like this:-

The successful candidate should:
· Have a recognised competence in literacy and numeracy
· Be able to challenge and motivate all children to succeed
· Be an adaptable team player with a good sense of humour
· Be self-motivated, resilient and able to use their own initiate

Many say they want maths/english gcse but even this is sometimes desirable rather than essential.

It can't be £15/£16k then pro-rata'd down, because that would be well under minimum wage which is currently £10.42 p/h.
So working full time for minimum wage would be £365 for a 35hr ww, £416 for a 40hr ww. Times 52 for a year = annual salary of £18980/£21635.
Plus TAs are usually on slightly more than minimum wage.
So it would be illegal for a 'full time' wage of £15/16k to be advertised and then pro-rata'd further down - if you consider full time as the usual meaning of the word.

I don't think they are paid enough - my DM was a TA for 20 years, my sister and several friends are teachers so I am aware of how much TAs do - BUT it's misleading to pretend they work (or at least are PAID to work, I know most schools run on goodwill and support staff doing over their hours) the same hours as someone working 'full time' in an office or whatever - days are much shorter and holidays much longer.

The other thing I don't think people realise is how often they are the sole adult in charge of the class - when teachers do their planning/are in a meeting/training/off sick TAs can cover for them for up to several days at a time. I think my mother used to get something tiny like 50p an hour if she did this, compared to the £100s per day the school would have to pay for a supply teacher!

You earn so little, I worked so hard in that role. It's terrible.

Now an admin, no stress, lots of support and benefits.