TA jobs

[haapynot]

What do schools do when there's a national shortage? How many people are applying to be one but not finding work? I saw that some schools use agency staff for teachers is that the same for assistants?

Yes but there are also a lot of TA vacancies that can't be recruited for because it's not a desirable job anymore. As for midday supervisors mentioned uptrend, not seen one in years. Our TAs do it which just takes them our of class more. We don't often use agency TAs though because the role is all about relationships. It's certainly hard to do effectively in a day.

There are some very talented TAs, who work well with intervention groups, know the children really well and really enhance the classroom. It’s true that it’s all about relationships and it’s also true that it’s not so much a job that is as popular now.

I had some brilliant TAs and HLTAs and I was very grateful for their expertise. It’s never had the financial remuneration it deserves and It will get worse.

@haapynot Do you fancy training as a teacher? It might be worth considering.

there are not
the shortage of support staff is worth than teachers
all qualification requirement have gone- if you can speak English and have a dbs you can start straight away

Do you actually have any experience of this?
They totally take on people with no experience and they go straight into classrooms.
no qualifications or experience required

I've seen plenty of adverts asking for teaching assistants to have degrees in psychology or similar, or at least that this is "preferable", "ideal for a psychology graduate!"

Would you like to link to some?
used to say gcse in English and maths but that went a few years ago

They can't fill TA positions in high schools here in parts of NI. High schools are crying out for them as there are so many statemented children with TA hours. BUT the pay is minimum wage, usually temporary contracts, don't get holiday pay, usually only around 25 hours a week and you have to deal with sen teens.

I'm shuddering that they want to put sen units in high schools as they won't be able to staff them

Good TAs re like gold dust

You’ll get £12.40 per hour, rising to £13.35 per hour. If you're in London, you'll get £13.65 rising to £13.95 per hour. Not too shabby.

You were saying?

The school I worked for - secondary - only recruited graduate TAs, who earned slightly more than minimum wage. School increased the job role, expecting far more than salary deserved, TAs left quite rightly, not unusual to work 40hrs per week for 30hrs pay, which meant that they were working for less than minimum wage. Trust then froze support staff recruitment. This is a huge school with higher than average SEN students. Shocking and so wrong. Ex teacher here, who thinks TAs are worth their weight in gold.

TA recruitment is a huge problem now that they are frequently being used to cover PPA for teachers.

Re Primary Schools:
Many of the TA jobs advertised in South Devon-ish are temporary.
and many of these positions are for SEN children so being temporary makes sense as the child could move school and the school loses the funding for the TA.

Usually it is a Level 3 that is required, tho some adverts will say Level 2.
Level 3 is the old NNEB qualification.

A lot of TA's / HLTA's in schools are actually qualified/trained teachers that have decided not to be teachers for various reasons.

I have no idea what the requirements would be / are for secondary schools.

For the money I'm not surprised people don't want to do it. 19k for a 30 hour week in my school. My last TA left as she couldn't afford it.

That's not the case in NI and it's term time and no holiday pay

My current and previous school use agency TAs but the one I was in before that does not. They just keep readvertising and shuffling people around to fill the most urgent need. They also use TAs to cover lessons (primary) frequently even though they have employed TAs with minimal qualifications.

The position I have now (secondary) the advert stated that being educated to degree level was preferred.

When I started, TA jobs were like hen's teeth with lots of competition. Now they get barely any applicants around here.

I'm an SEN TA at a secondary school. I was agency before I took on a permanent role at the same school.

They've cut the budget so we have fewer TAs than last year, and it's been really tricky this year. I am on the verge of getting signed off with stress. I love my job but it's not sustainable. I do other work alongside to make up my wages.

A 30 hours a week TA would be on less than £19,000 here, as it's paid hourly for 39 weeks a year plus 4 or 5 weeks ? holiday pay, so just under £17,000.

Actually, I've worked with agency TAs who have never worked as a TA before, had absolutely no idea what they were doing and were woefully unprepared for the reality of working with SEN teens.

I've also had a supply teacher tell me she was doing it because she was thinking of doing teacher training!

Some supply teachers are shocking. They just sit there and don't even speak to the children. Money for old rope. But that's another thread entirely.

@Hankunamatata that was the pay for Aldi ( in England). I'm on more than that as a TA atm.

I actually looked a while ago at supermarket jobs (work was a nightmare) and all of them were less money per hour.

Im sorry but can you link to one? They might suggest it would be 'interesting' to a psych graduate but not a chance can they suggest its 'preferable' for candidates to have this, not without offering enhanced pay. TA's do not require degrees

Its simply not true that a lot of TA's are qualified teachers choosing not to teach. Not a lot. A very odd one perhaps, and these would not be regular TA's, they'd be HLTA.
The vast majority of TA's are certainly not qualified teachers and its misleading to imply that.

dd did ta/ina via an agency, plenty of work but very difficult job - had her in tears

Our school has no issue attracting TAs. Its a village primary in an affluent area. You get a mix of:

• former nursery staff who want the shorter hours once they have their own kids
• women living in the village who have a husband who earns a lot & they just want the short hours for a bit of pocket money.

The educational requirements are low. Yes lots of TAs have more but schools with hire people with pretty much no quals at all.

These days a lot of the role is handling SEN kids with behavioural and sensory needs. There's no qualification that guarantees patience and a calm consistent manner