From teacher to teaching assistant

[Isduggeeadog]

Has anyone done this? If so, how is it?

I taught full time Primary for 15, had my Dc and now do private tutoring. I don’t want to go back to class teaching whilst Dc are young as I remember how all consuming it is.
However, i’ve started to remember how lovely working with the children was (especially this time of the year) and the community feel. I also miss the social aspect of working with other staff and always became good friends with colleagues.
One of my teacher friends thinks it wouldn’t be stimulating enough and she’d want to step in, but i’m not as ambitious these days and don’t actively want all the extra responsibility.
The pay wouldn’t be great obviously, but I’d likely supplement with a couple of my tutoring jobs.

Oh and just to add about the staff divide point, that isn't true. I feel so much more valued as a TA as I think the only person where there is a possible divide with is the headteacher. The teachers always appreciate what I do and I have been thanked more as a TA by colleagues than I ever was as a teacher.
I get on really well with my team (or so I think) though it is hard when you are moved classes having got used to a particular teacher and the way they work. Also the TAs I work with are an amazing bunch, everyone helps eachother. So even if I am in a 1:1 role and struggling with a child, I know I can ask a passing colleague if they will help/offer a change of face and they will intervene with no judgement.

My mum did this as a sort of semi-retirement as she got older. She enjoyed it a lot but then she loved the school she worked in.

If money isn't an issue, why not just go back to teaching part time?

I've got plenty of friends who have gone back as 0.6 or 0.8 after kids and having that 1 or 2 days off has made the job manageable without encroaching on family time on the weekend/in the evenings.

A full time TA role would probably pay less than a 0.6 full time teaching role for someone with 15 years' experience.

I would also add that going part time as a teacher rather than going to a TA post would also enable you to continue paying into the TPS, which is not a benefit I would give up lightly.

There's a one to one TA in our class that used to be a teacher. She loves it. I'm a one to one. There's a class TA too. No work outside school hours for any of us. No TAs teaching either.

What is the general wage? Do you work full time and all holidays off?

I did it but made the mistake of being a HLTA covering management and PPA time so I took whole classes and ended up planning and marking on a lower wage. When thry asked me to write reports I decided enough was enough and went back to teaching!

What I would say is TA’s generally have a lot more responsibility than they should for their salary. I was shocked by how low the salary actually is based on how much they take on. Schools are so stretched they’re no longer the helpful classroom assistant, rather they tend to be expected to deal with 3 kids with varying SEN needs at the same time. For like 16k a year. I wouldn’t and couldn’t do it.

This has happened to everyone of my friends who became a teaching assistant (3 of them). The school just used them as teachers even when employing them as level 1 TAs. It shouldn't happen but it absolutely does

What is the average salary of a TA these days? Is it minimum wage? For all the covering lessons they do you may as well be a teacher.

That may be the case in schools you've worked in, but it certainly isn't in all schools.

I don't understand what you mean by this? All schools in the area I teach have mixed year classes and many don't have class TAs at all. I've had years of teaching two year groups in one class and no TA. Now I do have a TA but they don't teach anything as I do all inputs etc.

So support staff in your school get paid year round, like teachers? Have the same pensions and working conditions as teachers?

I work in a school too. What’s a pa?

I took your comment to mean the way you are treated by other staff/the culture in the school, which I think the OP did too, as she asked “Is this with other staff?”.

Sorry its personal assistant so almost being a rota'd in carer for a child. Some are evenings, some one weekend day a month, others are during the holidays.

D has a PA as part of her EOTAS package she covers preparation for adulthood, accessing the community, enabling participation in a community craft group. So they go out shopping, to cafes, cinema, bowling, art exhibitions, museums or whatever takes d's fancy. They play board games and currently her PA is teaching dd Japanese as she speaks Japanese and dd taught herself Japanese and now wants to get a GCSE in it. They cook and bake and have plans to complete crafts when the weather is likely to put dd off from going out.

ah, ok. Thanks!

What would worry me OP is that school would exploit you, and you’d end up teaching or covering classes on TA money. Good TA’s are worth their weight in gold, but pathetically undervalued and underpaid. Why not do supply or private tutoring?

I'd have to check about the wage. I have a contract for 8.30 to 12 with extra SEND percentage. I've just been asked to do three afternoons a week as there's some extra funding for "my child". Yes, I get all the holidays.
The other one to one TA in my class, who was a teacher, starts after she has dropped her child at their school so at around 9.15

I know someone who did this but I'm the same school. Absolute madness and goodness knows why the school agreed.

She was 0.5 job share as a Y6 teacher. That had been the case since she returned from mat leave. When DC 2 started school full time, she got a job for 2 days a week as a TA in the Y3 class. Her rationale was that she wanted more work/pay, but didn't want to leave the school.

what about doing supply work? I’ve a couple of teachers who do this to try to bypass the insane workload and politics of teaching

I did this! 12 years as a primary teacher, stopped for a couple of years whilst my children were small, then became a TA at my children’s school. There are actually four former teachers employed as TA’s / 1:1s in my school, none of us are used as class cover. I really love it but it’s hard work for a low wage.

The LA has teaching assistant or support worker type roles where you go in to model interventions or carry out interventions for set periods of 6 weeks. There is usually a specialist teacher who has made the recommendations and the the TA type role to support the schools for a bit. Moving around lots of school. But being part of a team so to in the LA. Pay seems slightly better than TAs in school. Term time only. No breaks and lunch duties. Local government pension. Could be worth a look.

Absolutely give it a try and it will open up opportunities if you did decide to take on a teaching role again. Xx