To want a TA job

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Calling all teaching assistants! How are you finding it? Is full time full on? How do you cope with the poor pay - I’m worried it isn’t enough money to justify the work?! Please share any tips or reviews!

@Twiglets1 agreed, and I’m so aware of that in terms of income moving forward. However I’ve been told I’d get half of his pension and everything else would be split half way up until the point you split up. Again, all new territory and I don’t want to, but am worried I might have to face this.

You wouldn't necessarily get half his pension if you divorced, it would depend what was agreed in the divorce settlement.

For example, my friend agreed that she would give up rights to her ex husband's pension, in return for her getting their 3 bed house (which she needed as their children lived with her). She is still paying a small mortgage on it but he gave up his financial stake in it though to be fair his salary would have paid off the majority of the loan while they were together as she was a stay at home mum for years.

She will not have much money in retirement due to working for years as a TA. She will probably have to sell her house to release some capital and move somewhere cheaper.

Being a TA has worked out ok for me as I said. But giving advice to others, I always point out now that it makes women financially vulnerable if they work part time in low paid jobs for years. There are a lot of positives in being able to work term time hours and it used to be a nice job (not so much now due to behaviour in classrooms getting worse) but it is something to be aware of.

@Twiglets1 if it sadly has to happen, I feel like we may be able to go 50/50 on both house and pension, but I honestly don’t know that for sure at this stage. Again it’s useful to factor in to everything and hear how it’s worked for others.
I totally respect your point that being a TA doesn’t deliver financial independence. That’s my main stumbling block. Teaching does BUT makes parenting so much harder. Maybe I do need to try and go for some kind of office work that’s ideally remote or hybrid at least part time. It’s just what isn’t it! Plus I am a bit disappointed as I could see some aspects of TA work/teaching suiting me.

TAs who are single parents and using it to support the family are really broke and really struggle.

TAs who have a full time working partner and are using it to just bring in some extra cash are doing fine.

Unless you work at the same school as your kids, you will still need to pay for after school care. You will also need cover for inset days.

It’s also a very inflexible job for things like hospital appts/ GP apts/ dentist etc.

If you can afford it,it might be better to be a teacher and work part time. The one year pgce is very full on though. You won’t see much of your kids in the year you do it.

@Themilkmanatnight what ARE single parents doing work wise?

Also have a look at admin jobs at your local County Council - some are term time only and pay better. If you did part time hours, you’d have more flexibility to go to sports day etc and make up the hours.

What are your qualifications?

@dapsnotplimsolls I have a degree so can take post grad routes.

Would you prefer primary or secondary?

Oh yes, I was lucky to get a job only a short drive away-some of my colleagues had a long commute on top of that.

Things are different when you have kids as well-if you will be the one taking them to school/childcare and collecting them again, you need that to be robust. If it’s a nursery-look at what times they open/close and their location, does that give you plenty of time to get to work-think of the traffic. Often it’s easier whilst they are in childcare as when they start school, the wraparound care at school might not start till 7.45 which-depending on your commute-could mean you arriving at work a bit late. Our wraparound care finishes at 4.15 which is no good for any days that we had meetings going on past 5. I was very lucky in that I had a husband who WFH (back in the day when that was unusual!), parents who lived round the corner and would come round and have breakfast here at 7am so I could go to work, and I worked part time so only had to do that juggling a few days a week. My parents would also pitch up to any of the concerts/assemblies/sports days that I (or DH) couldn’t make as well and always volunteered to have them if they were ill-I was incredibly lucky as some colleagues of mine have really suffered from SLT’s treatment whilst kids have been ill.

@Shinyandnew1 it’s actually easier when they’re little in some ways given our situation of not being near transport. They are too old for nursery, wraparound care is only short time periods for the primary and none for my older daughter at high school. She will get on and off her bus and needs to be collected at those times. My younger one can also struggle with emotions and getting ready for school, or how she feels coming out at pick up. I mean I’d struggle with teacher hours wouldn’t I, I’m disappointed facing up to that - especially if most schools want full time teachers rather than job shares these days?

@dapsnotplimsolls I felt like primary would suit me but I naively didn’t realise how long the day is (as I had it in mind that would work better for my school runs).

It will depend on the school as to how much planning but even if it is bought in you still have to tweak it to suit the children you are teaching.

Once qualified as a teacher you will have two years as an ECT- early career teacher with extra support, training and non teaching time. Not sure if you can do it as a part time job but once two years are up you can go part time or do supply teaching.

I don’t get this comment-the school day isn’t much different between primary and secondary, it is? Generally between 8.30-3.30-why would you think primary over secondary was for you because of the length of the school day?

You're dreaming if you think you'll get events off.Why should you when the teachers cant and the office staff cant.
Even if it isnt advertised as 1:1 it more than likely will be so id be prepared for that.Its children with SEN that need a t.a in my experience.

I’m a TA.

I’ve been doing it nearly 3 years and for the most part I love it.

Its a large school, the head and deputy head are great to work for. Generally apart from the odd student, behaviour is generally good. I work in a school where staff retention is excellent and a high portion of the staff have been there for their entire teaching career.

I work 32.5 hours a week. 8:30-3:30 with a half hour lunch and a 20 minute morning break. My take home pay is £1400. The pension is great, I pay £100 pm ish and the LA pay about £350 ish?

Im glad I did it, Im not sure it’s something I can do for the rest of my working life but for now it works for us as a family and with my husbands wage, we manage just fine, but to be fair, I was working part time before starting as a TA so my pay is actually more now.

It’s a nice job, I don’t find it particularly stressful although it is exhausting and full on.

Im a TA in a SEN school. I have been for 7 years and I absolutely love it. I was a teacher before but needed a better work life balance.
I think I earn slightly more because im SEN (I might be wrong though!) I earn £1800 a month.
The comments about having days off for childrens school events etc; our school trys its hardest to let people, even occasionally weddings.
My job is hard. You dont really have time for the toilet. You have to put onna mask because it's not the childrens fault if you've had a bad morning etc. Its also very physical. I've been bit, punched and once sexually assaulted.
However I love my job, I get a really fabulous feeling from making a difference. I love spending time building up relationships. The children are amazing. I don't have to take any work home with me either.
As an aside if I want to make extra money; lots of our families want PA's out of school hours.

@Lemondrizzle4A but am I right in thinking schools prefer full time teachers to part time and some and trying to discourage/stop job shares? To be fair this is based on one example I know of but I wondered if widespread?

@PrincessHoneysuckle some schools do allow this, see the comment re my friend’s school and other comments in the thread where their school allows this. I don’t know how common this is though.

@Looloolullabelle that’s really useful, thanks. Do you know anyone at your school (or any others) who has arranged to start slightly later and finish slightly earlier to allow for them to do their own school run first?

@delilabell what does the PA out of hours involve? Thanks!

Oh and @Shinyandnew1 I just made an assumption that primary level would mean less overtime. Sadly not the case clearly!

Oh, I see!

The secondary teachers I know actually seem happier for the large part. I think they tend to put up with less bullshit than we do in primary (good on them!). They have masses of marking but like a previous poster said, schemes are sometimes in place. I won’t speak for secondary though my experience is limited there-my friends work in shortage subjects in a grammar school where behaviour is largely good.

Much of the workload in primary feels pointless. If it was time spent planning good lessons for your children and resourcing them (as it was when I first started) then it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s just repetitive paperwork for paperwork sake. The amount of extra work that had to be done by subject coordinators across the country as part of Deep Dives over the last 5 years was immense. Each offering was probably nearly identical in most schools up and down the country where each history/geography etc coordinator was creating those pointless plans for Ofsted (unpaid and in your own time!). And now we have a new Ofsted framework and none of that matters!

It's more even nowadays but until very recently (last couple of years) studies pretty unanimously indicated primary teachers worked more hours than their secondary colleagues.

@delilabell That's really interesting. I am a 0.8 UPS3 teacher with 2 TLRs and take home around £2400. Obviously it would be more if I worked full time but I need that extra day to keep sane! If the difference is £600 a months it is about £150 a week for all the extra planning and marking at home. Food for thought

@Walkthelakes sorry do you mind explaining the acronyms there? Not sure what this sentence means? Thank you!
I am a 0.8 UPS3 teacher with 2 TLRs and take home around £2400.

Person works four day week - 8 sessions each day = 2 sessions.
UPS3 is upper pay scale 3
TLR- teaching and learning responsibility
link for teacher pay scales.
neu.org.uk/advice/your-rights-work/pay-advice/pay-scales?source_campaign=%7Bpayscale%7D&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=6641242515&gbraid=0AAAAACoi_J3evIZ1L8hrqWBo1j65BS0Af&gclid=CjwKCAiAwNDMBhBfEiwAd7ti1AOK6q29X7xVyHXTm3IZNwj-wQlG_B0t8ZevV6vIcGCVKB31VrAWYhoC3YoQAvD_BwE