Teachers and TAs!

[NeedYourOpinion]

Do you enjoy your job? Is it a massive mistake as a career move?

Ok full disclosure - I have been offered a TA role (primary) and I’m now really worried by the lack of enthusiasm and negative feedback in online forums and groups! What’s strange is I know a couple of teachers and TAs in ‘real life’ who are positive about it - but I don’t know if that’s a case of them trying to be positive when the reality is they secretly wish they’d never gone down that route!

I left teaching last year, the job was unrecognisable from what it was when I trained. I wouldn’t recommend teaching to my worst enemy. If you are seriously considering it-go and spend a few hours in the ‘Exit teaching and thrive’ Facebook group. Properly read and think about what people are saying.

TA-ing has always been poorly paid, but used to be quite a nice job. Many of these ‘classroom support’ roles have gone now and the only support staff in many schools are either 1:1 with very high need children where you are essentially delivering a bespoke curriculum for a pupil who cannot be in the classroom (many are hit, spat at, kicked, scratched, sworn at) and spend a lot of time changing nappies or running around chasing them as they’ve done somewhere the shouldn’t have. OR they are used for whole class teacher absence.

Either way, it’s virtually minimum pay and people don’t seem to do it for long any more.

@Ablondiebutagoody can’t you leave though?! My thinking is TA work fits in with term time and school hours, and I was struggling to think of other roles which would fit in well (admittedly I didn’t actually start applying for any when I saw the TA role).

What are your working hours going to be? Is it at the same school your children go to?

Is it a 1:1 role?

People who are getting on well in their jobs, or in life in general, don’t tend to be on online forums looking for support. So it is naturally skewed towards those who are struggling or unhappy. I teach TAs, currently have around 40 of them doing the course, and they have a hard, low paid job, but most of them are enjoying it, or certainly most of it.
Definitely finding a school where you ‘fit’ seems to be the key.

I did leave! Teaching was absolutely horrific and I'm not exaggerating. Workload totally unreasonable. I was in at 7:30 every morning, leave at 5, rush to pick up my own child, get him to bed as quickly as possible so that I could work for another 3 hours. Every fucking relentless day. Plus Sunday.

In my opinion the teaching profession are their own worst enemy regarding workload. I used to raise it and the response was "that's teaching 🤷🏻‍♂️". Twats.

I now drive to work at 9 with a smile on my face again rather than waking up at 6 already a ball of stress.

What job would you be leaving for the TA role?

TA does work really well when you have children, as long as the hours are short enough to drop off or collect your own kids. I found with my LSA role that I needed to use wraparound care a couple of days a week. It didn't really make sense financially which was one of the reasons I left.

Evening work, weekend work, early starts, staying late does seem to be really common though among teachers. TAs shouldn't be doing any of that imo

As with anything, there are pros and cons.
I was an Individual Needs TA in an infant school and it was tough! When I worked with children who just needed a little more adult support, that was fine and I largely enjoyed it. I also trained to carry out several interventions, again with children who needed some extra support and I largely enjoyed that too. BUT, the behaviour declined dramatically during the 12+ years I was there! The amount of SEN children is astronomical now. At my school, we received next to no SEN training and the ‘support’ from SLT was shockingly awful.
I was pulled from my role to be a 1:1 for a reception child who was aggressive. Not toilet trained etc. I was fed up basically being a babysitter with the added bonus of being thumped, kicked, spat at and shouted at. The child was 5! That, together with the dramatic decline in behaviour through the school, the demanding parents and lack of support, made my mind up to walk away from it all. I was waking up in the night dreading going in. And all on a low wage. TA’s are also expected to do more and more. We were teaching groups of children for a fraction of a teacher’s salary!
The school holidays are a positive (especially if you have school age children) and a lot of the children are lovely and funny and wanting to learn but it was completely overshadowed by the behaviour and lack of support. We had children wrecking classrooms and throwing things around and then if SLT bothered to come and help, said child would then go off and get given treats and sent off to do some cooking etc. So unfair on the children that always behaved.
Sorry that was long and a bit of a rant! But no, I wouldn’t go back into a school to work I don’t think.

My DM was a teacher for most of the 1980s. She was constantly ill with coughs, colds and flu and she was very stressed and for that reason very bad tempered. The day she gave up that job, we got our lovely mum back. One of my best friends is a teacher and both her young adult DCs have always said from an early age that they will never ever become teachers.

On the plus side, it can be incredibly rewarding. My mum taught a lot of very disadvantaged kids many of whom did not speak English at home and she got them through science O-Levels (the school usually only did CSEs )

@NeedYourOpinion as you have an offer, just try it. You never know.
It's interesting to me when people talk about the hours being suitable and fitting around your own children / family. It's not just about the hours - if you've had a bad day, you take that stress home with you. It's not a job you clock off from, especially if you find yourself worrying about things. A thick skin is needed, me thinks.
Having said that, I was a primary school teacher for 25 years in a 'rough as hell' ( 🤣 - made me lol) school. I loved it - the kids, the teaching, the creativity, the team work, even the parents ( not all, and I had many serious altercations), but as a pp said, teaching has changed. We became an academy, and it all very quickly went downhill.
I'm now a cleaner. I get to clock in / clock off, no stress, and I've actually never been happier.
Anyway, we're all different @NeedYourOpinion - try it, see how it goes.

@Ablondiebutagoody what do you do now?

Re my school runs, yes it fits in (Year 7 and 8 age children who get a bus now). I’ve been off work for years loving being around for them. So my check list for a new role was ideally to still be around for them and make some money (of course I wish TA work paid more, but was trying to think of what else would tick the other boxes and pay better and struggled) - ideally I want to enjoy the role and definitely not hate it with a passion.

I'm a primary teacher and absolutely love it. I enjoy every day. So glad I made a move in my 30s after a corporate career. However, I'm not in the UK, where it sounds less enjoyable.

I think the role of a TA has changed dramatically over the years.

I taught in a large primary school in the early 2000s and TAs used to support with groups in the classroom, assist with photocopying and displays and be an extra pair of hands to assist the teacher. There was time to sit with children and really get to know them and every class had a qualified teacher leading it.

When I left in 2023, TAs (who were not HLTAs) were used for teaching whole classes to cover absences and this included long term absences, planning and leading interventions outside the classroom and teaching very high needs children on a 1:1 basis. This included nappy changes and personal care as well as dealing with behavioural issues such as biting and punching.

The role of a general TA is gone in many schools as the budget won’t cover it despite the need being greater than ever.

The TAs I worked with in school were poorly paid in return for being dedicated highly trained professionals and their goodwill was completely abused by the school. I would not recommend working as a teacher or TA in the state sector the way it currently is because of all the above reasons.

One thing on the teaching hours front. Bearing in mind, they earn 30-50k actual (and would be higher without the long holidays), wouldn’t I expect to work those kind of hours? I wouldn’t expect to work just school hours and be done? I saw someone mentioned working a whole day on the weekend though - is that really the case? I mean I used to earn 28k in my 20s and worked 8.30-6 in an agency, often putting in extra hours, plus an hour commute either side.

I'm a primary teacher. I can't understand why you lump teachers and TAs together in your question. They are completely different professions.

I'm a TA. I have a degree but many years ago decided not to do the Pgce as I didn't want the stress/workload that can come with teaching. I've been a TA for almost 19 years since my ds was 2 years old. It was brilliant for the school holidays, still is! I used to work 4 days then ft for the majority. However, for the past year I have only worked for 2 days per week due to ill health. I work with pupils aged 3-19 in a SEN school, but mostly with yp aged 14-19 and I really enjoy it. In SEN education pay is better, which reflects the more intense work involved in comparison to mainstream settings.

Nah. The people I know who work those hours are in banking and earn probably £200k plus massive bonus and fully expect to burn out within 5 years, by which time they have financial security.

It used to make me laugh when the school had their Friday morning staff breakfast meetings. "Does she think this is fucking Wall St?!"

I left secondary teaching 2 years ago due to workload and behaviour but that’s not really relevant to primary TA posts. I have two friends who are primary TAs. One is trying to get out due to incompetent management and unreasonable demands, the other enjoys the job the years when the class is decently behaved and hates in when it’s a bad class. If you have a school where the behaviour is ok and TAs don’t do cover and they won’t just move you to 1:1 without giving you a choice, then it’s probably ok. Unlike teachers, you can just leave at the end of the school day.

It probably depends heavily on the school. My friend KS is a TA, she is expected to cover over lunch time a couple of times a week, she is in a mainstream primary but has to deal with SEN kids some of whom shouldn't be in mainstream. She gets kicked, spat at, attacked with no support from the headteacher. She is looking for another job. She's got a degree and could be earning more working in a supermarket

You have a job offer. Give it a try. Do you know what your role is? Most are now 1:1. Do you think you can sit with the same child each day if they are behavioural, physical etc? It’s draining emotionally and physically. Of course working with children can be rewarding too

My sister works in school she also does breakfast and after school club to top up her ridiculous wage.

Teaching was (is) my vocation. I loved being in front of a class, was the best version of myself there.

However, teaching is a 70/80 hour a week job and with the very very best will and desire in the world, it is virtually impossible to do a good job.

This is almost exclusively NOT down to the children (some are shits of course, and behaviour is getting worse all the time) but due to work load, totally unreasonable and unrealistic management expectations and government pressure and lack of support (OFSTED anyone?).

One SINGLE example. A secondary teacher of a core subject will teach 5 or 6 classes of 30ish a day. 5 days a week. Probably amounts to 6 or 7 groups (e.g. one group will have a core subject 3 or 4 times a week). At the absolute minimum that will be around 180 children a week. Each exercise book will be expected to be marked AT LEAST once every 2 weeks. Each book will take 15-20 minutes. That is over 20 hours of marking a week. IF you do it all. Which is impossible. On top of 25 hours of teaching, planning, additional duties (before school duty, after school duty, break time duty), meetings (supposedly max 1 a week - more like 2 or 3), when on earth would you get 20 hours a week to mark those books? You're doomed to fail before you even start.

On average you can expect to work (plus travel and a little down time for eating etc) 7am - 10pm M-F and a while day at the weekend. And you'll still never catch up.

It's shit. But the real losers from this are the children who aren't getting their needs met.

I’d say it depends on the school and in particular the quality of the leadership.

One of my daughters is a teacher and absolutely loves it. The SLT is supportive and appreciative and any behaviour issues are well managed. The staff seem happy and teacher turnover is low. Most teachers seem to leave on promotion or because they are moving to a different area.

I also have a very good friend who is a teacher. Her school has poor behaviour and attendance. From what she tells me, the management was appalling last year. Staff turnover and sickness are very high. A new head started in September and seems to be slowly getting to grips with things, but there is still too much inconsistency and complacency.

Both work in secondary comprehensives that are part of an academy chain (different locations and different academy chains) but their experience couldn’t be more different.

I was a TA for 25 years and I had many lovely and rewarding years working with children. You were sent on different courses and were considered a valuable asset.The teachers I worked with were supportive and some became good friends too. This was at my daughter’s Junior school so was perfect . Even when they left I was happy to remain as I liked talking to the children and helping them grasp new concepts.However the nature of the job changed. You were expected to almost become a teacher but without the qualifications or the pay. Children’s behaviour got worse and whereas before parents would say “ What did my child do?” Became “What have to done to my child?” Many times my teacher and I wished we could video their classroom behaviour. Add to that the physical and verbal abuse from children.
i worked in Year 6 and although there was a bit of big fish in a small pond they would usually come back to see us in their new uniforms and tell us we’d been right about secondary school!
I saw that the new year 6 were going to be challenging and decided I’d had enough. My pension from my original job in finance was able to be accessed so I decided to leave.
I still meet up with friends from school and from what they tell me I made the right choice.

Most TAs arrive 10 mins before school and leave 10 mins after. Some are paid to work lunchtime in addition. The pay is low though. Otherwise teachers would quit to become TAs. The job very much depends on the school you are in. Go in with a positive mindset - I think people are more likely to share bad experiences online. The ones who are happy in their job are not seeking out groups and forums to support them.