Teachers and TAs!

[NeedYourOpinion]

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

It’s very different to an office job because you are “on” all the time. It’s non stop because you have thirty children to manage and teach all day, it can be very tiring in comparison. I’ve done both, and teaching is far more draining emotionally and physically. It’s hard to explain, I’d suggest a couple of weeks working in a school. Some people love it.

Longstanding TA here who worked on supply for many years working in different settings. Primary ☑️ secondary ☑️ SEN ☑️ semh ☑️

I also a graduate. Remaining as a TA because I value my sanity too much and I don’t fancy the colossal workload.

I would now never return to work as a TA in a primary school for all the tea in China. I’ve worked in loads and that role is now unrecognisable in comparison to what it was years ago. You’ll need to be able to teach at some point, even just for the odd lesson or sickness cover. Schools don’t like to rely on supply anymore due to a lack of funds. You will not be paid extra.

Additionally, you will have responsibility for high needs SEN children in mainstream who need a 1-1. They don’t all get a 1-1 in the real world and you’ll probably have a group in each class. They will all have differing needs and you will not be able to meet them all.

If you’re based in early years you can have severe SEN needs as it often takes time for the child to be placed in a special school, and this doesn’t always happen. I’ve been bitten, kicked etc over the years. Just before Christmas I was working 1-1 with a year 5 child who 💩 himself and it went all over me. Genuinely.

I am now back to what suits me the most and that’s a secondary, mainstream TA. No expectation of teaching and I enjoy different teachers. If you get a teacher in primary who you do not gel with, it’s grim, as you have to work with them all year.

You have to REALLY want to do this job.

I've been a primary school teacher for 12 years. Yes it is tiring but I love my job and cannot imagine doing anything else.

Described as being ‘put into a washing machine early morning, spun round all day and pulled out at the end of the afternoon, when the programme stops’.

I also am grateful I got out before peri/menopause hit!!

Nonsense.

It is a lot more than that. Why are you not believing people who are telling you the truth?

You can't imagine how tiring five hour days in front of a class are, followed by planning, prep, meetings, marking, duties, report writing, data entry, parents evenings, twilight inset (marking particularly if in a secondary subject, heavy on the writing i.e. English or History)

Anyway, go and give it a whirl. It may suit you.

Secondary head of department and been teaching 20 years. I do like the kids, but the job is just absolutely insane now. It was always busy, but it’s off the scale now. I’m good at my job, most popular option choice, some of the best results in the school, but I’m absolutely exhausted. I can never sleep a full night without waking up, just too many things in my head and all of it school related. I work in a good school, but the expectation to be perfect all the time is unrealistic. There is always too much to do and the parents are getting less and less supportive, having to justify even the tiniest things. I’ve seen 7 different classes today which is about 200 pupils. 200 different wants and needs, all while remembering everything SLT want.

I've just come back part time after mat leave, in my sixth year of teaching and I do enjoy it. I feel good at my job, it's interesting, rewarding and (most) interactions with the kids are brilliant. Lots of funny, ridiculous and heartwarming moments.

However, I am working every day including my days off when my baby naps, doing marking. Workload is relentless, it's not possible to do the job in the hours given, and schools squeeze as much out of you as they can within those hours. Constant pile on, you think you're on top of everything if you don't take a break all day and work at a ridiculous pace, then they'll surprise you with a book look, observations, new CPD that's useless but time-consuming.

Being part time I can go in for parents evening as it falls on a non working day or I can phone the parents of every single child I teach in that year group in my "free" time (could be 90 kids).

It gets easier if you can stick it out through the training year - I did School Direct in a very tough academy in London - and the ECT years. My current school is much better in terms of wellbeing but it's still tough and my health has suffered, I'll be honest. If I left my current job, I wouldn't look for another in teaching.

Edit: I should add, I've worked in the private and charity sectors and did an intensive law course before training as a teacher. Teaching on a good day - work relentlessly, no meetings after school and kick work to other days, can mean in this school that I can leave at 3pm. Hard to do in other jobs/schools even. And I appreciate the holidays with my child. I didn't need firebreak holidays like this in previous jobs though.

TA - the brilliant ones are completely underpaid for what they do. Others seem to act their wage. A real shame when there isn't sufficient funding for them (or if you get a lacklustre one) as a good one can be game-changing for children. There's much better paid jobs tbf

@beeble347

I used to be good and then I started acting my wage 🤣. Pay peanuts, get monkeys!

Not sure why I should bust a gut to be honest. The whole sector is run on martyrdom.

Honestly, I would tell my younger self not to do it. I loved teaching for a few years but the behaviour of pupils and parents has made it a nightmare.

TAs are underpaid for all they do. I work with some incredible TAs and they are paid a fraction of what they deserve. It's just not worth it.

English teacher.

It's the best job in the world and I absolutely love it ❤️

You have to find the right school and you have to genuinely like the kids- they will know if you don't!

I loved teaching, but that’s such a small part of the job now. It’s endless marking and assessing and adapting and attending meetings that should have been an email. It’s having every part of you drained so that there is nothing left of you for your own family. It’s working ten hour days and still having to work at the weekends. It’s exhausting and if you work it out properly, very badly paid.
I enjoyed being a TA but it’s just not worth the money. The hours are good and it can be fun but, depending on the school, you’re often spoken to and treated like crap and you get the brunt of the challenging behaviour.
I wouldn’t advise anyone to go into either job.

So would I. It was more manageable years ago, especially when I didn’t have children. But now it’s just too hard. You might get the holidays, but it’s not a family friendly job.

But I don't do most of that. My small, indie secondary school has SEND plans written by the Send dept which we read and incorporate as needed. Broadly, classes are similar year on year and the vast majority can access the materials the same as their counterparts the year before. Half term grades or reports are not that onerous when you've been doing it for thirty years. Parents evenings are max 7 nights per year. I have three meetings per fortnight and run clubs twice a week. My own.kids are teens now so it's a bit easier. It all gets done. Again, it's one of those jobs for which there is no.one 'truth' about what it's like.

Being in front of a class is fabulous. The point when they're learning and enjoying it is the best feeling in the world.

But the workload is just too much. It steals your life.

I worked my way through nursery roles (into management) then went into a school as a TA, was used as cover a lot and encouraged and highly supported to gain QTS. This was a very supportive school where jobs rarely came up - and sadly after training, I was allowed to stay as a TA if I wanted but there was no teaching vacancy. I moved.

School was toxic. Complete opposite of the school I left. The Trust is one aspect - no life to it at all, as others have said very corporate, constant busy-body high ups being paid six figure salaries who do nothing to help but point their fingers at everything and very much want the schools to be “one size fits all” - but can be manageable with the right team and school. My school was run by an awful Head. Favouritism, micromanagement, poor communication, contradictory, didn’t have any sense of reality of what it was like on the ground. Staff turn over extremely high. My Head’s philosophies and the Trust’s paperwork combined was unsustainable (as an example, the weeks English and maths plans had to be on 3 separate documents phrased in different ways, the terms assessment data was inputted into 4 different databases, question by question for each child (it took hours) every piece of work across the board was fully marked daily with a 4-colour coding system and gosh you if SLT came and randomly picked up books and found that something that wasn’t…
And that’s scratching the surface. Before I actually think about teaching!

it certainly put me off. I had no life outside of it.

I decided to return to being a TA because I was burning out faster than anything and it was such a horrible place to work - the pressure that released - I am now a prep school TA and yep it’s hard work and I have to do after school care as part of my contract (wrap around and clubs across the week) but I take nothing home, I cover teachers quite a lot and they do actually give me a top up pay for that when I do. I’m much happier, though poorer.

I will add that the teaching part I actually loved. I loved my class, I loved (like others have said) being up the front and teaching them, working alongside them, getting creative…..it was everything else and in my case a very bad school.

There is a reason there is a shortage of teachers.

Out of interest, what do you think you’ll be doing as a TA?
I’m a TA in KS1 (although my heart is in reception) and currently in my 4th year. When I started, I was naive and some things simply did not occur to me (and I had my own 4 year old when I started!):

1. that I’d be changing nappies (I have no problem doing it, I still do occasionally but it was completely off my radar)
2. how sad I’d find parts of it
3. the number of times I’d be hurt by 4/5 year old children

Being a TA is essentially a minimum wage job but I also consider the savings for holiday childcare when weighing this up. This is a typical day for me:
8:30 start and I greet the class outside, often messages from parents to pass on to teacher
9:00 assembly - phonics intervention group
9:30 phonics - I teach my own phonics group. I am expected to teach it the same as the teachers. I frequently watch RWI phonics videos at home to refresh my mind on delivering the lesson accurately. I was also observed teaching phonics by ofsted.
10:15 breaktime - not for me, for the children which means first aid kit ready and outside for 15 minutes.
10:30 - 12:00 maths and English. I am supporting in the classroom, usually a small group of children, occasionally 1:1. At least once a week, one of the class will need to re-regulate.
12:00-13:00 in the dining hall until 12:20 and then out on to the playground for lunchtime play. Behaviour management, first aid.
13:00 - 13:30 technically my lunchtime but often delayed by 10/15 minutes by first aid, behaviour issues which need to be unpicked. I always take my 30 minutes (unpaid) though!
13:30 - 15:00 daily readers, physio programme, precision teaching intervention, any maths catch ups, eal vocab pre teach, echp intervention evidence, write behaviour logs.

On top of that I support another adult with a child who is 2:1 for a couple of hours a day twice a week which stops me doing some of the bits above until the afternoon.
Saefguarding concerns logged immediately too which has a knock on effect.

I mostly enjoy my job and it works for my family but it’s not what I though so go in prepared. I also assumed I’d start as TA then train to teach but all it’s taught me is that I definitely don’t want to teach!

Primary school teacher, not UK though. I love my job. I have been lucky enough to work in other areas and industries, but enjoy the dynamics and challenges of the classroom.

I am a TA for college age students, mainly those with behavioural issues and SEN. I would get paid more to work at Aldi - I do it for the love of the job and the school
holidays. I have had to go part time as full time was far too stressful along with child rearing

Saw this, thought of this thread and smiled. 😀

Being a teacher isn't worth it in UK in 2026.

We relocated at Christmas to an EU country to work and for better schools for DC and yes, it's better.

This! 100%!

I’ve been a TA for 4 years now, first 2.5 yrs in infants mostly spent 1:1 with very high needs and hurt on a daily basis. Spat at, hair pulled to the ground, kicked, punched, bitten, slapped round the face, various items including furniture thrown at me. It was awful.
Moved up to yr 5 and it has been better as more time in class working with children who need extra support and interventions. However constantly moved around to support elsewhere, usually 1:1 covering absence and little support from SLT.
The needs coming through schools are getting higher and tougher and I don’t have the patience anymore. I stick it out purely because I need the school hours so feel stuck!

I think I replied to the wrong post! 🤦‍♀️