Classroom assistants: where can I find out more?

[Empress]

I've been searching the web for info on what qualifications you need to be a classroom assistant, what the pay is etc etc, but can only find passing references to the job. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I've found a list of courses in my area, one of which is initial training for the job, but elsewhere I've read that no qualifications are needed. Can anyone advise me where to find proper information? Thanks v much!

Hi Empress
To be a fully qualified Teaching Assistant you need to complete an NVQ level 3, BTEC diploma in childcare or a CACHE diploma. Many schools are employing unqualified Teaching Assistants, but obviously there are variations in pay levels. Rates of pay are also different according to local authorities, the authority I work in has just introduced a new grading system that recognises roles and responsibilities accordingly, level 3 being the highest. It's not the best paid job and you need to be dedicated to it (for the levels of pay, consequently I'm undertaking teacher training at the mo.)
You need to contact any of your local FE colleges, most of them run the courses I mentioned above.
Good luck

Hi Mak, thanks for that - but are teaching assistants and classroom assistants the same thing?

Empress, Bbasically yes, although some people tend to be a bit fastidious about their title i.e. nursery nurse, teaching assistant, classroom assistant, Learning support assistant- mainly work with special needs children, and I think there are a few more. But they all have the same basic qualification, it just depends upon the job you undertake after your training.

An acquaintance of mine is a classroom assistant and she was filling in a friend of mine recently about how she did it - friend is planning to start NVq in September.

She did NVQ level 3 at FE college and 10 voluntary hours per week at her child's school as part of her course. She says it doesn't pay much but she works part-time, school terms, and she enjoys it. If it became too much, too stressful or she was asked to more than she was comfortable with, she would stop. She has no interest in becoming a teacher.

If you go to a jobs site like Fish4Jobs and type in classroom assistant it will give you a good idea of the jobs that are around and the salary (around 10-12k by the looks of it).

10 -12k is about right for starting and unqualified salaries but can go up to about 16-17k.

We have class-room assistants on £5-6 an hour with no real qualifications ( a few lowish CSEs - sorry, I know that is a qualification but not a specific job related one)

You can be a classroom assistant without any qualifications at all, but you will be limited in what you can do with them (i.e. general dogsbody) and your pay will be minimum. Most colleges are now offering p/t courses for teaching assistants.

Depending on demand in your area, a school pay pay you/employ you whilst you are training. As mentioned above you have to do 10 hrs a week in a school as part of the course - which is quite a large percentage of a school week, if you work it out. Our trainees only do one evening a week in college, or a morning/afternoon - but they have lots of essays and so on to do too.

I was a Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school for 2 years before I started my current job. I had no training & no experience (except my own 4 kids). I did have a BA (Hons) & took the job to see if I was cut out for teaching (I'm not!)
My pay was £12K BUT that was pro-rata. Maximum hours available to work were 25 a week, over 39 weeks per year. They paid us for 4 weeks holiday but we still ended up with just £400 per month before stoppages. I had another job at the same time so I had to pay tax & took home £300 pm.
Basically the job is just commonsense. You interpret for your named child (ren) what the teacher wants them to do & help them do it. I had a lot of pupils with behavioural problems & did spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in the middle of a row of 16 year old boys keeping notes on who broke what!!
I expect it varies from county to county & even from school to school whether they expect you to have any sort of training/specific qualifications. Mine advertised in the local paper. Otherwise you could just try ringing a local school & ask what their policy is. Good luck!

Daffy - this is the thread tallulah referred to. Some more helpful info here for you.

I was a learning assistant in an FE college for a couple of years also, before training to be a teacher. (Which incidentally, the college supported) I had no direct qualifications or training, but have a BA in psychology and have experience working with the mentally handicapped. I applied directly to the college for the job. To my knowledge they still do not require formal qualifications, just the right sort of personality. The pay was awful, but the advantage of being in a college was that I could take advantage of the courses the institution has to offer, and do them all on the staff training budget.

Just look in the local paper for jobs adverts which will give you an idea of pay...there are loads and loads about....you don't have to have any qualifications, but the pay (which is rubbish) goes up if you do. You could phone up schools and go in as a volunteer to see if you like it/get some experince for your C.V. The other thing is if you work in a private school the pay is better!
(sorry for repeating any one's post, but am typing this quickly before the darlings come back from their lunch).

Good luck!

Thanks kmg1.