Seriously, teaching assistants don't get paid enough

[BelleTheBeatnik]

Disclaimer: I think this is true for lots of professions and unfortunetly there's pretty much nowt all we can do about it for now, but...

Before my DC started school, I assumed TAs were the nursery nurses who pottered about the classroom, tidying books and overseeing the little one's colouring-in sessions. I now have three DC in primary school and realise just how underestimated they are. It's just dawned on me that the reason my DC get the support they do when they a) find some difficult and need extra help or b) excel in something and need a little 'push' to get them working at the next level, is because there is another adult in the room who can focus on either end of the academic spectrum when the teacher has to teach for the middle ones. I can't believe primary schools ever managed to provide challenging work for thirty children of varying abilities with just one teacher!

Teachers and TAs deserve a particularly good present this summer, I think.

Anyway, that's my soppy post done for the night.

My t.a is getting more than the supply teacher this year as she has done most of the work!!!!

Should of said "supply teachers's" as it has been a bit scatty since Dec...

Dont know who will be there in 6 weeks ..so would rather spend (more than what I normally do ) on who I feel deep in my heart has helped him progress..

SandStorm- I don't get a morning or afternoon break, as I'm in reception. The children can use the out door area throughout the morning, so no need for them to go out to play on the palyground. .

Belle I wish more parents realised what we really do. I don't know any TAs who just sharpen pencil and mix paint these days. A large part of my job is working with small intervention groups. It means I often have a more up to date knowledge of where a child really is than the teacher.

I do claim for extra hours when I do parents evening, etc. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to afford to turn up, as I often have to pay a baby sitter as DH isn't home from work until later in the evening. Our HT understands this.

I agree! I am one these days :) Just started a HLTA role now, after working as a Level 3 TA beforehand. Was previously a teacher but working as a TA whilst DD is younger for the flexibility. I can afford to do it as my DH is on a good salary and we all benefit from my flexibility with hours.

I love my work but the pay is not great, especially considering the amount of work I do outside of my contracted hours both in school and at home.

I do a wide range of things in my role.

In lessons I support children in small groups or on one-to-one tasks depending on what is going on. It might be doing small group phonics for those who find it harder, may be some dyslexic type activities, a guided read, taking a group outside for extension work, one to one IEP work or just general class support. I will also create new role play areas in the classroom - just made a big Olympic Village with the London skyline, various sports taking place on the other side, etc. I will do circle time or stories whilst the teacher is engaged elsewhere. I will cover for an hour or even a day, leading the class if the teacher is ill or is on PPA.

As a HLTA I will be covering other class teacher's PPA time too.

Before school I run a 3 morning wide awake club for learning support - doing additional phonics work, story writing and reading.

I sort out and deliver intervention programmes - some are pre established, others I create myself.

I also spend a lot of time making resources to use in class - worksheets, display, activities.

I attend meetings with other support agencies, I do pupil progress meetings with the class teacher and the head, i meet with parents...

It's a big role and it is low paid for what is involved imo.

But it is also immensely rewarding. And great fun too !

I am paid a salary in our LEA, but it is pro rota for the term time weeks and hours only, which makes a huge difference to the amount I actually bring home. I'm not paid for holidays, bar bank holidays if they fall in the term time week, and I am not paid for breaks during the day or lunch. I have to take 15 minutes each am./pm and 30 mins at lunch. Even if I work in this time I still don't get paid.

Some older TAs are on different terms and conditions and get paid for some holidays, but the new contracts phased this out a few years ago.

I'm a TA and am paid bottom of the payscale. I only do 15 hours a week and the hours change depending on what children need support at what time. I have had 4 different timetables since September.

I started working one to one with a child with severe learning difficulties and behavioural issues around 3 years ago. We built up a great relationship and he always behaved really well when I was around. Sadly, it all seemed to fall apart when I wasn't. I was in the process of researching how to get consistency in place before he went up into Y6 and he had to leave for personal reasons. I miss him.

After he left I was given 36 children to work with, 2 to 1 and one to one over a full time week. I was given little guidance by the teachers and found the pressure of working with these children, all of whom were struggling academically or behaviourally, got too much for me and I begged to reduce my hours. Now I work with 10 children across 15 hours and I also do a little voluntary time to squeeze the most of the interventions I do.

I love what I do. I used to be in management, blue chip organisations, small business and then civil service, and loved what I did when I could work all the hours God sent, but then I had a family and, though I know it's done by many women, I didn't feel I could give my all to the job at that level. I also found that I got so much more enjoyment from working with children.

Now I love what I do. Every now and again I feel undervalued by teaching staff or left out of the loop because communication is poor with part timers (as it is in most places) and I feel like jacking it all in and getting a 'proper job'. However, I have yet to find a proper job where I can watch someone learn new skills, like how to decode words and developing pride in their abilities as a reader; I can help a person who has low self esteem to see how much fantastic work he's done in a day (though I did always try to do this as a manager when it was merited); or I can help someone who is socially unsure to develop confidence in their environment and have somewhere to come if they can't cope.

I sometimes say I'd pay school to go in and work there...and most of the time I mean it. I think it helps that I have a husband whose job is able to support us both at this time. If he ever lost his job I'd be back at Office Angel looking for a 'proper job' just for the money. Sad really...

I don't know where you are but this is certainly not true for me. Not only do I work with violent year 6/7 children with attachment and behaviour issues but I also have my own 1-1 child with quadriplegic cerebral palsy in a wheelchair (in the same class!) who at 11 weighs over 10 stone and needs to be rolled over, have physio, hydro, be changed 3 times a day which takes about 15 min each and he can't support any part of his own body so even things like putting his coat on can take me 5 minutes. When I've done all that I'm getting pinched, bitten chairs thrown around, holding children and being screamed at "fck off you btch". Then sometimes I deal with difficult parents moaning because we haven't had time to write stupid things like what lessons we did in the home books because THEY forgot to give their kid their ADHD meds that morning so needlessly we had extra kick offs and I get paid £13k a year full time.

I don't know where you are but this is certainly not true for me. Not only do I work with violent year 6/7 children with attachment and behaviour issues but I also have my own 1-1 child with quadriplegic cerebral palsy in a wheelchair (in the same class!) who at 11 weighs over 10 stone and needs to be rolled over, have physio, hydro, be changed 3 times a day which takes about 15 min each and he can't support any part of his own body so even things like putting his coat on can take me 5 minutes. When I've done all that I'm getting pinched, bitten chairs thrown around, holding children and being screamed at "fck off you btch". Then sometimes I deal with difficult parents moaning because we haven't had time to write stupid things like what lessons we did in the home books because THEY forgot to give their kid their ADHD meds that morning so needlessly we had extra kick offs and I get paid £13k a year full time.

Full Full time being 35 hours a week

Gnocchi that's good pay for a TA even though it's bad pay compared to other jobs, I don't know any TAs who earn that (I know a few as I used to be a school secretary).

My DSis is a TA, she works 20 hours and gets just under 8k for that. She works all morning doing interventions with children who are disadvantaged or have special needs, she has to plan those activities herself to match the requirements on the child's plan. She covers the class once a week when the teacher does planning. I don't think 8k is reasonable for what she does, I think she should train to be a teacher but she enjoys what she does.

Definitely and to all TAs. I work secondary, and some of our TAs are teachers in all but name, but on a fraction of our salary. They even have to mark and plan lessons. Thanks so much for all the wonderful work you do.

So being a TA is a more or less a minimum wage job. That is scandalous. I am guessing TAS are employed in many cases as cheap teachers, which again is wrong....

DSis gets an extra £7 each time she does PPA

Another minimum wage ta here. I design and deliver 1:1 key stage 2 literacy intervention and design and deliver for the g and t groups. I enjoy it very much, but the pay is appalling. I'm hoping to escape in another couple of years.

Totally agree with the op. I recently saw my reception ds's learning journal for the first time in a couple of months..They had changed the format of it since I'd seen it the last time so that observations for each week we're put into a little booklet and the relevant eyfs criteria noted that the observation related to.

Virtually every single one of the observations were by the TA.

Where I am, general class TAs make about £10k a year (full time) and SEN TAs about £15k.

I'm a TA in Y6. I often cover classes in my, and other, year groups. I've never worked so hard or been so well qualified in any job, and so badly paid. I'v done much easier jobs on 4x what I earn now. But I love what I do, and it's so nice to read a thread where the job is so well appreciated.

Sorry I know it has already been mentioned, but can I just also point out that preschool workers don't just potter about.

I have a degree, am trained in makaton, and am doing an in work NVQ level 3 qualification (I don't actually get paid atm). Next term I will be earning minimum wage to be a pt 1-1 to a child with severe disabilities. My job will entail, observations, assessing developmental levels, working with outside professionals, coming up with plans for activities which help this child's development and progress towards starting school.

The expectations of early years worker are higher and higher, including making sure that a child's development is on track and ensuring that a child is 'school ready' - but it seems that early years workers are often seen as 'just' childcare who just sit around while the children play.

TA roles seem to vary massively. Is it normal to ask a Level 2 TA to plan, deliver, assess and record all the activities for their 1-1 child,
including planning and preparing the activities for the child in the afternoons when the part time (mornings only) TA isn't even there?

I am a 121 TA and work 30 hours p/w (which is classed full time).

The class TAs work 31.5 hours (one evening till 5 a week).

My hours are 8.30-3.30 with an hour for lunch.

I have to plan all my interventions, have regular observations, provide 121 support in the morning (literacy & numeracy), liaise with the class teacher/other professionals (speech & language for example).

TAs imo don't get paid enough (£12,000 per year for me) but I love my job and wouldn't do anything else

I am a level 2 TA, in my area.
The job is £16,231 pro rata
For me, working 28 hours a week(which officially makes me part-time. Apparently they just couldn't pay us all the extra 2 hours a week to make us full time!!!) That worked out as £10,004 according to my P60. That's term-time + 5.

I love my job, but it is getting to the point where I can't afford to do it as DH works for Tesco, and between us our income is just about £23,000. I really,really,really don't want to though!
I

Agreed

Also, you can no longer train to become an HLTA or level 3 TA, in our LA area, so there is no career or pay progression at the moment. Very frustrating.

I'm a teacher I I can say, hand on heart, I couldn't do my job without my teaching assistants. They definitely don't get paid enough.

Saying that, once my children are at school I would like to stop being a part time teacher and start being a full time ta, the money is just about the same