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Primary education

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Original poster

How much do TA's get paid during the summer holidays???

62 replies

LastAvailableNickname · 13/03/2014 21:10

I am currently a cover TA through a Temping agency. They're great and find me plenty to do, but I only get paid for the time that I work and during the holidays, I receive literally no money. I'm not complaining, but I would like to know if permanent TA's get paid through the holidays.

Also, every time I see a job it says "14,500 pro-rata" this usually means that if you work 25 hours instead of 40, you get 25/40ths of the advertised wages. What does it mean when a TA post is advertised???

Hope you can help...

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hippo123 · 16/03/2014 08:54

13.5 k a year here, being doing it for over 10 years. Permanent contract, 35 hours a week (so working longer than school hours), school holidays off but totally unable to ever get any time off in term time.

hippo123 · 16/03/2014 08:55

Oh, paid every month, the 13.5 k is just split into 12.

jamdonut · 19/03/2014 20:58

I'm on ' Term- time + 5' and all the TA's in our school can only do 28 hours a week. This works out Â£740+ per month take home and a little under Â£10 thousand a year . We do everything the teachers do apart from the actual lesson planning and wrangling with pupil data. (Oh ,and parents evening!)

Don't get me wrong,I love my job, I just wish I was paid better .

ShadowOfTheDay · 20/03/2014 12:31

minimum wage retail for 12 hours a week is not looking soooooo bad now - considering I can turn up, do the job and go home and not have to take care of kids

Lisaba2 · 19/06/2014 21:23

Can anyone help. I have just got a TA job at another school in the same area as my current role. I am confused as to what will happen with my pay during the summer holidays. As I will have completed a full school year (43.3 weeks) and pay for this is paid in 12 equal payments, do I get paid in August before I start my new role in September?

rollonthesummer · 19/06/2014 22:15

We do everything the teachers do apart from the actual lesson planning and wrangling with pupil data.

Do you arrive/leave at the same time as the teaching staff as well?

Heels99 · 20/06/2014 12:05

Teaching assistants do NOT do everything teachers do!!! They mostly don't teach the whole class by themselves, they don't do parents evening, marking, planning, communications with parents, they are not responsible for the performance and achievement of pupils and they don't work the same hours. Teaching assistants do a great job but to say it's more or less the same as a teacher is not true!

mrz · 20/06/2014 17:06

Our TA arrive and leave at the same time as teachers rollonthesummer

ChocolateWombat · 20/06/2014 17:24

I think lots of TAS think they are doing pretty much the same job as the teacher.
They see themselves sitting with a group and helping those finding it tricky....and they see the teacher doing the same. They see the teacher telli g children off or praising them....and they do the same. They sit in assemblies and teachers do the same.

However, there is a massive difference because the teacher is planning the delivery of the curriculum, on a termly, weekly and daily basis. This is a totally different thing to a TA does. They are considering what needs to be achieved in the year and how to get there, not just delivery material someone else has prepared. They design interventions to deal with children who are not achieving at the levels they should, after keeping a continual eye on progress. They alter their plans in light of what is going on with the class and individuals. It is this kind of stuff,mperhaps more than the marking that goes on and attending parents evenings, which people think of first, which is really different.
Without being rude to TAs (who do a great job supporting teachers, and without whom, teachers' jobs would be so much more difficult) what I mention above is a higher level skill than delivering pre prepared material, or working with a group. It's not to say that TAs are not capable of doing the above. They may well be and lots of TAs go on to train to be teachers and are great. However, I think there can often be a sense that TAs are doing the same as teachers and just being paid poorly. I do think they are poorly paid, but its not the same job.

rollonthesummer · 20/06/2014 18:20

Our TA arrive and leave at the same time as teachers rollonthesummer

Well ours certainly don't.

I'm in at 7.30am at the latest and leave at 6-6.30. Our LSAs arrive at 8.45 and leave at 3.20.

mrz · 20/06/2014 18:23

Our TAs attend staff meetings and twilights alongside teachers and are there just as long as teachers. They even come in during the holidays the same as teachers to set up classes.

ChocolateWombat · 20/06/2014 18:51

Tbh, I think the issue about how long they are in school is a bit of a red herring.

The nature of the work is different (which is the key thing) as well as the expectation to undertake work outside of school, even if the hours spent in school are similar.

mrz · 20/06/2014 18:58

I thought the issue was about holiday pay

rollonthesummer · 20/06/2014 18:58

Just out of interest, I'd like to know from other Primary teachers what the LSAs do in their school? In my school, the school my children attend, my last school and my new school-they come in as the children arrive and go as they leave.

The majority are parents/ex parents at the school and have taken the job to fit around their own children. If they were working 7.30-6.30 for much less money than a teacher, they wouldn't do the job.

Hulababy · 20/06/2014 19:00

I get paid for 8:30am to 3:30pm. I am always in well before this - normally 8am. I rarely leave at 3:30 either, rarely before 4pm - often later. I also work from home a few nights/weekend each week. And some in my holidays too.

My PPA time is not long enough to do all my planning prep and assessment, my subject leadership planning, and the other stuff I need to do.
I obviously do all staff meetings and INSET dyas.

As a HLTA I do plan, prep and do assessment. I also do report comments for my subject area for all the classes I teach - I do PPA cover for other teachers - teaching my subject.

I also do subject leadership work - planning and prep and overall monitoring of a subject area. As it the new curriculum this year - lots of extra work.

Luckily I love my job

mrz · 20/06/2014 19:03

Our TAs are parents who have taken the job to fit in around their own children, they are well qualified and very experienced professionals who trained for 3 years straight from school for a very important role.

Hulababy · 20/06/2014 19:04

ChocolateWombat

I've been a teacher - secondary
I'm now a HLTA - infants

I know that a lot of what I do IS what I did as a secondary school teacher. Not all the time, but a lot of the time.

I don;'t think our level 3 TAs do the same though they are increasingly doing more and more specialist work, but my job - especially when doing PPA cover - is very much the same as when I was teaching. As I am not a class teacher I don't do the same as our class teachers here, though increasingly so - though much is at my own bequest anyway, incase I make the leap to become a teacher again in next year or two.

mrz · 20/06/2014 19:09

aren't not are

BitchyHen · 20/06/2014 19:09

Lisaba2 You should be paid by your current school for the summer holiday as you will have already worked for that money over the year. If you are moving to a different school that is run by the same LA your employer will not have changed so your work over the two posts will count as continuous service for pension contributions and any extra holiday pay awarded for long service.

mrz · 20/06/2014 19:09

Our TAs are not parents who have taken the job to fit in around their own children, they are well qualified and very experienced professionals who trained for 3 years straight from school for a very important role.

sideshowbob2 · 20/06/2014 19:12

i have been an LST (learning support teacher) which is the same as a TA for 11 years, we all have intervention groups which we run, plan for and specialise in and have to complete paperwork for everytime we run a session, which for me is 3 groups a week for 2 sessions a week at half each session, so this is alot of planning, organising of work, filing of work, running the actual sessions and then completing all the paperwork once each session is completed!! in addition to see during the morning i work with a 1:1 child with ASD and again paperwork has to be completed and feedback given on the class teachers planning as well, as well as actual supporting a child be make sure he achieves during numeracy and literacy!!
on top of all this we have to complete first training every 3 years and also restraint training every 3 years, as well as in house training to do with numeracy and literacy, some of which has to be done in twilight sessions after school as well as during inset days!!
as i work for a different council to the one i live i get outer fringe benefit but this is lumped in with my basic pay, i am also at the top of my pay scale now and i have an nvq level 3 but if i worked for the same council that i live in i would have to take a 4 grand pay cut per annum, i get paid the same every month, as i'm paid pro-rata, as far as i know we do not get holiday pay but we don't work any school holidays, i have taken un-paid leave before as i wanted to attend my friends son's graduation in the usa, this was very difficult as i had to write to the governors to ask for permission, i was allowed but they were not happy about!!

rollonthesummer · 20/06/2014 19:24

Ours are all parents and the only training they have generally had before they start, is a first aid and a safeguarding course. Certainly not three years straight training.

What sort of salary are your LSAs on?

mrz · 20/06/2014 19:26

The same as a NQT

ChocolateWombat · 20/06/2014 19:27

Tbh I don't know what HLTAs are paid, but I suspect they are being ripped off, bearing in mind the level of responsibility.

I can see that they probably don't plan the bigger picture stuff, likethe whole years scheme of work, but still, what they are expected to do probably involves a lot of work outside of school and I don't think that is a reasonable expectation of someone being paid a low hourly rate and term time only.
HLTA is a way to save money for the school....to cover PPA time without paying a teacher,to do cover without a teacher. I know many of them love what they do and are brilliant at it, which is great, but I think they are being exploited.

This is a very different role to that of many TAs who understandably want a job that means they can drop their kids at school, turn up, work and leave again to be with their own kids after school and in the holidays, without having to give school much thought once they have left.

mrz · 20/06/2014 19:32

As a school we don't employ anyone below level 3 qualified and certainly wouldn't employ someone unqualified

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