Could I become a TA if my maths is really bad?

[chuffinalong]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of a career change. At the moment I work in a home for young people with autism who have left school and are preparing for independent living. I work nights as it fits in around my 10 year old daughter. I obviously have experience of learning disabilities, autism, epilepsy, first aid and many other care related qualifications.
I'd really like to work in a primary school as a TA. I've looked into the qualifications and I'd be happy to do the TA training but my maths is shocking! I was always really bad at it at school and it states you need a C grade GCSE. I've been looking at some GCSE related course work and it still makes no sense to me. I could get by with primary school maths... I think. If I do decide to take the GCSE again, how long would it take?
Also could I do some voluntary work in the school while taking the course? I have an up to date CRB check.
Thanks.

It's an obvious point but I'm going to make it: it's the CT, not the TA, who is in charge of teaching.
Provided that you can follow a maths skill once it has been taught by the teacher, you should be OK supervising children who are then developing their practice.
In theory, anyway ...

I would be surprised if they didn't want a C grade in maths as a basic requirement.

I think it depends on what you mean by really bad. If you mean you can't do all the new methods or some of the more complicated stuff that used to be secondary and now is taught at a basic level at primary, then you can probably learn as you go along.

If your mental arithmatic is pretty non-existant then I'd definitely feel about a TA like that. There's a tendency for people to wear "I can't do maths" almost like a badge of pride and I wouldn't want a TA who would be potentially showing that.

You can do a level 2 course at your local fe college , often on a distance learning basis. Free if you didn't get a c at gcse. Or if you took a nvq level 2/3 in Supporting teaching and learning in school, or similar it would be run alongside. You can volunteer without any qualifications.

Depends on the job you want. Most ask for grade C maths and English. It is worth getting a grade C or equivalent for the sake of your CV in any case. I'm a TA who just does literacy.

I've re-read your posts. You sound so sure you can't 'do maths'. I so, so bet that with the right teacher you could.
I re-learnt maths alongside my children. It was a revelation. I used to think just like you ... and they taught me how much fun maths is. I'm now teaching myself 'A' level maths and loving it. I so regret all those years when I avoided maths because I thought it was awful.

I so want you to share my (happy) experience.

Be brave!

I was also rubbish at maths in school and it had been a demon of mine for years, last year I did a GCSE maths course at an adult learning centre (2 mornings a week plus 1 hour homework), and I learnt so much and achieved a B to my surprise. Course was actually only 9 months as started sept and exam was the June after. Was SO worth it.

Also thinking you probably had bad maths teachers and could do it if you dumped the "can't do" attitude and adopted a "have a go" one instead. As you will want the kids you support to have.

Get yourself to the local college, or find a tutor you get on well with. You write like an educated and logical person, I'd be surprised if GCSE grade C wasn't approachable with the right support.

Depends on why you're bad. If you just never learnt, whether due to bad teaching, undiagnosed ld etc no reason you can't reach the required level. If you're just naturally 'bad' in the way I would be if music was as big a part of primary education and GCSE grade c was a requirement then maybe not.
However, whilst maths may naturally come easy to me, it doesn't follow I'd have an advantage on you based on that. I'd need to learn the teachers methods just as much as you. And while left to my own devices or learning current methods for teaching children who are mathematically minded and able I may have an advantage, the opposite is true for you. Doing eg a number line is far more likely to be logical to you, whereas for me I'd need to think rather than working on the basis everyone has one in their head. Explaining complex (for that age) concepts to kids who 'get' maths is something I find easy, because they think the same. Explaining a more basic concept to an average or less able child requires me to really think.
Have a look into whether it's actually grade c to get on the course, or just the equivalent, and speak to whoever is in charge of the ta course to find out what options there are if you do need to attend a maths course first.

I was always atrocious at Maths (terrible teacher when I was at school), but worked as a TA in a Primary/Junior school for six years. If you can listen to the instructions given to the children at the beginning of each lesson, it isn't difficult to reinforce the message.

Also, the Deputy Head used to run little sessions for parents and TAs to show us the new ways of teaching and learning Maths, which I found very useful and went to every single one!

DP is now self-employed and I do the accounts, so working in the school helped me enormously! Gave me a bit of confidence, where before I'd always been terrified.

Good Luck!

Another option might be to start as an LSA: you have the perfect C.V for doing one-to-one support. I have a couple of friends who have just started as LSAs and they don't have Maths GCSE. They had to do a couple of simple maths questions in the interview. One of my friends even failed that but they still offered her the job!

The school may then be willing to release you and support you doing your Maths GCSE but this way you'll still be earning at the same time. Plus be in a great position to apply for any TA jobs that then come up at the school.

It took me two attempts to pass Maths GCSE and it still doesn't come naturally to me but as other posters have said, you come across as someone who could do it with the right support and encouragement. Good luck!

Huckcat I really despair when I read that children with significant learning needs (because to get 1 to 1 support, needs need to be high) can be fobbed off or saddled with support from a person with lower educational attainment than would be needed to support a teacher and most likely groups of children with less needs.
As a parent, whose children have had and still have 1 to 1 support that I secured before entry into education, it's infuriating to know that it's seemingly acceptable to employ substandard staff for children such as mine.
Dd has had a difficult year because she has been lumbered with useless TA's who have had neither the experience, knowledge nor training to support her meaningfully. Maybe I should be grateful that they were mostly numerate and literate
Thankfully because of a safeguarding fail and my being able to use that to get what dd needs dd will be supported solely by a level 4 TA (HLTA) from now on but without the school messing up so spectacularly I have no doubt dd would have been repeatedly failed by the people supposedly employed as her support.

There is a lack of confidence around maths for a lot of people but with enough work most people could get a C at GCSE, it will be slightly harder in 2 years with the new GCSE but it should still be possible with enough focus. You need a GCSE grade C or above in both English and Maths to be an Early Years Practitioner/Nursery Nurse now so I'd be surprised if you could work with older children without.

As a SENCO I would never employ a LSA who doesn't have appropriate qualifications and find it shocking that anyone would regard it as suitable for someone unable to meet TA standards.

mrz although I suspect that not all SENCo's would do the same. This year dd has had the office staff's daughter (no training or experience just unemployed at the time) the governor's friend (likewise) and a parent of a child in the school (never managed to work out why for that one). I called them hopeless, useless and nice but dim

Insanity - my friend who 'failed' the maths part of the interview has five years experience supporting young people with autism, which is why they gave her the job.

My son also has ASC and has full time support at school - so I do know what makes a good LSA (and what makes a bad one!).

I'm sorry to hear you and your DD have been so badly let down. Support at school seems such a Lottery.

The OP has worked with young people on the Spectrum so I thought an LSA role might be worth her considering while she studies for her Maths. I agree that in an ideal world everyone who works with children and young people would have Maths and English GCSE, regardless of if those children have additional needs or not.

My son is only 5 though and I appreciate that I may feel differently when he gets higher up his school and the work becomes more academic.

But personally, if I had to choose, I would rather my son were supported by someone with a wealth of ASD experience than someone who had paper qualifications.
The point I was trying to make is that a rapport and a genuine passion to support children with additional needs isn't something that can be taught - whereas Maths probably is.

Huckcat tbh I just want someone who can actually do the job!I'd be worried if the TA's supporting dd hadn't passed GCSE maths because dd is in top group maths and in year seven they are already completing year 9 work which is lower tier GCSE level so obviously a TA might need to explain 1 to 1 what has been taught.
But most important I think would be to have knowledge of dd, her needs and the ability to deliver the support detailed in her statement which hopeless, useless and nice but dim have, over the course of the last year, repeatedly demonstrated that they couldn't.
It's only because hopeless messed up spectacularly and the SENCo wasn't on the ball either that it left the HT in a position where he had no choice but to agree to my demands and I took full advantage of it hence support by the HLTA exclusively from now on .

Insanity - I am shocked to hear you've had what sounds like completely unqualified people 'supporting' your DD. No wonder you're angry!
I know what it's like having to fight daily to ensure your child just gets the same opportunity to an education as NT kids.

I really hope the person who'll be supporting your DD next year is a breath of fresh air. Well done on getting there. Schools shouldn't be allowed to get away with failing children.

All I was suggesting is that the OP could look at applying for an LSA role - given her levels of experience in the ASD field while working towards her Maths. A school might be prepared to support her as people with her experience are hard to come by.

The TA next year is 100 times better than what we have had tbh. She has been supporting dd part time but of course the other three's lack of support alongside didn't help matters.
School policy is that a team of TA's support a child which, in principle, I think is a good thing however it's only good when all on the team are capable rather than there being a team so as to spread out the dross.
Next year dd will only have the one TA full time so hopefully it will be better because in the past dd had a fantastic TA in Primary and ds had lots of good TA's during his time in school so I know they are out there.

I'm not sure whether they were qualified or not but I have come across TAs with shocking maths and literacy skills! It's inexcusable in my opinion that such TAs can pass on misconceptions to children, often those who are least confident academically.

As a former TA, I have come across examples of some teachers with shocking literacy, grammar and pronunciation skills. That, to me, is worse.
A TA is meant to be a supporting role, not a lead role.
Teachers have been to University and have been taught how to teach. Most TAs have not.

Since Sept 2015, you need to have a Maths GCSE at grade C or above to become a TA or Nursery nurse.

Get yourself to your local FE college, they will assess you and help you develop a one or two year plan to get your GCSE, you may need to do level 1 and 2 first, than follow up with the GCSE.

Whoops Sept 2014

OP - Maybe your Maths isn't REALLY as bad as you think, but you were not taught in a way that made any sense to you. I will give you information I send to parents with children struggling with Numeracy. If you can cope with this, then try to get on to a suitable evening class, as other replies suggest. I think CONFIDENCE (or lack of it) has a lot to do with it:

Practical things are best for grasping number concepts - bricks, Lego, beads, counters, money, shapes, weights, measuring, cooking.

Do adding, taking away, multiplication (repeated addition), division (sharing), using REAL OBJECTS as just 'numbers' can be too abstract for some children.

Number Bonds of Ten forms the basis of much maths, so try to learn them. Using Lego or something similar, use a LOT of bricks (of just TWO colours, if you have enough) lay them out so the pattern can be seen of one colour INCREASING while the other colour DECREASES. Lay them down, or build up like steps.

So:

ten of one colour none of other
nine of one colour one of other
eight of one colour two of other
seven of one colour three of other
etc,
then of course, the sides are equal at 5 and 5; after which the colours 'swap over' as to increasing/decreasing.

To learn TABLES, do them in groups that have a relationship, thus:

x2, x4, x8

x3, x6, x12

5 and 10 are easy

7 and 9 are rather harder.

Starting with TWO times TABLE, I always say: "Imagine the class is lining up in pairs; each child will have a partner, if there is an EVEN number in the class. If one child is left without a partner, then the number is ODD, because an odd one is left out."

Use Lego bricks again, lay them out in a column of 2 wide to learn 2x table. Go half way down the column, and move half the bricks up, so that now the column is 4 bricks wide. That gives the start of 4x table.

Then do similar things with 3x and 6x.

With 5x, try and count in 'fives', and notice the relationship with 'ten' - they will alternate, ending in 5 then 10.

It is important to try and UNDERSTAND the relationships between numbers, and not just learn them 'by rote'.

An inexpensive solar powered calculator (no battery to run out!) can help learn tables by 'repeated addition'. So: enter 2+2 and press = to give 4. KEEP PRESSING = and it should add on 2 each time, giving 2 times table.

There are good web sites, which can be fun to use :

www.ictgames.com/

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/page/default.asp?title=Woodlands%20Junior%20School&pid=1

www.ncetm.org.uk/public/files/23305649/Mastery_Assessment_Y6_High_Res.pdf this is an example of what's expected in Y6

I presume that those would have been grammatical mistakes.