Any Teaching Assistants/school people who can answer a salary question

[MrsBosh]

Afternoon all,

I'm applying for a level 1 TA post in a primary school. Just having a look through all the info and had a question about pay.

It's a permanent contract based on 39 weeks/year, obvs Monday to Friday, the hours are school hours which works out about 5.45/day.

The salary 'range' quoted on ad says £13,871 - £15,523. As far as I can see it doesn't say pro rata. So does this mean I would be paid a minimum £13,871, or do I need to do some calculations to work out my actual yearly salary based on 28 hrs or whatever it is?

My DH is keen that if I change jobs I should be earning the same or more than my current role (on about 15k at the mo working FT 40hrs/wk) so that's why I'm keen to understand a bit more about the pay for this post.

Also, many of my teacher friends have mentioned in passing that they are paid 12 months of the year - does anyone know if this is true for other school roles too?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed

No, you will come out with less than the figure quoted. You will be paid for the 39 weeks you work, plus about 4.5/5 weeks' holiday pay, so about 43.5/52 of the quoted salary. Then you have to divide it again because you are not working a full day/week, ie 5.45 hrs instead of 7.5.

I work in a support role in a school, 6.5 hrs a day term time only and my salary is exactly 0.75 of the advertised full time equivalent. Because your working day will be shorter, I imagine yours would work out as. 68/.70 of FTE.

But, yes, they do spread your salary over 12 months so you take home the same pay each month.

Do remember (if you have children!) that you won't need to pay for childcare in the holidays...

Thanks Ralph that's super helpful

Wow, that all looks a little complicated at first glance. I'll need to get my abacus out tonight!

In terms of salary ranges that they always have on adverts - how do these work in practice? I know in a previous role when they offered me a job they offered the lowest end of the salary and silly old me just accepted it as I was so happy to have got the job. I found out a few months later that another person who started at the same time in the same role (they took two of us on) had said she wouldn't accept the job unless they paid her the top number of the range. I felt pretty stupid for not knowing I could try and negotiate that. How does one do that?

No you'll earn a lot less than that In reality 😟 You also won't get to negotiate your salary as a TA, they'll put you in what they want to (probably the lowest figure) I'm not really sure why they don't just put the real figure. At least then people know what they're getting into.

Yes, you'll almost definitely start at the bottom of the advertised salary.

Pro-rata figure should be easy to work out.

My mental maths is obviously off. Using a calculator, I think you'll come out with 62.88% of advertised pay (for a 5.75 hour day, if I do 6.5); that's before deductions, of course. So, about £8,722. Of course, there'll be no tax off that! This could vary slightly if your LEA pays more or less holiday than mine.

But, just to say, you'll only actually be working about half the hours as before - 13 weeks holiday instead of maybe 5 and a 24 hour week instead of 40!

Almost all TA jobs are advertised this way. You get a fair bit less than that as it is always pro rata - you get paid for the weeks you are at school (plus 4 weeks holiday pay iirr) and only for the houses you are employed. Usually you get half an hour unpaid for lunch time, and 15 unpaid break in the morning. You may well have to do an after school meeting of an extra hour - this is often not paid but it means you get to take a 1 hour lunch twice a week.

So I am employed 8:30am - 3:30pm - 7 hours.
But I lose 45 minutes a day to unpaid breaks - so 6hr15min
I work approx 39 weeks a year (13 weeks school holidays) but get paid, iirr, for an extra 4 weeks - so 43 weeks.

The annual salary is paid over 12 months - they just split it over 12 months, rather than just the months you are in school. Means you don't have a changing wage packet each month.

I was a teacher before becoming this - they have a similar system in that they are paid for x number of hours, but get paid over 12 months.

Our council are bringing in term time only payments for support staff, so no more holiday pay, so be aware of this .

Thanks so much everyone for your insight and experiences. It's very helpful.

Eek, definitely much less than it seems on the surface isn't it? Agree that it would be much easier if they just used one figure instead of a range.

Going to have a chat with DH about whether it's a go-er or not. Hopefully he'll recognise there's no harm in applying and seeing what happens

P.S. Ralph - v. impressed with your mental maths percentages!