um, Teaching Assistant. what exactly is it?

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

i am 80% sure im going to be doing this from sept onwards.

but actually, i havent the foggiest idea what it entails.

are they ft? pt? paid? volunteers? qualified? not neccessarily? what do they DO??

tia

information here

basically teaching assistant is what teaching assistant does provides support in the classroom to the teacher, and can fill in for teacher on occasion.

TAs often start out as parent helpers and then go on to more formal qualifications, there are courses at most local colleges. Can be voluntary or full or part time.....but wages aren't that great.

can I ask why you are going to do it if you don't know anything about it?

oops, apologies for lack of grammar...see I'd never cut it meself

basically teaching assistant is what teaching assistant does; provides support in the classroom to the teacher, and can fill in for teacher on occasion.

no need for correction, i got it from the first post

well, to try to cut a long story short, ive been wondering what to do with my life and one thing i think id like to do, is be a language teacher. so i need to learn both teaching and languages. theres a few different tacks to take, and this just seemed like one way to get my foot in the door. so i asked at the ds' school just before end of term if they needed anyone and they said probably. the kids would love it if i worked there too... so im gonna give it a try.

i have actually done a montessori early years teaching course (and almost finished it an everything) so its not totally out of the blue.

It's something I looked into and would love to do once the DCs are at school.

I found some information somewhere on salaries and grading etc; think it was the local authority education site.

If you can get in, your doing well as it is becoming one of those jobs that is getting very popular (due to the school hours and holidays). there are som many different roles these days; subject specific or otherwise in secondary schools, SN, primary. I suppose where you go with it will depend on the school's needs.

hopefully it'll be paid and the start of something good for you. My SILs dad became a TA after being made redundant and he loves it.

thanks for the link daisy... so it really is a matter of going along and seeing what it is in that particular place and time then. which is what i was going to do... so i suppose my instinct was right [nice to be validated]

good luck with it; I imagine it will be pretty rewarding

thanks daisy, its really nice to hear some positive stuff about this... good luck to you too. guess it'll be a year or two beofre yr dd goes to school... (liking yr profile notes btw, ver funny. and the pic of dp/h and dc sleeping is gorgeous!)

aw ta . I'm having another one in November, so it's gonna be a while, but I know I definately don't want to resume my current (not been there since April 07) job...too stressful.

congrats! kind of want another too, but dont at same time... odd feeling, but i digress.
what was the stressful job?

i dont want to return to anything ive done before coz ive made damn sure ive never done anything i couldnt walk away from in a heartbeat, lest The Big Flash of Inspiration should come to me and i'd know what i wanted in life. or something better came along.
im a fickle, shallow cow who will get what she deserves amant i? [resigned]

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lol - i'll let you know what my notverymuch is, when i do oops, if youd like.

and BOY am i overthemoon grateful that for right now, that isnt too much of a factor for me. money may not buy you happiness, but hell honey, it helps.

IME, not very much = anything between £7 and £10 per hour.

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'tween 7 and 10 an hour? thats not bad! s'more than i was expecting...

some TA jobs here

I suppose £8K ish for a 25 hour week, 39 weeks a year job isn't too bad when you think about it. not sure if it pays in the holidays as well though.

Pity I couldn't afford the childcare for two DCs on that salary. Maybe when DD is at preschool in two years time.

Its worked out pro-rata. They say you get something like £17,000 a year. That is if you work 40 hours a week and X amount of weeks a year.

You actually get something like 70% of the salary advertised which is very misleading.

I am a TA and am/was very happy in my job.
It fits in perfectly with my kids, I get to attend all their assemblies, go on school trips with them, take them to school and bring them home all whilst being paid!

The was very happy is to do with a change in management but that may blow over and things may (hopefully) go back to being wonderful again.

some of those jobs i link give the actual salary as well.

Not as bad as I thought it was though, and every little helps

man, it would unbelievably nice to be earning my own money again, even just a little bit. not that in ungrateful for being 'kept', in such style to boot, but being financially dependent is... uncomfortable at times. im too proud/stubborn/headstrong/independent/feminist/idealistic to have to ask everytime i want to make a major decision. discuss, sure. but ask? hmmmmm

I am glad I am a TA. I took a pay cut to become one but it was definitely the right decision for me to make.

Its great to have your own money to spend as you like. I have done plenty of spending during these six weeks holidays.

thx kid.