What is it like, being a Teaching Assistant?

[scarletlilybug]

It's something I've been considering for a little while now. I wondered how people find the job. Is it interesting, enjoyable, rewarding? How well do the hours fit in with family life? (put off becoming a teacher by all the admin and marking, plus ever-changing edicts from Ofsted to adhere to).

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who might have had a more "high status" job in the past (apologies if that makes me sound right up my own a**e ).

I will watch thread with interest

would love to do this but it's just so BADLY paid I am always working out how i could afford to

Bump

There are a couple of threads further down which have a bit more info on.

ive just started as a ta in a school for teens with emotional and behavioural problems.

job is great...can't fault it, but the pay is grim.

i haved dropped a fair amount of salary to do this. it fits in well with my family life and obviously working term time only is brill!

I work as a ta at my daughters school which is lovely. I am finding out though more and more how much is expected of us for such little pay, apart from planning full terms I do most of the stuff my teacher does. I have half the class as my keyworker group. Its a lovely job with great personal reward but the money is dire! I cut my income in half to do this job BUT the balance is that i get to do a job i enjoy and am good at AND spend quality time with DD and DH (teacher). I hope to work up to a higher level TA but have only just started so time will tell. Be warned though when I applied for my job I was up against 44 other applicants and 8 interviewees! Did make me feel really great when i got the job though

I'm a month into Maternity Leave and this is something I'm considering training for too as dont want to be an actually teacher either. I work with Young Offenders and the Courts but will be glad to turn my back on the responsibility tbh (if not the two thirds pay cut!)

Did you have much experience eleanorsmum?

actual

eleanorsmum I did my HLTA after only 3 months in the TA job!

Which was madness on one level, but meant I progressed at work quickly, and now have loads more responsibility (for a teensy bit more money but hey ho)

I always thought the pay was grim because you only work school hours ie it is not a full time job. I might be wrong though.

its not the salary that makes it bad, its the hourly rate...(does that make sense??)

a ta earns about £40 a school day, and a teacher about £150. i know that ta are not always qualified, but in my school, i'm doing the same job as the teachers, and in some cases, more than the teacher!

I was an LSA for three years. Like op, I had previously had higher pay/higher status job. but got made redundant, and my ds needed support as he was starting school. So this worked in terms of being full-time parent and working. The pay is atrocious. you are paid hourly, but not for holidays. so I earned 10k, which would have been £15k if hols had been paid. (they do pay you monthly, just evened out over year). However working family tax credit made it worthwhile, I got around 500 per month.

It can be quite hard when you are used to being treated as an intelligent person to find yourself at the bottom of the heap, and so much depends on the teacher and the SMT. Note of caution, if you are a TA or LSA in your childs school the roles can get mixed up. Sometimes it is to your advantage, sometimes not.

Chimchar - not sure how you worked out the teacher's daily pay. I take home £1200 a month (I am 0.6,top of scale), which I calculate to be just under £100 per day...

Also, if you are doing 'the same job as the teacher' you need to speak to someone. I would be very surprised if you truly are.

Thanks for the input everyone.
Still thinking about it... maybe I could use it as a way of deciding whether I would like to be a teacher.

chip butty. i'm going on a chart i was shown of supply teachers...i may well be wrong, and i stand corrected.

in most circumstances, i agree, a teacher does lots more "behind the scenes" work, and i fully acknowledge this, but in the school where i am working, i am doing far more than one teacher in particular.... it is being dealt with apparently.

I've been a TA/SNA/LSA. Although I enjoyed being in the classroom and working with the children, I hated the fact that I was paid so little whilst working so hard. One job paid me in small chunks of time so that they didn't have to pay me for breaks etc. It meant I spent all day at work but only a part of it actually being paid. The other schools I worked in weren't so stingey though.

I also found that I wasn't always very well supported and was expected to cope with all sorts of crap without any training at all and very little pay.

Having said that, working with children is very rewarding, and if you can find a job in a school that values your contribution I'm sure it could be an amazing job. Although I didn't entirely enjoy being a TA I still think I would love to teach. Maybe I am wearing rose-tinted specs though!

Good luck.

of course a TA doesn't do the same job as teacher.they have degree and professional registration to maintain

Yes TA work is hard but not same as teaching at all

and if think you are doing the same job go and train as teacher then if it is that skooshy

Oooo love that word....what does 'skooshy' mean SM?

Scarlet - if you are going from a more 'high profile' job into TA, i'm guessing, like me, you will be bolshy enough to not put up with the crap of being treated like a teacher for TA's wages

LOL skooshy = easy. skooshy job or
my exam was a skoosh