Schools will undergo a “crisis of support” without urgent action to improve pay and training for teaching assistants, a charity will warn in a report to be published this week.
The NCFE, an educational charity that also provides qualifications for those in the teaching sector, carried out a snapshot survey of 150 teaching assistants (TAs) across the UK and found that three-quarters had thought about leaving in the past year. Only one in 10 felt it was a well respected and valued role.
A TA who supports children with special educational needs (SEN) in a secondary school in West Yorkshire, and who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said her pay did not reflect her role or skills and was not enough to live on. “A few times I’ve had to use a food bank that my child’s school runs,” she said.
The single mother, who works in the school holidays, also has a second evening job as a youth theatre leader during term-time “because I wouldn’t be able to pay rent otherwise”. She said when her child finished school in two years she would be reconsidering her options despite loving her job.
“The students we are seeing are in dire need of emotional support – Covid has really affected them,” she added. “It is becoming more and more difficult not to burn out with the things we deal with.”
A second TA, who supports SEN children and teaches a phonics class in a primary in the north of England, said: “I had to turn down more hours at school because I’d have had to pay a dog walker more than my wage.”
She added that without her husband’s earnings there would be “absolutely no way” she could continue her job. “Another TA I work with has just applied to Sainsbury’s. It’s the same everywhere and it’s a massive loss for schools.”
Jen Winkley resigned last year after eight years as a TA in a primary school in West Sussex and now earns considerably more working in customer services. She worked five practically full school days a week as a TA, but still did not earn enough to pay tax.
“It was hard to walk away. I cried for three days after I left,” she said. “I got to know the children really well.
“To start with, the job feels brilliant as it fits around your children, but then you realise you can’t even afford to take them on days out in the school holidays.”
Winkley and her husband live in a two-bed flat with their three children and felt they would never be able to upsize on her school salary. “I have a shared ownership flat and almost all my wages went on paying the rent.”
Stewart Gynn, headteacher of Bishop Bronescombe CoE primary in St Austell, Cornwall, who contributed to the NCFE report, said his school relied heavily on TAs to support children with additional needs who would otherwise be shut out from learning, as well as providing backup for teachers during lessons. One is leaving at half term due to the low pay.
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He said: “My concern is that we will just lose these people. It used to be a big selling point for mums that you didn’t have to work in the holidays, but now some supermarkets are saying the same thing and paying more.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the headteachers’ union NAHT, said: “TAs do an incredible job – they are the unsung heroes of the education system, providing the support for vulnerable children that is so vital.”
He added: “There’s a knock-on impact for the whole classroom if teachers’ time is taken up with things they usually rely on TAs to do.”
Angie Rogers, subject specialist in teaching and learning at NCFE, said: “There’s a real risk of skilled TAs being forced out of education and into other sectors. Relying on passion alone is not sustainable.”
The Department for Education said: “Schools have the freedom to make their own decisions about budgets and are able to recruit teaching assistants, according to their own circumstances.” It said they could set their own pay and conditions, but most mirrored local government pay scales.
why do teaching assistants even exist? What happened to the teacher ?
It reminds of dIvErSitY NuRseS in hospitals.
You have created a role that doesn’t need filling.
You want to hear the real reason why teaching assistants exist? Unlock the spoiler to find out more!
>!They are lazy.!<
In the short term, pay needs to increase for teaching assistants as they are absolutely vital. In the longer term, I’d like to see us move away from TAs and move towards two teacher classes.
I’m not sure how it would work at secondary school but at primary I’d make one teacher responsible for maths, the other for English with the other providing support. Then they’d do 2.5 afternoons each. Where will the teachers come from? Many TAs have years have classroom experience and would be suited to retraining for these new positions. Many TAs wouldn’t be suitable teachers but if with a reduced timetable and a much better work life balance you’d have an easier time attracting teachers, retaining teachers and bringing back former teachers.
The college my wife worked for didn’t (still doesn’t) pay national min wage to LSAs on their zero hour’s contracts.
When speaking to accounts to try and get this sorted she was told ‘this is all you’re worth’.
– Kicker is she loved the job, found it really fulfilling and worked with some very challenged you adults giving them the support they needed to get through their college courses.
This does not surprise me at all. I had to leave the profession in 2021 as my wage was barely paying bills back then. I dread to think how TAs are coping and how many are picking up part time work at weekends or in the evening. If I hadn’t left, I know I would have had to do the same thing. It’s just heartbreaking because most TAs go into the profession to work with children, to help them and to support their learning, yet the government refuses to pay them a decent living wage.
TAs do so much in schools, they plan interventions, take phonics lessons, support reading, work with small groups of children during lessons to give them more quality time and help them to achieve their objectives, deal with behaviour, work with SEN children, help to organise the classroom with the teacher, support safeguarding, prepare resources, support the teachers instructions etc. A classroom without a TA really does struggle, especially when there are 30 children involved.
Mainstream teaching assistant wages are pathetically low. Sure, some don’t do much more than cutting/sticking and playground duty but most are fantastic and are often the glue they holds a school together; they know the pupils better than most, deliver a lot of the actual education and work tirelessly during and after school hours. Few years ago when I started, I was on 10-12k – how can you survive on that? I had to go to the private sector where the pay is a lot better but still low. Eventually moved roles but I really appreciate teaching assistants and think they deserve more.
No surprises there, with the cost of living crisis.
I got £15,890 a month for 30 hrs a week.
Came out with £1400 and UC topped up £416
Wasn’t too bad but if I was living privately then I’d of been buggered, living with parents made that wage absolutely livable.
Still left that job though because childcare is a huge issue.
It’s just one aspect of a myriad of complex issues facing education at the moment.
As well as low pay, the workload put on teaching assistants is often ridiculous. I’ve worked in schools where TAs had to take classes, mark work, set homework etc. and basically have the same workload as a full-time teacher, while receiving less than minimum wage.
On top of this, behaviour in schools is awful, and TAs and teachers have to regularly run the risk of being assaulted, sworn at, and generally abused.
I left teaching after a couple of years, as it was simply awful, and i now earn more in a much less stressful role.
9 comments
Schools will undergo a “crisis of support” without urgent action to improve pay and training for teaching assistants, a charity will warn in a report to be published this week.
The NCFE, an educational charity that also provides qualifications for those in the teaching sector, carried out a snapshot survey of 150 teaching assistants (TAs) across the UK and found that three-quarters had thought about leaving in the past year. Only one in 10 felt it was a well respected and valued role.
A TA who supports children with special educational needs (SEN) in a secondary school in West Yorkshire, and who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said her pay did not reflect her role or skills and was not enough to live on. “A few times I’ve had to use a food bank that my child’s school runs,” she said.
The single mother, who works in the school holidays, also has a second evening job as a youth theatre leader during term-time “because I wouldn’t be able to pay rent otherwise”. She said when her child finished school in two years she would be reconsidering her options despite loving her job.
“The students we are seeing are in dire need of emotional support – Covid has really affected them,” she added. “It is becoming more and more difficult not to burn out with the things we deal with.”
A second TA, who supports SEN children and teaches a phonics class in a primary in the north of England, said: “I had to turn down more hours at school because I’d have had to pay a dog walker more than my wage.”
She added that without her husband’s earnings there would be “absolutely no way” she could continue her job. “Another TA I work with has just applied to Sainsbury’s. It’s the same everywhere and it’s a massive loss for schools.”
Jen Winkley resigned last year after eight years as a TA in a primary school in West Sussex and now earns considerably more working in customer services. She worked five practically full school days a week as a TA, but still did not earn enough to pay tax.
“It was hard to walk away. I cried for three days after I left,” she said. “I got to know the children really well.
“To start with, the job feels brilliant as it fits around your children, but then you realise you can’t even afford to take them on days out in the school holidays.”
Winkley and her husband live in a two-bed flat with their three children and felt they would never be able to upsize on her school salary. “I have a shared ownership flat and almost all my wages went on paying the rent.”
Stewart Gynn, headteacher of Bishop Bronescombe CoE primary in St Austell, Cornwall, who contributed to the NCFE report, said his school relied heavily on TAs to support children with additional needs who would otherwise be shut out from learning, as well as providing backup for teachers during lessons. One is leaving at half term due to the low pay.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to The Guardian Headlines UK
Free newsletter
A digest of the morning’s main headlines emailed direct to you every week day
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
He said: “My concern is that we will just lose these people. It used to be a big selling point for mums that you didn’t have to work in the holidays, but now some supermarkets are saying the same thing and paying more.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the headteachers’ union NAHT, said: “TAs do an incredible job – they are the unsung heroes of the education system, providing the support for vulnerable children that is so vital.”
He added: “There’s a knock-on impact for the whole classroom if teachers’ time is taken up with things they usually rely on TAs to do.”
Angie Rogers, subject specialist in teaching and learning at NCFE, said: “There’s a real risk of skilled TAs being forced out of education and into other sectors. Relying on passion alone is not sustainable.”
The Department for Education said: “Schools have the freedom to make their own decisions about budgets and are able to recruit teaching assistants, according to their own circumstances.” It said they could set their own pay and conditions, but most mirrored local government pay scales.
why do teaching assistants even exist? What happened to the teacher ?
It reminds of dIvErSitY NuRseS in hospitals.
You have created a role that doesn’t need filling.
You want to hear the real reason why teaching assistants exist? Unlock the spoiler to find out more!
>!They are lazy.!<
In the short term, pay needs to increase for teaching assistants as they are absolutely vital. In the longer term, I’d like to see us move away from TAs and move towards two teacher classes.
I’m not sure how it would work at secondary school but at primary I’d make one teacher responsible for maths, the other for English with the other providing support. Then they’d do 2.5 afternoons each. Where will the teachers come from? Many TAs have years have classroom experience and would be suited to retraining for these new positions. Many TAs wouldn’t be suitable teachers but if with a reduced timetable and a much better work life balance you’d have an easier time attracting teachers, retaining teachers and bringing back former teachers.
The college my wife worked for didn’t (still doesn’t) pay national min wage to LSAs on their zero hour’s contracts.
When speaking to accounts to try and get this sorted she was told ‘this is all you’re worth’.
– Kicker is she loved the job, found it really fulfilling and worked with some very challenged you adults giving them the support they needed to get through their college courses.
This does not surprise me at all. I had to leave the profession in 2021 as my wage was barely paying bills back then. I dread to think how TAs are coping and how many are picking up part time work at weekends or in the evening. If I hadn’t left, I know I would have had to do the same thing. It’s just heartbreaking because most TAs go into the profession to work with children, to help them and to support their learning, yet the government refuses to pay them a decent living wage.
TAs do so much in schools, they plan interventions, take phonics lessons, support reading, work with small groups of children during lessons to give them more quality time and help them to achieve their objectives, deal with behaviour, work with SEN children, help to organise the classroom with the teacher, support safeguarding, prepare resources, support the teachers instructions etc. A classroom without a TA really does struggle, especially when there are 30 children involved.
Mainstream teaching assistant wages are pathetically low. Sure, some don’t do much more than cutting/sticking and playground duty but most are fantastic and are often the glue they holds a school together; they know the pupils better than most, deliver a lot of the actual education and work tirelessly during and after school hours. Few years ago when I started, I was on 10-12k – how can you survive on that? I had to go to the private sector where the pay is a lot better but still low. Eventually moved roles but I really appreciate teaching assistants and think they deserve more.
No surprises there, with the cost of living crisis.
I got £15,890 a month for 30 hrs a week.
Came out with £1400 and UC topped up £416
Wasn’t too bad but if I was living privately then I’d of been buggered, living with parents made that wage absolutely livable.
Still left that job though because childcare is a huge issue.
It’s just one aspect of a myriad of complex issues facing education at the moment.
As well as low pay, the workload put on teaching assistants is often ridiculous. I’ve worked in schools where TAs had to take classes, mark work, set homework etc. and basically have the same workload as a full-time teacher, while receiving less than minimum wage.
On top of this, behaviour in schools is awful, and TAs and teachers have to regularly run the risk of being assaulted, sworn at, and generally abused.
I left teaching after a couple of years, as it was simply awful, and i now earn more in a much less stressful role.