Reality of being a teaching assistant

I WAS not at all surprised at the results of the survey revealing that teaching assistants regularly take classes.

Twenty-five years ago, my wife gave up her job in industry and studied for two years at her own expense to train as a nursery nurse.

During this period she worked part-time to finance her studies and look after her two children. When she had completed her studies she discovered that the local authorities would not pay the salary she had qualified for and was classed as TA (teaching assistant) at a lower salary. She really enjoys the job, especially that special feeling when a particularly difficult child is seen to make progress.

Things have changed drastically over the years. Education has become more about ticking boxes and attending courses.

Many experienced teachers have retired and their replacements have less life experience.

When teachers are missing from the classrooms, as the recent report suggets, it is the TAs who stand in, and if a supply teacher is brought in, it is the TA who provides the continuity in lessons.

People often criticise the length of the school holidays. The school is closed for about 60 days per year, but my wife has 30 days paid holiday, effectively losing one months pay per year pro-rata.

This still does not quite balance the hours, so she has to work two days during the school holiday to make up the hours.

Despite this, she arrives at work an hour early each morning and seldom leaves on time at the end of the day. She is not allowed to use this unpaid overtime to balance her hours.

Everything is done in a rush. Report writing is all carried out at home, and all paperwork sits in our dining room because the school does not provide storage facilities.

When she started work, the retirement age was 60. Now her state pension cannot be accessed until she is 65, and the same has applied to her modest occupational pension, meaning that she must contribute and work for an extra five years.

The school recently announced the some TAs were to be made redundant. The financial package offered was the bare minimum, less than half of a package offered to me recently. I earn a similar salary and I have less than half my wife’s length of service.

You may ask why my wife works as a TA? Despite all of the above, the job still has many rewarding moments, especially the look on a child’s face when they have acheived something that they thought was impossible. Name and address supplied