Results for "Thanks for voting! Could you answer a few more questions on how the government should support school staff?"

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Support staff play a vital role, supporting teachers abd working with vulnerable children that need extra support. They are often cut out, or undervalued.

Term time only pay should end. TUs should negotiate on pay.

school support staff a vital to support teachers and students but are underpaid

Unions should negotiate directly with government.

No it’s positive

I hope that it will assess the skills and variety of work support staff do, from learning support, specific skills such as signing for the deaf, to high needs care, and offer a fairer wage to show this. It should also encourage staff to develop their skills and knowledge. At the moment, the job does not attract people with a good standard of GCSE qualifications, which impacts the educational support children are given. Some cannot support upper key stage 2 as they do not have the skills. However, there is no choice at interview stage because there are only one or two applicants in my experience as a teacher. Many support assistants are 1:1 and have a high personal care role. These roles are not the same and cause an issue with job satisfaction, confusion over responsibilities and refusal of tasks as some already employed will not take on additional care role tasks outside of their older educational based contract. There are more high needs staff needed and less educational support available. There is certainly not enough money for a whole class LSA anymore, which impacts interventions to support educational needs. This all needs to be unpicked as they are very different jobs coming under the same title.

If the curriculum changed so that it was realistic, manageable, accessing children in an age appropriate way, wasn’t set up as a factory based direct instruction rote learning model and was actually relevant for today’s learners, support staff would have reasonable roles and teachers wouldn’t be leaving in droves.

Proper subject training

Whilst all of this would be brilliant there is a bigger issue of too many children with send and/or disabilities in main stream schools. Support staff are often dominated by children who require 1 to 1 but do not have the funding therefore leaving the teacher and other children without support.

As long as the body keep in mind the mental health and wellbeing of all support staff, listen to the people that actually live it day in day out and realize what work load support staff actually do then they will be a good thing. Make sure that support staff are valued properly for the amount of pressure they take off of teachers for a quarter of the pay.

No

There are some support staff that have the skills to be classroom teachers in their own right. Those experienced skilled support staff should be recognised.

I had to leave work due to intense mental health issues in my role as (a fairly minor) support staff at a school. Quality of life and support for school support staff is vital.

It needs to have the ability to insist on better working conditions and pay for support staff. TA’s are so undervalued, yet they work with the hardest children in the school. At least 1 TA in every classroom is a necessity which isn’t possible with the funds given to schools. So many children in the K category are not getting any support because they don’t have an EHCP. These creates a divide that multiplies as the child grows up and leads to them being disengaged from school. Most children want to learn but can’t access the teaching provided. Staff are frustrated because they came help properly. TA’s are no longer there to photocopy and take care of a poorly child. TA’s are experts in SEMH, C&I needs, physical disabilities and Cognition and Learning, they can’t plan, they react and improvise. It’s a rewarding role that is so undervalued and underpaid. This leads to high staff turnover.

It is important that school support staff get treated with respect and integrity and their pay be commensurate with the incredible work they do.

Currently support staff are delivering teaching and interventions way above their pay grade. They become experts in the children they support without targeted training and keep schools running. They are asked to do more each year. There are not enough of them in schools.

The membership of such a Body, especially the Chair, must be a transparent appointment

I believe school staff are underpaid the work is exhausting and the pay we get is little.. with the rising cost of living the pay does mot help us as humans to be able to look after our own health. The pay just about pays bills. And you would need a partner to cover the rest. Which means that the pay keeps you as a dependable person all your life. Teaching Assistant wage minimum should be 24 to 26k. They do the same as the teacher almost helping non stop all day long. Teachers deserve the higher rate ofcourse for the work they do and the qualifications and experiences they have obtained. I am presently providing childcare for my own child because there is no point working to pay childminders the little wage I'd recieve anyway. Working as a teacher is too stressful and time consuming and working as a TA is underpaid.

It all depends on who is running it and their backgrounds, if it is someone from the Education Board then no it will not change at all as currently the whole education system is broken and damaging children

Support staff should be paid for 52 weeks, not just term time. Also, full time Support staff should get a minimum of 37 hours a pay week. Some full time Support staff only get 32 hour contracts, then end up working longer hours without any additional pay.

I was a supply teacher in the workshop: DT , vocational subjects for 17 years @ £150/day , when all that disappeared in house the schools used untrained or experienced support staff for £50/ day, so I gave that up. I am a community gardener. The schools say they have it all in hand but I know that they have not. I would like a voice in the design of future provision. Thank you for organising. Looking forward to hearing from you again.

You need to attract the best candidates to achieve potential

I've worked for many years as support staff in school. They are completely undervalued and are expected to do more and more with each year. Staff are leaving in their droves, I have, as the workload is constantly increasing, most are on minimum wage and the behaviour they have to deal with from pupils is getting worse and worse.

The support staff should have a recognition of better pay backdated. They are the backbone of the school rising to challenges on a daily basis that should be recognised and rewarded.

Qualifications being recognised & valued Why are parents given jobs in school with no experience or qualifications Qualified staff are vital in childcare & education.

What about FE colleges?

Support staff are consistently exploited. In recent years, they have been increasingly exploited by schools with reduced budgets to teach classes rather than just support the qualified teacher. It has now got to the point where significant numbers of qualified teachers are sitting at home without paid work while TAs are press-ganged into teaching by exploitative headteachers, even though they are paid barely any more than minimum wage. The entire system is broken and is causing the exodus of teachers and TAs from the education system.

Support staff only needed for SEN Students, EAL WHO ARE REALLY STRUGGLING IN ENGLISH, especially EHCPPLANS ONE,

My daughter works in a sen school and it’s very difficult and a stressful situation

Worried that it will be just another Quango with little power or respect, and therefore just a waste of money. It needs to have adequate weight to be effective, but staffed by experienced people from a variety of backgrounds to ensure it is independent and intelligent in its purpose.

As a former ATA, who had to give up a job I loved and was good at because the salary didn't support me as a single Mum when my Daughter went to uni, I would welcome an independent body speaking up for support staff. We have enormous responsibility, planning and delivering lessons and interventions, and working with challenging pupils, usually working more hours than we get paid for, with no planning time. Our salary should reflect that.

My wife is a TA and the remuneration package is scandalously low. Our country expects people in her position to hold qualifications and look after our children - this country's future - for barely more than the minimum wage. It's not even an easy job, she comes home far more stressed out than me She knows a lot of good quality staff who have left the profession because they simply can't afford the cost of living.

As a parent of a neurodivergent child, it is clear to see how underpaid support staff and TAs are. If they can get access to better pay and better support it will help so many people.

Support staff and TAs were crucial to the effective running and success of my school community when I was a teacher. We were a team but they were not remunerated in line with their value.

More educated people would apply to support children within school setting

Support staff in schools do not get paid for holidays and half terms so due to this that are in fact on below minimum wage, so I hope that this is something that an independent body can look in to as it is a national disgrace.

All preschool staff should also be recognised and paid fairly as they have to have a qualification in teaching the under 5s from level 2 up to a degree in early childhood studies which is sorely lacking

I am always skeptical when i see a body created will they actually listen and represent the people or just pay lip service - cost is also big issue here. Money that could be well spent elsewhere

That it is a speedy body and does not take forever.

There are many thousands of school support staff in the National Education Union (NEU). The NEU should be invited to be part of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body so that its approx 50,000 support staff members in state schools can be fully represented alongside those who are in the local government unions.

I was a teaching assistant and they do need a body to look after them but they have to have an impact,the main thing after pay is the fact a lot of schools use teaching assistant as teachers.This is not right.

I was a teacher for 30+ years. Support staff were invaluable, especially in Special School. They need training, suitable wages and good working conditions.

Teachers are struggling without TA’s and nice realised that sinnce I’ve taken an Unqualified Teachers role doing PPA cover . TA’s are so valuables and deserve the recognition for their work as I did this role for over 24 years .

To recognise that many support staff are highly qualified, in areas teachers are not! That without support staff many of our more vulnerable children will suffer. Support staff often deal with children’s mental health needs , that teachers don’t have time to deal with. To appreciate support staff for the huge contribution they make on a daily basis.

Support staff are an integral part of a school community, as numbers of young people being diagnosed with learning issues are increasing this group of support staff are key to equality of opportunity.

It will give them confidence & help to secure their status

This would really support children especially children with Education Health Care Plan as it is the support staff that spend one to one with these children. Without the support staff these kids will be at a very big loss in their early years and to be able to grow in the future.

I would hope the new body would protect school support staff being taken advantage of by stopping certain members of staff including members of SLT taking Teaching Assistants out of their lessons while they are teaching or helping learners to perform irrelevant tasks that have nothing to do with the T.A. or their own learners. My wife is a Teaching assistant in a primary school and she regularly gets dragged out of her lessons to do irrelevant tasks for exaple to staple 1 piece of border back around a display at the other end of the school, or go and tidy the library when she doesn't even use the library. Another example is where she has been in the middle of an intervention lesson with students needing support and the phone in the classroom rings - its a member of SLT demanding that she drop what she is doing to go and set up the hall for an assembly for a different year group further up the school. It's not for her class. Her class are Year 1 and 2 which need a smaller staff to student ratio. By her being called out do do other people's work this means her own students are being left behind. Then in the next breath the Headteacher is criticising them about the lack of work completed! She can't complete the work with the students as she is being called out and used as a personal assistant to other people to do things that they could do themselves. Her morale is at rock bottom and staff are leaving as soon as they can afford to leave. I was a teacher for 15 years and left because of impossible expectations, relentless workload and in a lot of cases, staff morale is at rock bottom. Schools need more funding for teaching assistants as children are being left behind.

Support staff need to be recognized for their hard work and given the pay they deserve.

Having better pay would motivate and keep the right staff