It is no surprise that schools are finding it particularly difficult to recruit teaching assistants (“‘Joke’ pay forces support staff to quit schools for supermarkets”, News). Anna Fazackerley gives several examples of headteachers placed in near impossible situations with the prospect of things getting worse and not better.
My daughter, a TA in a primary school in London for children with special educational needs, is often pushed, scratched and verbally abused during the course of a normal working day. The school is constantly understaffed and relies disproportionately on TAs rather than qualified teachers. All this for £73 a day. The majority of the TAs are employed through agencies, which apparently cuts costs for the school but it means that those staff face constant uncertainty, together with no holiday or sick pay.
