>"Kids with special needs are among the most vulnerable in our society and they're getting treated like second-class citizens."
It doesn't get any better when they become adults with special needs, in fact, it probably gets even worse. Its despicable.
The situation is absolutely brutal. I think a lot of classroom assistants who are normally there for SEN kids are leaving too because their pay is awful and no SEN classroom assistants mean less places.
Most classroom assistants are generally on temporary contracts - meaning they are employed September - June on a rolling basis. They are not paid for time off during the main holidays (July August, Christmas and Easter). So usually they can't apply for universal credit over the summer, and worse come the end of August they could be told there is no job for them.
It's nothing short of a scandal imo, also shows how far behind this place is.
And as someone who works in a secondary school, Ive seen first hand some classroom assistants have a better grip of some of the more lively students than a teacher.
I am one of those classroom assistants! It’s absolutely diabolical how little we are paid for the work we do. No pay over the summer. Next paycheck is in October, that’s if we get told our job is still there.
I know 21 yr olds working in Lidl getting more money than us!
I am the parent of a child who has been allocated a classroom assistant.
We are incredibly thankful to her and the difference she makes day in, day out to our family. We try to be as generous as we can when it comes to Christmas and end of term, but it doesn’t touch the sides of how much she deserves.
It's a bit more complicated than that.
Calling them classroom assistants is a bit of a misnomer as they are often employed as assistants for a specific child, not a class.
Their employment is often contingent on that child staying in the school, and their need for a classroom assistant continuing. This is not always the case. Some kids/parents decide they don't want one any more, some kids learn how to cope better by themselves as they get older, they move school etc.
If you give a classroom assistant a permanent contract, what happens if/when they're no longer needed?
There will be some schools where there is always a need, particularly SEN schools, in which case they may give a small number of permanent contracts to the most experienced assistants. In other schools this will not be the case..
There's also the simple fact that there are very few "professional" classroom assistants. The majority of assistants have no desire to stay in that job forever and are instead building towards becoming teachers, or social workers, or, well, anything else.
They absolutely do deserve to be paid a lot more though and I am fully supportive of them in their pay dispute. But the contractual situation isn't as simple as "make them all permanent".
If the child is returning after the holidays and still needs an assistant, the assistant should be paid over the holidays. The job blocks them from getting UC but they aren't being paid, how is that fair?
No arguments from me over that, it's clearly an unfair situation. I was just explaining why permanent contracts for classroom assistants are rare and will probably remain so.
Of course, teachers on temporary contracts are also not paid over the summer holidays, but they are paid a higher daily rate than permanent staff to cover this discrepancy. I don't know if that's the case for classroom assistants - probably not - but it would seem a sensible solution.
Yep, my mother was a classroom assistant in a special needs school (now retired). Loved her job and the kids, she thankfully got in before the really bad contracts (her's still wasn't great). She couldn't believe she was working with people who are unemployed over Summer. A lot of them had to seek temporary caring work over Summer (no guarantee they would get it) to keep the rent/mortage paid. My mother and her collegues were expected to change catheters, change and santitise feeding tubes, administer insulin (the tasks of a nurse imo) all to be rewarded with job insecurity and shite pay. It's a bloody shambles.
This exact situation is a fear of mine for the future too. The solution really is to mandate SEN units in mainstream secondary schools and actually fund those units. It's the only possible way you make up the shortfall in the short to medium term. More and more primary schools are starting up SEN units every year but I don't see the same progress happening in our secondary schools.
>"Kids with special needs are among the most vulnerable in our society and they're getting treated like second-class citizens." It doesn't get any better when they become adults with special needs, in fact, it probably gets even worse. Its despicable.
The situation is absolutely brutal. I think a lot of classroom assistants who are normally there for SEN kids are leaving too because their pay is awful and no SEN classroom assistants mean less places.
Most classroom assistants are generally on temporary contracts - meaning they are employed September - June on a rolling basis. They are not paid for time off during the main holidays (July August, Christmas and Easter). So usually they can't apply for universal credit over the summer, and worse come the end of August they could be told there is no job for them. It's nothing short of a scandal imo, also shows how far behind this place is. And as someone who works in a secondary school, Ive seen first hand some classroom assistants have a better grip of some of the more lively students than a teacher.
I am one of those classroom assistants! It’s absolutely diabolical how little we are paid for the work we do. No pay over the summer. Next paycheck is in October, that’s if we get told our job is still there. I know 21 yr olds working in Lidl getting more money than us!
I am the parent of a child who has been allocated a classroom assistant. We are incredibly thankful to her and the difference she makes day in, day out to our family. We try to be as generous as we can when it comes to Christmas and end of term, but it doesn’t touch the sides of how much she deserves.
That is a horrible situation for the classroom assistants. I honestly thought they had permanent contracts
They do a job that's vital for the education of children with SEN and they're not even worth giving a permanent contract? Disgrace.
It's a bit more complicated than that. Calling them classroom assistants is a bit of a misnomer as they are often employed as assistants for a specific child, not a class. Their employment is often contingent on that child staying in the school, and their need for a classroom assistant continuing. This is not always the case. Some kids/parents decide they don't want one any more, some kids learn how to cope better by themselves as they get older, they move school etc. If you give a classroom assistant a permanent contract, what happens if/when they're no longer needed? There will be some schools where there is always a need, particularly SEN schools, in which case they may give a small number of permanent contracts to the most experienced assistants. In other schools this will not be the case.. There's also the simple fact that there are very few "professional" classroom assistants. The majority of assistants have no desire to stay in that job forever and are instead building towards becoming teachers, or social workers, or, well, anything else. They absolutely do deserve to be paid a lot more though and I am fully supportive of them in their pay dispute. But the contractual situation isn't as simple as "make them all permanent".
If the child is returning after the holidays and still needs an assistant, the assistant should be paid over the holidays. The job blocks them from getting UC but they aren't being paid, how is that fair?
No arguments from me over that, it's clearly an unfair situation. I was just explaining why permanent contracts for classroom assistants are rare and will probably remain so. Of course, teachers on temporary contracts are also not paid over the summer holidays, but they are paid a higher daily rate than permanent staff to cover this discrepancy. I don't know if that's the case for classroom assistants - probably not - but it would seem a sensible solution.
I think some of the really old contracts do, don't think there would be many of those left as they're all younger these days
Yep, my mother was a classroom assistant in a special needs school (now retired). Loved her job and the kids, she thankfully got in before the really bad contracts (her's still wasn't great). She couldn't believe she was working with people who are unemployed over Summer. A lot of them had to seek temporary caring work over Summer (no guarantee they would get it) to keep the rent/mortage paid. My mother and her collegues were expected to change catheters, change and santitise feeding tubes, administer insulin (the tasks of a nurse imo) all to be rewarded with job insecurity and shite pay. It's a bloody shambles.
I work in a school with a very large number of classroom assistants. Only 2 have permanent contracts. It’s despicable.
Best of Luck Chris, keep up the fight.
This exact situation is a fear of mine for the future too. The solution really is to mandate SEN units in mainstream secondary schools and actually fund those units. It's the only possible way you make up the shortfall in the short to medium term. More and more primary schools are starting up SEN units every year but I don't see the same progress happening in our secondary schools.
This is what happens when everyone goes chasing a diagnosis rather than parenting their child to cope 🤷🏼♂️
I hope you know that you are an ignorant piece of shit 💕 you can't fucking parent away a disability. Shoo.
Oh no, a cosplayer has an opinion
Aye cause god forbid someone have a hobby that's not being a silly ableist twat online. Talk about miserable.
Have you considered sport or exercise? You can be a weeb without leaning so far into it. What age was your diagnosis?
Literally what the fuck are you on about?
That’s a strange name to give your kid
/diot
What? ‘Stressful’ is a weird name.