Nursery World - Assistants are out in the cold

By Anna Jones, a classroom assistant in England The biggest problem with being a classroom assistant in a school is that funds do not allow for ancillary staff to go on courses or to join in with any training offered to teaching staff. In my school they would never pay us to have time off in work time, let alone offer to contribute to the cost of study out of school time. In fact, little point is seen in offering classroom assistants anything.

The biggest problem with being a classroom assistant in a school is that funds do not allow for ancillary staff to go on courses or to join in with any training offered to teaching staff. In my school they would never pay us to have time off in work time, let alone offer to contribute to the cost of study out of school time. In fact, little point is seen in offering classroom assistants anything.

So, for those of us wanting to develop our own self-esteem or with a view to finding another job, we do it in our own time if we can, at our own expense. Most other work settings would be delighted if staff wanted to improve their skills at no cost to the employer and, even better, if they didn't have to pay them more as a result.

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