I work at a school. I wear many hats, I'm timetabled as a teaching assistant sometimes, I'm also an autism specialist so other times I go to different classes to spend time with specific kids who have autism, I help them in their lesson and I advise their teacher on different ways to help them access their education. My third hat uses my qualification in a sort of play therapy where I take kids out of class and work with them on craft stuff or play games with them with the goal of helping them deal with their emotions.
I am not paid a wage you can live on. £12k in fact. I'm very lucky that my husband is a software developer so we can afford for me to do the job I love.
The kids I work with all have a document called an EHCP. This is a legal document which details the additional support the individual needs. Some examples of things on the EHCPs are “child needs 15mins per day quiet time” or “child needs 10 mins pre teaching wherever a new topic is introduced.” It's usually things that require a child to have an adult spend time with them on a one to one basis. This is always the job of the teaching assistant as the class teacher is busy teaching the other 29 kids in the class. My school does not have enough teaching assistants. We share one teaching assistant between 2 or 3 classes. As a result, none of my kids are getting anything close to what their EHCPs say they need, despite the fact we're legally obliged to provide it. The only times this stuff is done is when I'm working with that child and I only see each of my specific kids for an hour a week.
Before I went on maternity leave I was promised they'd get maternity cover for me so my kids wouldn't be forgotten about. Of course they didn't get cover. A parent spotted me in a supermarket and told me her son had received no one to one support in the 6 months I'd been on maternity leave and he was starting to refuse to go into school. I was heartbroken. I felt like I'd let these kids down and abandoned them.
Then a few weeks ago my school sent out a survey asking if we needed more leadership capacity. We already have 2 headteachers. We don't need more people in offices shuffling paper, we need people in classrooms making sure the kids are getting the support they need. And then they put out the advert for that 3rd headteacher position. £50k salary. They could've employed 4 of me for that. And who would make more of a difference in these kids lives? Me or a pencil pusher?
I had intended to go back to work for 1 or 2 days a week after my maternity leave because I love the kids, but when they announced that 3rd headteacher I realised I was done. I can't keep fighting for these young people when the systems that are supposed to help them don't actually give a shit. So I'm not returning to work after my maternity leave. It's a battle I've fought for years and I'm done. I feel like I'm betraying them by walking away, but there's a limit to how much I can argue with my seniors on their behalf. I just hope the kids and their parents know I always fought their corner even if I didn't get anywhere. But I tried. I swear I tried