Nursery World - Support staff pay

I am a qualified secondary music teacher and have decided to become a classroom assistant, as I have a diploma in childcare as well as a BEd. I plan to open my own nursery at some stage, and am gathering experience at two primary schools. I work for a teaching agency that obviously has its own pay structure and am being paid nursery nurse rates. I have had to accept that supply staff do not receive holiday pay in any shape or form. I have assessed and analysed the role of the support assistant and, even though the responsibilities are nowhere near that of a teacher, specific knowledge and skills are in abundance. Recently one teacher was frightened of supervising a meningitis injection morning with her Year Two pupils, and needed me to support the children both psychologically and physically, as she had not been through the process before - yet she had four years' experience.

I work for a teaching agency that obviously has its own pay structure and am being paid nursery nurse rates. I have had to accept that supply staff do not receive holiday pay in any shape or form. I have assessed and analysed the role of the support assistant and, even though the responsibilities are nowhere near that of a teacher, specific knowledge and skills are in abundance. Recently one teacher was frightened of supervising a meningitis injection morning with her Year Two pupils, and needed me to support the children both psychologically and physically, as she had not been through the process before - yet she had four years' experience.

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