Parents who want a job that fits in with school hours might consider becoming classroom assistants.

Classroom assistants, sometimes called teacher associates or teacher assistants, will have an increasingly important role to play in schools over the coming years as the government is determined to devolve many of the teachers' traditional duties to ancillary staff. These proposed changes worry some teachers as Mike Baker, the BBC Education correspondent reports.

The assistant acts as that invaluable extra pair of hands (and sometimes the eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head) that even the most efficient teacher finds invaluable. Inevitably, the assistant is expected to do the less demanding jobs (photocopying, collecting dinner money, mixing the powder paints and such like) but she also participates in many of the most rewarding classroom experiences, for example, working one-to-one with individual pupils. In some respects, the assistant enjoys the fun of teaching without being lumbered with the major responsibilities - lesson planning, assessing, form-filling, dealing with parents and the rest of that long list of reasons teachers give for looking so tired. An assistant requires no formal qualification, although it is possible to gain accreditation. However, the pay is not good and varies dramatically from school to school. According to Unison, the union that represents over 50,000 assistants in the UK, the salary range is between £7,125 and nearly £18,000.

Teacher Net
Find out more at the Assistant Teachers web pages.

See Kay Richardson's experience of being a Classroom Assistant.

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