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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

teachers spike 4 days / 1 day....awful???

61 replies

yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 19:14

I've known about this for ages but with Monday the first day of term...I'm starting to worry about the effects of having 2 teachers, 1 for 4 days and 1 for the remaining day (Monday) - feel like the Monday will be a non starter day and the week will start fully on Tuesday.

Any advice or people who have experienced this?

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yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 19:18

Split not spike!

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clam · 02/09/2016 19:18

Yes. No problem at all.

What do you mean by "spike?"

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Rainbowunicorn71 · 02/09/2016 19:18

Having never met the two teachers it's difficult to say for sure but not automatically a disaster situation.
The Monday teacher will probably develop a couple of areas of the curriculum eg Science and RE whilst the 4 day teacher does everything else?
Good communication will ensure it works well. So give it a chance, be positive and if there's a specific issue then deal with it as and when it arises.

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catkind · 02/09/2016 19:19

Not that uncommon as far as I know. DS had a NQT who was off one day a week for training/prep and stuff. DD has reception teacher who is also head of EYFS so she has a day with a different teacher too.
In many ways I think it can be a benefit to get a different teacher's expertise. For example DS's one day a week teacher was also a music specialist, so they always did music on her day.

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rollonthesummer · 02/09/2016 19:20

I would imagine the lessons will be carefully planned and delivered and all will be absolutely fine. The teacher working one day won't just roll up on a Monday morning and teach a load of old nonsense!!

The choices of teacher for my daughter's y2 class were two lovely young female teachers and a jobshare. Everyone eanted one of the full timers. DD got the jobshare and most of the parents were spitting feathers about it. By Christmas, one of those full time teachers was off with stress and the other had been sacked. DD had a wonderful year with her jobshare!

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PurpleDaisies · 02/09/2016 19:20

Many many children are taught by job share teachers with no problems at all.

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yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 19:24

That's put my mind at ease already!

Never thought about the 1 day-er focussing on certain areas.

What I'm not clear on is who the 1 day-er is, whether it's supply, cover within the school etc. not usual to get someone (female) wanting to work one day a week is it?

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NoNutsPlease · 02/09/2016 19:25

Why do you think Monday will be a non starter? The children will do whatever they would have done if the other teacher was in there.

It's completely normal to not have the class teacher in class every day. For example if they are a member of SLT they may have a day out a week and the parents wouldn't even be aware.

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yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 19:29

Don't know really - just that Monday is always the warm up day for the week!

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Number4OnTheWay · 02/09/2016 19:30

We had a similar set up last year but it was Monday and Friday one teacher and Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday another. It worked out really well and they just split subjects between them, both did core but one did science and the other did re.
This year we have a 4 day 1 day split. The 1 day teacher actually in 2 days but doing other things.

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PurpleDaisies · 02/09/2016 19:31

What I'm not clear on is who the 1 day-er is, whether it's supply, cover within the school etc. not usual to get someone (female) wanting to work one day a week is it?

How does sex come into it?

People like all sorts of weird and wonderful hours.

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Biking007 · 02/09/2016 19:35

Very normal in DDs school as they have a couple of teachers who float through several classes for 1day, all the teachers have min half day out of teaching the class for "planning or development". I think it's gd for the children to see different teaching styles and they react better when they do have supply for sick leave etc

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MsMermaid · 02/09/2016 19:37

There are quite a lot of teachers who do internal cover, so they are in reception one day, year 1 half a day, year 2 another day, etc. Teachers are all entitled to planning time, for most primary teachers that equates to half a day per week. Some then have additional responsibilities which need more time off timetable, or nqts need additional time to plan. All the primary schools near us employ at least one teacher (possibly just part time) to cover all those little bits.

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Mrmoonmrmoon · 02/09/2016 19:44

DD had this last year worked fine, was a short notice arrangement that changed in the summer holidays.. They split who took the lead for topics/ subjects. The best thing was consistency all academic year rather than have it only as an interim attangement until they found a full time replacement that would have meant the kids would have had to change teachers mid year.

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Fannyfannakerpants · 02/09/2016 19:49

I do 2 days. We just sat down and picked which subjects we were stronger at to teach, it would be no different for one day. It's far more common than people realise as, as others have said, NQTs and certain management levels will get extra non contact time anyway.

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MagicalMrsMistoffelees · 02/09/2016 20:03

I'm a teacher. All teachers (working full time) are entitled to half a day out of class for planning, paperwork and assessment (PPA). A newly qualified teacher and those with additional responsibilities are entitled to a further half day out of class.

This means many teachers do end up being out of class for one whole day per week - either on a single day or split over two half days. That's very common.

However, Monday is not an ideal day for a teacher to be out of class. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice - but then I hate to miss anything with my class! Your child will be fine though.

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yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 20:10

So potentially their could be 3 teachers?

Monday teacher
Tues - fri teacher who has 1/2 day out for planning
Cover for tues- fri teacher for 1/2 day

??

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shouldwestayorshouldwego · 02/09/2016 20:12

It's fine, as others have said it is probably for planning. They will probably do Maths and Phonics for which they might be mixed up anyway. Then often the one day person will be a specialist teacher in another subject. PE and RE seem to be favourites for this, or maybe music, MFL. They probably teach whichever specialist subject to a different class each day. It means the class get a specialist teacher and the regular teacher has planning time. Never been a problem for my dc.

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shouldwestayorshouldwego · 02/09/2016 20:13

Could be but more likely the Monday is their planning day, hence the other teacher.

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JasperDamerel · 02/09/2016 20:20

It's normal. Any primary school teacher will have time out of the classroom for planning and preparation, meetings etc, and this will be incorporated into the timetable. DS has one main teacher, but on her day out of the classroom the children study PE, music and science with subject specialists.

DD has an actual jobshare pair of teachers. It's never been a problem (apart from occasional queries about missing uniform) and it actually tends to work out very well because different children tend to respond slightly better to one of the two teachers, so every child gets some time with the teacher that suits them best, rather than a couple of children suffering as the result of a personality class with a teacher which I've seen from time to time.

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Redlocks28 · 02/09/2016 20:40

not usual to get someone (female) wanting to work one day a week is it?

What an odd thing to say!

I worked one day a week when my children were very young.

I now teach in a jobshare one day a week whilst being SENCo the rest of the time.

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yodachronicles · 02/09/2016 22:04

Thanks all.

The Monday is def a day off. Teacher has cut her hours down so any planning time will be done in tues-fri.

In my line of work we have to work a minimum of 3 days a week, no less and any job adverts for 1 day a week would be laughed at so I figured that was normal. I'm more thinking the Monday teacher will be cover not contracted.

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shouldwestayorshouldwego · 02/09/2016 23:20

No the Monday teacher will probably be teaching reception one day, year 1 another day and year 4 another day. Might be a 3 or 4 day contract or they might be working full time but in different classes. Unlikely to just be in the school one day a week (although it can happen - usually with v good teachers whom the school don't want to lose after a mat leave but they don't want many hours). There is often continuity across years, so whereas the class teacher usually changes every year they might have Mrs PE/RE teacher quite a few years always providing one day or half a day for different year groups.

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rollonthesummer · 02/09/2016 23:24

I worked for one day a week for 3 years. I had been at the school for 10 years before this; I asked to just work for one day and then went back up to three days. I was on a permanent contract for the whole time.

I didn't work on the 'planning' day, but was given clear objectives well in advance and planned my own lessons as I would if teaching full time. I spoke to the other teacher regularly as well.

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Themoleisdead · 02/09/2016 23:32

It's quite common for older teachers to work 1-2 days a week. I worked one day a week in reception last year covering the class teacher's leadership time. I am ex-SMT and extremely experienced but just wanted something to keep me ticking over while I did an MA. I also had a brilliant, semi-retired colleague covering my leadership time when I was working full time. As long as there is good communication, it makes no difference to the children.