Three of four A level teachers leaving? Jump ship or sit tight and pray?

[cressetmama]

DS changed school for A levels in September so has not finished the first term. After half term, we have just found out that three out of four of his main teachers will be leaving in January for schools where they are paying national scale. When we saw the school last year, we were all blown away by the enthusiasm. Now the place is in turmoil, Principal has gone sick/retired; deputy/acting principal on the sick until at least Xmas, OFSTED imminent. Do we look to go back to where he was (a school in special measures) or what? It's a STEM college BTW, so recruitment is tough unless there are £££ in the system, and I don't think there are....WWYD?

[noblegiraffe]

I doubt other schools would accept him at this point in the year - switching to a different school where they will have taught different things on the syllabus would be a disaster.

[Millymollymama]

You were blown away by a sales pitch! All that glitters is not gold.

Failing schools often work hard to turn things around. They have to. If the syllabus and exam boards are the same, there could be a chance of going back. You can ask.

[Millymollymama]

Glisters it should be! Autocorrect.

[cressetmama]

Not really blown away by a sales pitch: we saw about half a dozen schools, state and private, and this one stood out. We were still impressed at consultation evening just before half term.

No way is there going to be a return to the previous school; not a single student passed AS maths last summer, and the engineering faculty would put a glass eye to sleep!

[TeddTess]

not helpful millymollymama

difficult position, how diligent/motivated is your ds? can he work independently / get a tutor out of school? I think I would do your best with the current circumstance at this stage. Don't panic just focus on him and what he can do, you can do a lot yourself with the right textbooks/online material etc.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Do his old school have a sixth form? Ring them tomorrow and ask if he can go back?

My brother did this. Went to a new sixth form college and hated it, refused to go back after Oct half term. His old school took him back.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Sorry, just read your other post.

You could try any other sixth forms in the area and explain?

[cressetmama]

We are already tutoring outside school and very happy with the tutor. I think we are inclined to stick for now and ask lots of questions. DS is starting to take life and study seriously but still needs lots of direction. It doesn't help that he really doesn't know where he wants to be, so it is about retaining options.

[TeddTess]

a tutor can keep him on track
if he's focused and motivated he should be ok. not ideal but better than moving schools unless you have a great school which he can get into (and it doesn't sound like it). the school might sort themselves out and this could just be a blip.
good luck.

[sharoncarol43]

You are not going to find it much different anywhere else, I don't expect. Teachers are walking out by the ten thousand, and many departments are more than half staffed by supply agencies. Very few of my colleagues would accept long term positions now, some set a maximum length of commitment of a week or two, some not even that.

[cressetmama]

Good heavens Sharon, I had no idea it was so bad. Does the private sector offer any gerater prospect of stable teaching staff, do you know?

[cressetmama]

...greater.... duh!

[tropicalfish]

hi,
My dc's school seems to provide one poorer teacher alongside one strong teacher for each subject. In 2 cases, the teachers are hopeless and dc has had to teach themselves. It requires a great deal of motivation. My advice would be to get as many books as possible to enable them to do this. And as you can see from our experience, you can still end up with poorer teachers wherever you go.
I am curious about why your teachers are not paid according to the national scale? Should they not be?
TF

[cressetmama]

It's not subject to LA oversight and can hire teachers without recognised qualifications; it sets its own curriculum and pay scales, which are apparently less than salaries in a comparable comprehensive.

[ChopsticksandChilliCrab]

This sounds very unsettling for DS and the other students. DS is lucky he has a tutor to help him.

A couple of ideas- for maths, if the college has a subscription to mymaths.co.uk, all the AS maths lessons are on there, plus online homeworks.

An even better resource IMHO is examsolutions.net. There is a video of every part of the course for AS and A2 maths and they are very thorough.

[cressetmama]

Chopsticks . The college has mymaths but thank you for recommending exam solutions. Have bookmarked it.