DC’s teacher didn’t go to university.

This keeps coming up. All of the private schools my children have attended have vastly superior teachers to the state ones we’ve had.

My eldest is at a ‘outstanding grammar’ I taught him most of the science and language GCSEs. We and most other parents have tutors for their children. The teaching is shite. Teachers either just don’t care or are mostly incompetent.

@Winter41 the private schools around us pay a bit more, but smaller class sizes and better behaved children (as thankfully they can ask the poorly parented ones to leave) mean that they can retain staff. They often work much longer hours in-term times, but they have longer holidays.

@RabbitWedge are you happy with your children’s progress?

Sounds a bit like private hospitals that have nobody on hand at weekends and the NHS has to step up!

I am not at retirement age and when I left school you didn’t need a degree to be a teacher or a nurse.

Problem is having made redundant or phased out teachers and nurses who don’t have a degree (friend who was the equivalent to a Matron looking after a group of wards was made redundant under the last Labour Government) it seems to come as a shock that we have a shortage of home grown teachers and nurses and all the other careers that now need a degree or higher levels of qualifications

It turns out that the answer to the other private school thread - where did the money go that Keir and Angela are saving from hard working private school families who keep their kids out of state - is on qualified teachers.

Properly funny.

She’s teaching at a private school, and doesn’t need a degree. You’ve said yourself she’s an excellent teacher and she’s clearly doing the job. Why would you think lack of a qualification takes anything away from that ?

Anyone can teach in a private school, no qualifications needed. You just need to persuade the head to give you a job.
Just because you’re paying, doesn’t make it better.
My mum taught in a private school: there was no teacher training or development. None of the teachers kept up with the times.
My mum was also a crap teacher and got sacked from every state school she worked at. Only job she could get was private.

The trouble is the government has so successfully distracted people with the squirrel that is VAT on school fees that they haven't noticed that the teaching in private schools can be pretty poor in parts.

As others have said, many private schools are no longer able to afford the employer’s contribution to the Teacher’s Pension Scheme (state schools get a grant to cover it). This means that these teachers are being offered a private pension which isn’t nearly as good as the Teacher’s Pension. This is making private schools less attractive to qualified teachers.

I know someone who is a uni professor. He never went to university but rose so highly in his field that now he teaches it.

I couldn’t give a toss providing the teacher is capable and good at imparting the right knowledge on others.

As a university graduate, I wouldn’t recommend anyone go to uni these days.

Hahah this is completely hilarious! This is what you get for sending your child to private school. Independent schools are not held to the same regulated standards so can have any old quack they want teaching your children. How ironic! Not really getting your moneys worth here are you. Loool. State school teachers must be qualified.

I have a friend who teaches English in a state school without a degree. She worked initially as a TA and then trained via school-based training I think. She definitely teaches GCSE not sure about A Level. I think she works in a school which struggles to recruit teachers. She seems to love her job and the children.

My mum used to go into private schools to do contract work. She said the spelling and grammar errors in the staff room were shocking.

Teaching is a weird one. You can teach the correct things to pass exams without being particularly good at a subject yourself.

I am a teacher (trained after years of working in schools in other roles) and my degree quite honestly taught me nothing more that I needed to know, than I could have learnt in the classroom. It’s literally a bit of paper that says I’m allowed to do what I do 🙈

A friend of mine is head of geography at an independent near me. She started there about 10 years ago as a teaching assistant, did her HLTA qualification and ended up teaching geography, as they couldn't recruit a geography teacher! No degree (didn't even go to college) but she's very passionate about her subject, so much so, that 2 years ago they made her head of the geography department.

As others have already said...this would NEVER have happened in a state school, but the private sector can employ whoever they like - no degree necessary.

As long as your child's English teacher is competent and getting results, what's the issue?

And I say this as a 'teaching degree toting' teacher of 30 years. Degrees don't make you a good teacher...it takes a whole lot more!

I may be unreasonable to find this hilarious!! Paying all that mo ey and you end up shocked that your money doesn’t buy a degree educated teacher. 😂😂😂😂
It may also be the fact I work in the much maligned state school system. Sorry op .

Yep you dont need to be qualified to tech in a private school. One of ds schools has a head of year who teaches PE with no degree. I'm sure he's,a great PE teacher but is it ideal as HOY? I'm not sure.

What an unpleasant post.

Plenty of those training to be teachers who have come through the system in the last few years don't have anything like the subject knowledge they need for even lower secondary, despite having just gained a degree.

Subject knowledge can be acquired via a range of routes and built upon over time.

The better trainees accepted they needed to brush up and did. Those who thought they knew it all (when they couldn't write accurately, and wouldn't do anything about it) didn't qualify and have become part of that 8% statistic that's been in the news recently.

Teachers needing a degree is a fairly recent thing. My parents both trained as teachers in the late 60s at a teacher training college, 3 year course, left as a fully qualified teacher but it was a diploma not a degree.

As others have said what is the point of raising it with school as they will be fully aware.

Friends son has no teaching qualifications at all But in September will be teaching in a secondary school so up to a level standard.

Private schools make their own rules - they do not have to have qualified teachers.

It always amuses me as to why people would want to pay for private education when they don't necessarily get better education.

Posters should also be aware that teachers in private and academy schools are not required to have any teaching qualifications. Only Local Authority maintained schools are required to hire qualified teachers - and in England, the majority of state secondary schools are now academies, so that means most children of secondary age in England are being taught in schools where teaching staff are not required to be trained teachers.

There is a difference between not being required to hire someone with a teacher training qualification and hiring someone with a degree, however. Teaching is considered a graduate profession. It would be very, very unusual to find a teacher without a degree who had been hired in the past twenty years or so. Teachers without degrees are very much from a former generation who were able to train as teachers in teacher training colleges straight out of school.

Are you sure you structured that question correctly?

You've essentially written:

Despite not having a good depth of knowledge certificate, the teacher doesn't have a a degree certificate.

Can you see the problem with your sentence?

To all the posters on here declaring that having a university degree doesn't matter would be okay with your GP not having a degree? Or your nurse? Psychologist? Mechanical Engineer (who designs bridges)?
The education your children get isn't any less important.
How about the one particular piece of knowledge that your child needs won't be taught because the teacher doesn't know it.

I wouldn’t worry too much. Most universities don’t even teach critical thinking anymore and indoctrinate students into left wing ideology. If anything I’d see it as a bonus that she didn’t go to university. I will be encouraging my children not to bother going. Waste of money.