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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

No teacher for A-level - need an advice

88 replies

JTro · 03/11/2023 10:00

Hope someone can advise me what to do in this situation. My DS is in Year 13, one of his A-levels is Further Maths (FM). At the beginning of this school year, students doing FM chose what to do: 2 majors or 4 minors. My DS chose 4 minors and on the first week of doing his 4 minors he found out he has no maths teacher who will teach them ( it's 4 of them). Since then, Maths Subject Leader said that they need to teach themselves on Google Classroom, where she put some study materials while she try to sort it out very soon. Later on "very soon" transformed to "by the end of the half-term". When end of half-term happened, she said "at the beginning next half term it will be sort it out". Yesterday was first day of new half-term and of course the issue is still there. Now she says "it will be sorted out soon". At the same time, his Head of Year approached him and stronly advised to drom FM A-level and do AS-level instead, my DS refused. After that Head of Sixths Form approached him and again "strongly advised" to drop FM A-level. As his predicted grade for FM is B, I suspect this is their attempt to solve the issue by less painful way for them, but not taking into ccount his best interest. As all this happens through talking with his Maths subject leader, it looks like they will push him and few others to study FM themselves as long as they could and they are really missing out on proper studying and they do the same level on tests as other, who do have a techer. I need an advise how to approach school regarding this issue and finally make them to teach these 4 students properly. Should I contact Head teacher, or go straight to Governors? Just for reference - I am not familiar with A-level system at all, he is our first who is doing A-levels, and probably it's a norm when students learn themselves?

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PocketSand · 03/11/2023 18:19

DS2 is doing a full A level OCR FM but is not doing all four - I think it's statistics, mechanics, pure and further pure? - because his college don't cater for all 4. I can understand that if he wants all 4 they would say stop at AS. But he could still do less than 4 and still have a full A level. Makes no difference to uni application.

But DS2 is also only doing 3 A levels. His college won't allow students to do more as it is in excess of uni entry requirements.

JTro · 03/11/2023 18:01

BoohooWoohoo · 03/11/2023 17:54

If there is one teacher available of course they will prioritise 30 pupils over 4 pupils. It's a grammar school so the class with 30 pupils will produce more top grades than the class with the 4 pupils.

I think that your choice is to do AS (3.5 A-levels is enough for a top uni) or pay for tutors etc privately and take 4 A-levels.

There is a national shortage of teachers (especially in maths) and I think it's terrible that they keep making promises that it will be sorted in 6 weeks time and your son believes them.

Just checked, there is no shortage of maths teachers in this particular school. Open vacancies I listed above. If they have problems with teaching these 4, it should be picked up much earlier, exactly first week of studying, should not be promisisng to "sort it out soon". Last promise was done yesterday, it's look like they do not even consider to sort it out in any way, only by pushing him out of A-level. He is adamant to do a full A level, and I support him

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BoohooWoohoo · 03/11/2023 17:54

If there is one teacher available of course they will prioritise 30 pupils over 4 pupils. It's a grammar school so the class with 30 pupils will produce more top grades than the class with the 4 pupils.

I think that your choice is to do AS (3.5 A-levels is enough for a top uni) or pay for tutors etc privately and take 4 A-levels.

There is a national shortage of teachers (especially in maths) and I think it's terrible that they keep making promises that it will be sorted in 6 weeks time and your son believes them.

IhearyouClemFandango · 03/11/2023 17:53

Surely by "handle it" you mean "what can I do/ask them to do"? If there isn't a teacher there isn't a teacher.

What is your suggestion/solution ?

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:41

Shinyandnew1 · 03/11/2023 17:36

Our head teacher has been requesting via the school newsletter if any parents are able to teach maths as they have advertised repeatedly and can’t recruit.

You can complain to the governors and the head if you want but they will all be fully aware they don’t have enough teachers!

For this stage I am not going to complain to governors as the complaint procedure should be followed, I emailed to Head of Year, so we'll see. There is a full set of maths teachers in school, the open vacancies are for Chemistry teacher (maternity cover) and Examination officer.

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Shinyandnew1 · 03/11/2023 17:36

Our head teacher has been requesting via the school newsletter if any parents are able to teach maths as they have advertised repeatedly and can’t recruit.

You can complain to the governors and the head if you want but they will all be fully aware they don’t have enough teachers!

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:28

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:25

Thank you for your attention, but if you go back to my original post, you could notice I did not ask you specifically to do ANYTHING about it, especially in such a nasty way. What I was asking is advise how to handle it. You do not have to reply to me, from now on I'll just ignore you, so you would not feel obliged to do something about it.

you have asked what to do about it. I have told you. There is no teacher at school for what your son has chosen. So he can change his choices. Or study outside of school with a tutor. It doesn't matter how many times you say you want him to have a teacher in school, there isn't one, Whether they will find one or not, no one can say. Many teaching vacancies attract zero applicants

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:25

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:21

but

there

is

no

teacher

and

I

don't

know

what

you

think

anyone

can

do

about

that

Thank you for your attention, but if you go back to my original post, you could notice I did not ask you specifically to do ANYTHING about it, especially in such a nasty way. What I was asking is advise how to handle it. You do not have to reply to me, from now on I'll just ignore you, so you would not feel obliged to do something about it.

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stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:21

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:16

It should be picked up much earlier if my DS and other 4 are not important or inferior to others as they have spent a whole year doing maths and FM! A whole year wasted time and efforts!

Everyone should be treated equal, that's my understanding.

but

there

is

no

teacher

and

I

don't

know

what

you

think

anyone

can

do

about

that

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:19

spanieleyes · 03/11/2023 17:14

No, but if they don't have a teacher the choices are that the school stops the option of doing 4 minors so the pupils don't do 4 minors and have to swap to major/minor or they cover the material themselves.

But the problem is that school is doing this option of 4 minors and other students are doing it.

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JTro · 03/11/2023 17:16

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:14

It doesnt really matter how many other teachers there are and other classes there are, there is no teacher for your sons class - the other teachers are not hanging round twiddling their thumbs, they will have full timetables, and not be able to take on another class.

The school does not have enough teachers. I imagine they did have enough teachers when they made the original offer, but have lost one, for whatever reason. Maybe health, or promotion, or whatever.

This is not an unusual situation, if we have a teacher off long term sick, we can't find anyone to take their place

It should be picked up much earlier if my DS and other 4 are not important or inferior to others as they have spent a whole year doing maths and FM! A whole year wasted time and efforts!

Everyone should be treated equal, that's my understanding.

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spanieleyes · 03/11/2023 17:14

No, but if they don't have a teacher the choices are that the school stops the option of doing 4 minors so the pupils don't do 4 minors and have to swap to major/minor or they cover the material themselves.

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:14

It doesnt really matter how many other teachers there are and other classes there are, there is no teacher for your sons class - the other teachers are not hanging round twiddling their thumbs, they will have full timetables, and not be able to take on another class.

The school does not have enough teachers. I imagine they did have enough teachers when they made the original offer, but have lost one, for whatever reason. Maybe health, or promotion, or whatever.

This is not an unusual situation, if we have a teacher off long term sick, we can't find anyone to take their place

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:13

My understanding is if the options are offered to everybody, they all ahve the same rights and should be treated equally. Why others (even if it's 30 of them) have preferences over these 4?

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JTro · 03/11/2023 17:11

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:09

That teacher will already have a full timetable

and? so it's ok for 30 students to do learn and for these 4 - not? even more interesting

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JTro · 03/11/2023 17:10

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:09

That is a different class.

it is a class doing 4 minors, the same as my DS and other 3 students.

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stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:09

That teacher will already have a full timetable

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:09

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:08

if there is no teacher, how others are having lessons with a teacher?

That is a different class.

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:09

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:08

of course they can't pull a teacher out of a class of 30 to teach a class of 4. They need more teachers, they don't have enough teachers - that is the issue

so that's ok to discriminate these 4??? interesting

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JTro · 03/11/2023 17:08

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:06

If there is no teacher, then there is no teacher, not sure what anyone can do about that. Unless your son wants to be an external candidate and learn through a tutor

if there is no teacher, how others are having lessons with a teacher?

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stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:08

JTro · 03/11/2023 16:55

there are maths teachers , other students are doing their majors and their minors, just 4 out of around 100 do not have teachers. I think as these options were offered and other sudents ARE doing 4 minors, it's not fair to not teach these 4.

of course they can't pull a teacher out of a class of 30 to teach a class of 4. They need more teachers, they don't have enough teachers - that is the issue

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:06

If there is no teacher, then there is no teacher, not sure what anyone can do about that. Unless your son wants to be an external candidate and learn through a tutor

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 17:06

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:02

noblegiraffe, yes, it's England. They offering him to drop FM A level and downgrade it to AS-level, because as my DS said, most of the AS level programm is already covered. I think its OCR board. But I don't think it's fair for his future to drom A level to AS level while his predicted grade is B (they did end of year exams and all predictions are based on that). Anyway, email to Head of year was sent, hopefully will get a reply on Monday. School refused to share Maths subject leader school email due to confidentiality (is that normal?).

yes, that is normal

JTro · 03/11/2023 17:02

noblegiraffe, yes, it's England. They offering him to drop FM A level and downgrade it to AS-level, because as my DS said, most of the AS level programm is already covered. I think its OCR board. But I don't think it's fair for his future to drom A level to AS level while his predicted grade is B (they did end of year exams and all predictions are based on that). Anyway, email to Head of year was sent, hopefully will get a reply on Monday. School refused to share Maths subject leader school email due to confidentiality (is that normal?).

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JTro · 03/11/2023 16:55

stripybluesocks · 03/11/2023 16:39

There are no maths teachers, nothing the school can do about that - they might have had one originally but lost them for whatever reason.

We also have no maths teachers or science teachers, so have had to limit the number of science lessons on the GCSE timetables, and also have year 7 and 8 taught by unqualified non specialists

there are maths teachers , other students are doing their majors and their minors, just 4 out of around 100 do not have teachers. I think as these options were offered and other sudents ARE doing 4 minors, it's not fair to not teach these 4.

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