Teacher subject cross over - Allowed?

everyday think you've been misled there. You definitely can't teach out of subject in a Scottish secondary. If there are extreme shortages, cover may be provided short term from other subject teachers but they would not be expected to teach that class, merely supervise work that has been left by a subject specialist. A teacher employed as say an English teacher would never be timetabled to teach any other subject ( except PSE).

fallenmafonna yes, if you completed an atq in a second subject, you could then apply for jobs and teach solely in your second subject if that was what you wanted to do.

Our Y7's and 8's are taught 'Humanities' and so are taught History, Geography and RE by the same teacher throughout the year. The courses are written by subject specialists and obviously they help people with any queries. Our teachers really enjoy the opportunity to teach slightly out of their area and it helps in making Humanities a proper team.

Seconded Meala. English approach terrifies me as a teacher and a parent. Rather devalues subject specialism and teacher professionalism.

Not true meala.

As far as I know in Scotland you can teach any subject in the junior years but you are not allowed to teach certificated classes.

At my school there is a PE teacher who also teaches maths
A maths teacher who also teaches science
History teachers who also teach geography and/or RE
A German teacher who also teaches French. Oh. That one's me. I am trained as an MFL teacher but studied German at uni. My French is pretty good tho. Good enough for GCSE anyway

Yes it's allowed. Theoretically I as a qualified teacher could teach anything I was asked to. Thankfully no one has asked me to do physics yet tho!

In England, you can be directed to teach any subject except RE.

In an academy, you can get the caretaker to teach a couple of classes if you like as no-one gives a fuck.

In many schools, you don't even have to be a teacher

Teachers often have to teach other subjects to fill gaps in the timetable. Typically, those teaching a humanity may teach another to younger classes. Historians often end up taking on Politics at A level too. Those teaching various social sciences at A level often cover more than one subject.
As time passes, experience counts for as much as qualifications. So if someone teaches RS for a year, to fill in, but then likes it and does a good job, it may become their main thing over a number of years.

When schools advertise and interview, they will often ask if teachers could offer another subject (ie something their degree or teaching qualification is not in). Subjects such as politics, sociology, psychology are often taught by people who have a more traditional subject as their main thing, but have then moved into these other areas too. Smaller schools in particular rely on people teaching more than 1 thing.

Highly academic schools often pride themselves on using subject specialists. This means they are less likely to have a geographer teaching. History for example. However, it is interesting to see that what determines a persons specialism can vary and often people have 2.

You have to have 2 years at University in Scotland to teach that subject, preferably a degree. Scotland is, justifiably, proud of having an all graduate profession. I taught Drama alongside English in England but can't teach it here as my degree is in English literature. If you want to teach something, but were not trained in it, but can do it ( e.g. a Gaelic speaker we had was a Geographer but wanted to teach Gaelic) then you have to prove your competence (.language test, at degree level) and then do an ATQ. (Additional Teaching Qualification) which you can do "on the job".

If you served a probationary period in a second subject, could you then just teach that subject exclusively?

Not allowed in Scotland. You must be fully qualified to degree level in a subject you teach and do a probation period in each additional subject.

I'm secondary trained RE, I have no subsidiary subject.

I have however taught ICT, English, history, geography. We can be asked to teach anything.

In the flush old days (pre-Gove and recession) it was more likely to have specialist teachers. But now a school can only afford to employ the bare minimum of teachers. So there is lots of cross over.

Very common, and the flexibility is helpful. You cannot train initially in my subject. I trained in MFL, now I teach roughly half that plus two other subjects. My reason was that after 15 years, I fancied a change. I was lucky, my school had faith in me and I was supported with extra training. I love all my subjects.

For most science teachers their second subject is science and our first our specific science. We already teach 3 subjects minimum in most schools as a result many science teachers do not have maths as a subsidary subject.

At the school where my son will be training most of the sixth form do the IB which is why they need him to pick up some English classes for the lower years as in effect every student does English right through the school .

Yes if you have done a Secondary PGCE you will have chosen a second subject as a subsidiary so many Science teachers may choose Maths as subsidiary. Most Science graduates (particularly Physics and Chemistry) will have continued to study Maths at university or taken Further Maths at A level so would be able to teach Maths.
Most schools and colleges would allow teachers to teach subjects where they have good A level grades up to GCSE. If they have joint honours degrees they may teach 2 subjects up to A level.
I would not consider myself qualified to teach a subject in which I don't have at least a good GCSE (or equivalent qualification) though and would consider this to be bad practice on the school's part.

Teaching more than one subject seems pretty common at dd's school - her history teacher also teaches geography, her geog teacher also teaches RE, and she has the same teacher for some Welsh lessons + RE.

Makes sense to me - I studied economics at university, & a lot of my work overlapped with human geographers and historians interested in the labour market / economic development. Ditto mathematicians crossing over with the more mathematical end of physics I guess (and indeed economists giving up and defaulting to maths where there are no awkward real people to mess up their theories), and linguists studying more than one language.

I'd imagine as a teacher it might be more interesting to teach in two subject areas anyway?

When I was in school we had a physics teacher who also taught design technology. I presume he had some sort of engineering background.

We also had a geography teacher who also taught PE, and a couple of history teachers also taught R.E. and also English.

It was great if you liked a teacher but if you didn't like them then having them for more than one subject wasn't such fun.

You can be told to teach anything, however a good school would only ask for volunteers to teach a subject they felt confident in.

Mummytime that's shocking. Poor kids.

SpanielFace - the worse case I knew was a school which had one maths class which didn't have a regular maths teacher for a whole year. I don't think the parents realised there actually wasn't a teacher timetabled to teach that class.

My sister is an English teacher, with a 2:1 degree in joint honours English and History, and English, History and French A-Levels. Her school, who (in my opinion) are utter arseholes, are making her teach Maths for 2 sessions a week - a subject she hasn't studied herself since GCSE 20 years previously, and is under-confident in - she has told her line manager how she feels to no avail, she's been told to refuse will be in breach of contract. Apparently, schools can do this, as a teacher is qualified to teach any subject and the school can deploy them as they feel fit! If I were the parent of a child she was teaching, I would not be impressed! Thank god she is leaving her current school at Easter - this was the final straw in a series of disastrous management decisions. Honestly, I wouldn't teach if you paid me £100k a year. (Off topic, I know, but every teacher I know is so stressed and unhappy at the moment!).

When I was training to teach it was clear that the contract was that you would teach any subject at the Head teacher's discretion. I think there was an exception for RE. But I did see History and even Science teachers teaching Graphics, and knew a Chemistry teacher who had taught French (she was Canadian).

I am a music teacher (music degree with French) and have taught German (I have a good A level in German) to key stage 3.

Dh is also a music teacher but has also taught, in the past, geography (he has a GCSE in it!) and History (no qualification in it, stopped it at 13) to key stage 3.

Lots of PE teachers also teach business, ICT, geography.

A secondary school teacher can be directed to teach in any subject.
I am a Maths teacher - I have taught ICT (by choice). I can be directed by my headteacher to teach in any subject, I have no choice. We currently have a PE teacher teaching Maths and an TA teaching Maths and other subjects due to teacher shortage. The only issue may be with health and safety for certain (mainly practical) subjects which is dealt with by giving staff some training.
It is more common nowadays in schools to have teachers teaching in more than one subject. This is due to restrictions in timetables and shortage of money for specialist staff - if you are half a teacher short in Maths then non-specialists who are short on their timetable are utilised rather than employing a full time teacher.