Year 2 - part time teachers - how did this work for your child?

[Crunchymum]

Posted in Education but no replies so far.

I m looking for experiences regarding this. Y2 DC will have one teacher early week and a different teacher late week.

It's quite unusual in our school (this is the first time I've come across it in my decade long relationship with this school)

I'm a part time worker myself and its feels unsavoury to even ask the question but on a selfish level I am concerned. After all the disruption in Reception and Y1, I'm worried about the effect of this teaching arrangement on my DC.

Any thoughts, experiences, practical advice appreciated and I'd love to hear for any PT teachers for reassurance.

IME it’s a good thing.

Twice as much energy and expertise.

Fine. My dc liked both teachers, was good to have a mix of teaching styles and personalities etc. It seems to me that it's more likely your dc will get on well with at least one of the teachers.

The key thing is that the two teachers get on well and communicate with each other.

Don't stress, I'm sure it will be fine.

My son is y4 and had this this year - it has been brilliant. Both teachers are excellent.

It often happens in primary schools either because teachers are part time, or because they teach 3 days and have leadership responsibilities the other days.

In a regular classroom with a full time teacher the teacher will be out a minimum of one afternoon a week anyway for PPE. Possibly another half day for a different responsibility.

From the child's perspective they learn not to rely on one person - so if a teacher is ill, or leaves then they still have a degree of continuity.

Ds is at the end of y2 and has had two teachers sharing the class this year. He absolutely loves both teachers and has been really happy. We found that it worked really well and they both seemed to get to know him very quickly and obviously were sharing information and ideas very well between them. I have had no issues or concerns at all.

I'm a job share teacher and can tell you that it will be fine. The teachers are professionals and have conversations, handovers, planning meetings together and divide subjects up between them by their expertise. Let the teachers do their jobs.

We had this in Y1, and again in Y5, and it has worked very well both times.

In Y1 they both worked on Wednesday, and covered each other's PPE, so the children got a proper teacher for every lesson. Also, one teacher specialised in maths and the other in English, so they could weight things slightly across the week so each teacher could deliver more of their stronger subject.

It's beneficial for children to hear the same thing being explained in slightly different ways as well - one approach might suit some kids, and the other, the other kids.

Both my kids have had this at primary school and has been no issues at all.

Many thanks, this is all very reassuring.

I think the fact they are both unknown teachers to me (I have other kids at the school) and it's not a usual occurrence, has made me panic a little.

And to the teachers replying, I have no intention to get involved or make my feelings known. I just wanted a little reassurance (which this thread has given me)

Y1 for us - worked really well with no issues at all

I think this works ok if your child likes both teachers otherwise you can end up with a child who doesn't want to go on the days favourite teacher isn't there!

My daughter is currently in year 2, on a Monday she has main teacher in the morning and then a different teacher in the afternoon and then on a Wednesday a completely different teacher for the whole day. Most of the week is fine except for Mondays as she really doesn't like the afternoon teacher (she's well known for not being very nice) which means every single Sunday evening we get the "I don't want to go to school tomorrow because I don't like Mrs *"!

Don't forget that a teacher gets PPA time which will be covered by someone else (TA/sports/music teacher) and if they're an NQT that can amount to a full day each week, so they are already used to having different teachers. In fact, job sharing teachers works well as they just have the other teacher on PPA time so get less disruption in a way. Honestly my DC had two teachers in various KS1 classes and it's a complete non-event. Didn't even register with them that it was unusual, not least because small children don't distinguish between teachers/TAs/any of the other adults who sometimes take classes. They just accept it. There were never any communication issues either.