Can teaching assistants teach class alone…for half of the week

[Beachholidaying1979]

I found out today that for the last 2 months, dd teacher has gone part time and TA now teaches the class snow for the other half. fine, no problem, but she cannot control the class and they do what they like and don’t learn a lot.
Before I speak to school I just want some options, is this acceptable?

In my area there’s a shortage of TAs, and the expectations on them of stepping up to do the teachers’ jobs on minimum wage is why.

Yes my sister is a TA - the highest qualified you can be (whatever that is). She can teach with lesson plans that have been signed off by a qualified teacher

Actually it's allowed in any school as long as the head is happy with the standard of teaching.

Doesn't make it right.

I work in an academy and we are all qualified teachers with qts. However I can see this changing as we simply can’t recruit. Adverts going out all year and still not an applicant. My academy chain has always only employed fully qualified teachers but I am not sure what they are going to have to do. Only 7 computer science teachers trained in the uk last year. We can’t recruit for traditionally oversubscribed subjects like English or Art where we would have a field of candidates. I don’t know what you’d do if you needed a maths or science teacher. It’s all very well being indignant but what do you expect schools or academies to do?devil or the deep blue sea. We needed 7 supply teachers this week. The maximum thr agency could supply was 5….between all the schools in the area. Teachers having to use their frees to cover their colleagues. A lot of good will but once that is used even more teachers leave the profession.

It’s all very well being indignant but what do you expect schools or academies to do?

It's not for schools nor academies to solve. The Government need to make the teaching profession more attractive to both enter and remain in. That is the only effective long-term solution.

My local authority used to have return to teaching schemes for those who wanted to return, which included a placement and updating of skills. It was excellent, but they have got rid of it. There are teachers who want to return to the profession after a career break but can’t get back in especially Primary teaching.

The Tories are only concerned that pupils in private schools are taught by qualified teachers. The rest of the children have to put up with unqualified teachers. As long as the ‘elite’ get a decent education, who cares?

Absolutely unacceptable.

The Tories are only concerned that pupils in private schools are taught by qualified teachers. The rest of the children have to put up with unqualified teachers. As long as the ‘elite’ get a decent education, who cares?
Much as I dislike the Tories and think ideally private schools wouldn't exist, staff in private schools don't have to be qualified either.

The difference is a fee paying school's idea of an appropriate hire might be a music teacher without QTS, but with an extensive performance experience, relevant connections to industry that the students will have access to, and relevant music qualifications, whereas a cash strapped state school's appointment is more likely to be an unqualified graduate as a cover supervisor who ends up covering long term absence.

It was a few more than that in 2019 across the country but not many actually finished the SCITT course.

In our class of all different secondary subject teachers there were 40 of us at the start and if I remember correctly 12 finished and got QTS.

I was an 'unqualified teacher', I trained to teach in FE colleges, that qualified me to teach children from 14 years upwards but only in an FE college.

I did supply and eventually I did do a PGCE for secondary teaching because I was getting more work in schools than colleges.