Would you speak to school about 1 class getting more opportunities than the other?

[purplehivis]

I've never complained about anything but this is really bugging me.

DD is in Y1, and has an ECT. She is noticeably very young. The other Y1 class teacher is much more experienced and taught my oldest. Her class is always doing lovely things, junk modelling, painting, making things to bring home. They got to go on a trip to the local museum but DD's class didn't.

Last week the experienced teachers' class did sewing. DD would love this but her class didn't get to do it.

It just seems really unfair!

No, personally I would not complain about this. I would acknowledge the FOMO on behalf my dc, and remind myself there are years of school opportunities ahead.

That’s really odd, usually both classes do broadly the same thing. Do you get a chance to casually ask when their turn to do sewing/trip is coming up?

I’d definitely say something. It’s not fair that one class is disadvantaged just because their teacher happens to be less experienced.

It is a bit unusual... Especially the trip. Is she definitely not going on the same trip later in the year?

Trips would tend to be whole year groups so that does seem strange only one went. Do they not coordinate and cooperate across the year group? Not sure if I’d complain exactly but maybe as causally if your DD will also have a trip coming up and see what’s said. If answer is no I would likely raise it.

The trip seems really unusual to me too, same year group generally means same topic, same scheme of work….unless they are just going at different times for some reason.

We have situations at my school where the two teachers in each year group work very differently. They HAVE to teach the same thing - they plan together and are following the same scheme, plans and objectives - but in some year groups they go about it in a very different way. Both teachers are covering x, y and z that week but teaching it differently with different activities.

I personally would raise the trip. It could be due to a few factors that it was only possible to send one class at a time, but to only send one class full stop does seem strange. Maybe when enquiring, phrase it as “are the classes studying the same topic”.

Its tricky with ECT because at the end of the day, all teachers like in all jobs, have to start somewhere, but I totally get your point from looking in from the outside and feeling your child is missing out. What is her class doing instead?

I would ask the school about this. If the classes are the same I would expect the same experiences etc
See what they say.

Yes I would. They should be doing pretty much the same things and planning as a year group team.

With the possible exception of the trip, I think you have to accept that there just are going to be differences between teachers and what they do, and what suits different children (one of mine would hate sewing and making things and would probably be very happy in that class!) Over the course of a school career there’ll be teachers they like, teachers they don’t like, teachers you don’t like, teachers who actually aren’t much good, teachers who are amazing, teachers who go off on long term sick, teachers who leave at lunchtime on a random Tuesday in October and are never seen again (yes, that happened, the rumour mill was wild about that one!)….

So long as your child is accessing a broad and balanced curriculum and is generally happy in school I think you just have to deal with it. If you think your child is missing out on aspects of the curriculum (as opposed to you don’t like how it’s being taught) then raise it, but not with reference to the other teacher.

I’d raise the trip, definitely. The rest, partly depends on what the answer is about the trip. If the trip is happening on a different date for the class, I think I’d have to accept that things were just different. If they’re not getting the trip, I might raise the wider context of the difference between the classes.