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Primary school teachers, year 2 and on 6th teacher already

1 reply

Applecrunchinghellfire · 27/01/2026 17:42

DS is in year 2 in a small school (approx 100 children). All was good whilst he was in reception but since then it’s been change after change.

He started in year 1 with 1 teacher who left after 3 months, then the next teacher left after 3 months so they rejigged the school and he had his reception teacher for the rest of year 1. Year 2 a new teacher started which was going well then instead of recruiting for maternity leave for an older class; they’ve taken the year 2 teacher and now we have year another new teacher.
is this the norm? My ds is very unsettled and struggles with change anyway but I’m wondering if this is what happens at other schools?
today ds came home saying they had a supply teacher and he’s managed to cut his hair whilst sat at his desk and the teacher didn’t notice!

OP posts:
user405927 · 27/01/2026 18:08

It’s not normal but it’s not that uncommon either. There is a shortage of teachers. Working in a small school is intense and it’s much harder work because there are less adults. So it’s hard to attract staff. I do supply teaching now because being a class teacher is too hard. I can’t begin to tell you the situations I have walked in to. It’s completely normal now to go to a school that can’t recruit and there to be nobody who has a clue what is supposed to be taught. They can have had a different teacher every day for a fortnight. Whereas five years ago that would never have happened.

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