To expect my son's yr 4 teacher to be older

[katedan]

I know it is like policeman and a sign I am getting older but WTF she is 22 and this is her first teaching job a class of 35 8/9 yr olds. She seemed so out of her depth and it is only day 2.

I am really worried she will not be able to keep the class interested and the standard of my son's education will suffer.

AIBU?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - SEA is either a troll or incredibly stupid.

As for some of the other posts I've seen, NQTs have months of experience, not hours.

Unfortunately at state schools you don't have that right. The headteacher and governors decides and if you don't like it you go private or move.

As someone who is 23 and about to start my PGCE next week I find this thread thoroughly disheartening.

Maypole that's a very odd thing to think that just because she is a Mrs she's unlikely to be 22. What if she had been a Miss who turned out to be 58?

Don't worry newbabynewmum, you'll be fine.

I won't lie, some parents are a bit ignorant and belligerent about things but the majority of them are supportive and understanding and just want the best for their kids :)

Oh NBNM don't be disheartened by such ignorance, there is much of it surrounding teaching I'm afraid, but generally I've been getting rather cheered by the number of mnetters sticking up for the profession recently. It's a new school year so there are going to be an abundance of bonkers school related threads popping up.

Good luck and I hope you love it.

Maypole - how do you judge what is 'lesser' in education though?

As I put in an earlier post, reception is far more critical to a child's success in the future than say, Year 4. Not because Year 4 isn't valuable, but because if a child fails to learn to read then they will fail through the rest of their school career, and this is taught in reception.
If you can't identify the 'lesser case' equivalents, then where do teachers start?

As others have said, you get your qualification by yes, doing some work at uni on the theory of child development etc, but you also get it by sitting in a classroom for short periods, to begin with, which are monitored and critiqued by tutors and/or the class teacher. Those periods are increased in length, until you are teaching for a few weeks at a time - so by the time you get your bit of paper you have stood in front of a group of kids loads, with experienced teachers telling you where you went wrong....

Finally, your training will mean you are specialised in a particular area. So if you specialise in early years, you will be taught how to teach reading. You will, on the other hand, be taught how to, say, manage a classroom of kids about to turn on bunsen burners for the first time if you choose to specialise in secondary chemistry. These things don't have much in common. So if you want to start people in reception to gain experience, it actually won't help them at all when they get to secondary and have to deal with kids who already know how to read but who need to have chemistry made understandable, fun and safe. It's a completely different skill set, and a completely different knowledge base. Why not start someone at the level at which they will continue, and make sure they have all the relevant knowledge, and have practised the craft at that level under supervision by someone else who has practised the craft at that level?

Otherwise what you are saying is 'Great, you've proved you are good at teaching a five year old how to recognise his own name, so now we want you in a secondary school and you'll need to teach the sixteen year olds how to build an electric circuit. Off you go, and don't worry, you've taught before so you'll be fine.'

Newbabynewmum don't listen to the idiots on here who are slating young teachers - you go for it and by the end of your PGCE year you will be an experienced NQT ready and able to teach whatever age range you have been trained for. I just hope you don't get some of these parents in your NQT year! I'm wondering if some of them are the parents of my 1st class!!

Sorry, there is. Not there are.

Maypole - I have to ask -what do you think NQT stands for? What qualifying year? Honestly, I don't understand what you mean by the last bit.

ha and supposedly our new brand of teachers are posting on this thread

babybythesea you make an excellent point about teacher training. I am an EYrs specialist with training and experience in KS1. I would never be thrown into KS2,3 or 4 as I am not trained for it. The teacher is trained for the job they will do.

New brand of teachers? What are you talking about now?

newbabynewmum hopefully you'll get a school which embraces young and capable teachers... don't let this thread knock your confidence. 'The way things are' we need all the teaching talent we can get, go for it!

Thank you!
It seems to me it's a bit like saying 'We've trained this person as a car mechanic and they've done well, so we'll get them to repair that aircraft as they've got the experience they need now.' I'd rather have somone who was trained specially for the job repair the aircraft I'm flying on, thanks all the same, whether thet are 22 or 42, not someone who did a job in roughly the same field, has done it for a bit, aged a bit, and is now thought able to move up!

I'd like to know when we got re-branded. I suppose that would explain my somewhat altered packaging since returning from maternity...

Glad to see there is alot of sense on this thread. Off to bed now as have to be up early to go and join the rest of the new brand of teachers and wonder which of you are the parents of my class...

(Similarly, I'd rather have a car mechanic fix my car before I get in and drive it away, not an aircraft mechanic who is building his experience in an area he actually doesn't know much about and wasn't trained in but needs to do to get the required number of years under his belt (and wrinkles on his face) before he can get on with doing the job he was trained for.)
I don't wish to be thought predjudiced on the subject of mechanics, whether air or road based!

babybythesea I had also thought of using mechanics as an example but glad you did and worded it better than I could have :)

Thanks everyone! I'm a Miss by the way SEA and Mary But a single mum ...

Night my fellow new brand teachers!

??

Look, some people are cut out to be teachers and others are totally not. That is nothing to do with age but personality and character traits. Its totally unfair to say younger teachers are incapable of being GOOD teachers just as much as saying a nursery nurse over the age of 25 is no good at their job.

If you explained what you don't get, SEA, then whoever wrote whatever confused you could explain. As it is, we can't, because you haven't.

There's a lot of nervous looking mums in the playground at present, are they then automatically bad parents?

New teachers learn to teach. On the job, they teach whatever it is they have been judged to have the ability to teach (teachers apply and are interviewed and assessed for each post).

Later in their carreer they may decide to diversify (again, before they get the job, they are assessed for their ability and suitability to teach that subject in that school).

If you have a problem with a certain teacher, then by all means complain, but I don't see that just because a teacher begins their carreer teaching one group, that it should not be able to move on (not up) in their professional development.

What a newbe lacks in experience, they make up in enthusiasm. As long as the result in the child is positive, what is the problem?

I've not read the whole thread, but I just thought I'd throw in that my mum did her teacher training in the war and started teaching in the East End of London, with flying bombs and rockets overhead. The training was 2 years then so she can't have been more than 20. Her first class was 56 boys. Out of her depth? Hell no!

Makes the case in the OP sound pretty cushy, doesn't it?