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?

Id be wanting to know about her experience and if she has taught before or if this is her first position.

I would also be concerned she must only just be qualified, and to my mind teaching a group of 35 8/9 year olds is not a good place to start.

Where would be a good place to start then?

Where would be a good place to start then?

well, to be fair nowadays when class sizes aren't supposed to be 35, a class of 30 8/9 year olds sounds more ideal.

But then maybe a younger teacher will have more energy to deal with them than an older person.

Too true Grimma.

Millions of years ago when I was an NQT in a high school, a couple of my Y10 girls stayed behind at the end of a lesson, and asked me if I was 18???? I smiled and explained the time/level of qualification needed to become a teacher. "Ah," they replied, "so are you 35???"

I loved the idea that for them, there was nothing really inbetween.

I suspect that, those days, I tended to look 18 in the mornings, and 35 by lunchtime.
Now I just look 64730 all the time

My sister is a new teacher - just like everyone in my family has been a teacher before her (me excluded - I'm the token daughter in a male dominated profession).

From what I hear from her I guess it is fair to say she struggles sometimes - as would anyone in a new job. But the amount of thought she puts into her job is frankly mind boggling - and she does ask older colleagues or even my parents for advice all the time.

To be honest, if my child was taught by someone making even half as much of an effort to do great I'd rest completely at ease. I'd certainly prefer it to the French teacher I once had who would literally sit there and talk to us - in French to be fair - about how he couldn't wait to retire the following year and how sick and tired he was of his job.

I am going to be in my first year of teaching next year (well, this year really, as I am doing a GTP). I am 47. I am certainly feeling out of my depth most days. I don't actually think my age has much to do with it tho. I also don't think I will automatically be a much better teacher at once than some of the younger people on my course. Probably the opposite.

She has to have her first teaching job sometime (like me!) and frankly if she is half my age, well she is probably twice as fit/enthusiastic/brimful of ideas!

LOL @ Hula being shorter than some of yr students, that's not at all uncomon, is it! I had a yr 7 student today who was only about an inch shorter than me in my heels

YABU OP but I think you know that. SEA wth are you talking about? If she is a qualified teacher she has had lots of experience. Mostly in a classroom FWIW. And yes, I agree, why shoudl teaching end KS1 be any easier than mid KS2?

CLass sizes of 35 not that uncommon in juniors sadly, and certainly not against the rules. I agree with those who say they would rather teacher yr 4 than yr 1.

[quick hijack] Hi Clary! How's it going? Have you got your own classes from the start? PM me, or email if you have it. I'd love to hear how your year progresses.

"I would also be concerned she must only just be qualified, and to my mind teaching a group of 35 8/9 year olds is not a good place to start."

Where would be a good place to start then?

While I was training, one of my friends was on placement for two months in a class of 35 10/11 year olds. Do you think she wasn't ready to teach 8/9 year olds by the time the placement ended?

Qualified teachers are qualified. End of story.

Totally ridiculous. As a qualified teacher who went straight into secondary teaching across the 11-18 age range at 23, should I have been sent to a Reception class after doing my secondary training? Or perhaps I should have gone to my local college and done an NVQ, after spending 4 years at Durham and a year on PGCE at Cambridge?!
Parents do NOT get to choose the teachers. The Head and Governors of the school do that. Thankfully. Or else nobody would ever be able to get the training required to become a teacher.
Where do you think these young teachers got enough experience to achieve Qualified Teacher Status? Yes, that's right, teaching children in schools up and down the country when they weren't even qualified yet! Shock horror!

The first year is very hard. The fact she seems out of her depth is not due to her age, it is the fact that teaching is a very demanding job and there is a lot to get to grips with when you start a new job in a new school in the first few weeks. She will settle in soon and perhaps she will be an outstanding teacher. Or perhaps she won't be, but that won't be because of her age. There are crap teachers of all ages.

She'll have a support network behind her. My daughter had a lovely male teacher who was newly qualified last year and he was fab. She and my son also had NQ teachers 2 years ago who were good teachers too.

YANBU it is scary to be discussing your dc with someone who could also be your child and is in fact the teacher. That makes you feel way too old.

At 22 I could not have coped with 35 8/9 year olds. However now, much closer to the grave, I still could not cope with it. This is why I never contemplating becoming a school teacher. I remember what we did to them.

I could imagine a youthful teacher has a bit of zest and creativity and hasn't been doing the same old thing year in, year out so is not yet bored with the whole business IYSWIM. could be a good thing.

I started teaching as an NQT at 23 and was teaching 11-16 year olds. It never crossed my mind to think of the classes as anything but pupils and find it offensive that young teachers are thought of as not being professional enough to not get up to 'high jinx'. Shocking attitude.
Plus, having completed a 3 year Maths degree plus a Pgce that was about 90% in classrooms, it is ridiculous to suggest doing an nvq which is like going back to do alevels. Complete rubbish.

Have not read whole of thread but YABU and very unfair to judge her before you really know how she's doing. I'd be pleased if my children were being taught by young, enthusiastic and recently-trained teachers. Teachers at the other end of their career are not always so energetic and inspiring. Hundreds of NQT's start in schools across the country every year, teaching classes from reception right up to 6th form - why wouldn't one be able to teach your dc's class? Ridiculous.

As if this young teacher hasn't got enough work to do...
Now she's got Judgey mummy and her Pervy hubby to contend with... lovely.

"At 22 I could not have coped with 35 8/9 year olds"

Me neither! And, like you, I still couldn't. owever, the Very Young NQT that DS1 had in Y1 had 30 5 year olds sitting quietly in a circle in front of her on the carpet.
Even with all my parenting experience I don't think I ever managed that with even two children.

If you are basing your judgement of a teacher on some airy fairy idea of experience, you are mislead and mistaken. You are incorrectly basing your judgement on the assumption that NQTs come straight out of their own classroom into the workplace, never having taught before. my neice is doing whatever Uni course you do after A levels in order to become a primary teacher. I know she spends a considerable amount of time in a real classroom environment gaining teaching experience.

I can't believe the snotty attitude that a fully qualified and experienced NQT is not good enough for your child. It is rather ignorant given the facts.

Having said that, I was delighted when DS1 got his first teacher who was the same age and shape as me rather than young and slender :o

I haven't a issue with them teaching primary school but I have a right to voice what type of teacher I like for my child

Of course you have the right to voice it but you don't have the right to choose-you can of course go private but they have young teachers too! You are just as likely to get one.

Good teachers are nothing to do with age-I know some pretty appalling ones with 30yrs experience, I know some brilliant ones who have been NQTs.

I am so glad that other teachers, TAs and other people who work with them don't have this prejudice.

The really stupid thing, that people are missing, is that many people go into it late, as Clary is doing at 47yrs. Anyone who sees Clary is going to be reassured because she is older, completely missing the point that she maybe a mum, but is completely green where teaching a class is concerned. Apologies to Clary, as I'm sure she will make a wonderful teacher (going into it with her eyes open), but a 22 yr old will be doing it without the responsibility of her own children and running a home. To look at 2 NQTs -one 47yrs and one 22yrs and say that one should be let loose and the other should practise (not sure where!) for a few years first is ridiculous. They are at the same stage. Being a mum is a different experience from teaching.
You will never get a keener teacher than one in a new job and she will have the support of the other staff and the school.

It all comes, I think, from not giving DCs responsibility and independence. If you have kept your own DC tied to your apron strings and not thought them capable of even a train journey with changes at 18yrs then you are not going to see a 22 yr as an adult. They are adults-just as capable as a 47yr old of being an NQT.

Good luck Clary.

At 22 I could not have coped with 35 8/9 year olds"

I was and I did-except that there were 32 of them and they were 7/8yr olds.
All my friends coped just as well. Some are Head teachers now. They all had to start and they started (unless coming into as mature students) at 22yrs.

We were all excitited and competent. We had had a lot of hands on experience. The final teaching practise was one where you were virtually in charge of the class.

22yr olds today are quite capable of managing 35 8/9/ yr olds. Age doesn't make it any different.

I expect that the same people who don't want a young teacher don't want their DC to have a student for 8weeks either!!

Teachers are supposed to gain the experience without having charge of a class-unless they are 47yrs old and a student and then they look suitable to the parent-despite being at the same level as a 22 yr old!!

Lots of 22yrs are coping with a whole class of 8/9yr olds this September-the fact that you couldn't is irrelevant. Many people twice the age wouldn't want to teach as a job and couldn't cope. Being a mother of even 6 DCs doesn't prepare you for a class of 30 DCs.

My DDs yr 3 teacher looks about ten. DD was thrilled...they love young teachers...or really old ones.

I think it's because they associte old ones with their Grannies and young ones with glam big sisters and cousiins.

Young teachers have somehing else to offer other than experience....they have masses of energy and are in touch with the yoof.