To think parents(illness aside) should be informed re the days their dc aren't being taught by their teacher?

[Rockpool]

Sooo my dd 7 has had 4 teachers this year(2 are a jobshare,half of which left out of the blue at Xmas).

Earlier in the year we started getting tears re another teacher we knew nothing about.On further investigation it turned out to be a student which I understand is necessary at times.I would however have like to have been informed particularly considering the disruption dd has already had. The tears have started again from dd(and her friend/others too apparently)and it turns out said student is back and she never sees Mrs X. Again I would liked to have been informed.5 teachers in a year is a lot imvho for a 7 year old.

I'd also like to know exactly when their teachers have PPA time and who (supply or TA)are covering them.

Fully except I may be unreasonable expecting this but would just like to know if I am iykwim.

Yes, I am a teacher and a member of the senior leadership team that decides where trainee teachers are placed within the school. It may be possible to provide a reason without going into the details I listed, but it wouldn't always completely truthful and we wouldn't want to lie to or mislead parents with an explanation that "fluffed round the edges". We announce that we will have trainees in our termly class update, but we never justify why one class is picked over another. I suppose we could always send home "the trainee needs experience in this age group alongside an experienced teacher", but with four parallel classes, all with experinced teachers it wouldn't ring true with parents that look at it closely as a reason why class x has been chosen over class y.

Ds4 has had 8 teachers over 3 years. While ds3 (his twin) had the same teacher for 2 years and then his current one. I do feel this may have contributed to his refusal to speak in class. No sooner had he got used to a teacher than they left! I don't blame the school - obviously it's not their fault when a teacher leaves/become pregnant, it's just unfortunate it happened so much in ds4's class!

The school were very good at keeping us informed about what was going on, it helped me prepare Ds4 for the changes, but obviously still left a quiet boy unsettled.

I don't think yabu to ask who is covering regular ppa time - my 3 boys usually have the same teacher each time. I thought a student had to have the teacher observing though?

Hi I'm back,yay we got some sun!!!!!

Don't want to know why my dd's class has a student,just wanted to be informed that she would be having one.

Do all schools not notify parents re this then?Seems bonkers that you can't even put a plaster on a child without notification these days but you don't need to notify parents that the teacher they thought their kids would be having will be replaced for chunks of the school year.

Don't we have just a teeny right to know who is teaching our kids?

I'm with the OP on this one, I agree parents don't need an explanation why but being told of teacher changes is IMO only fair, esp as OP's DD is so young. At that age kids don't know that what's happening is irregular, they just wonder why this new person has arrived and why they're not acting the same as the other teacher they've got used to. People say it's important for parents to behave consistently (Mum and Dad agreeing on things, not all parents obviously) and I think the same is true of teachers.

I don't think YABU because it helps you to mitigate against the effects. This is similar to what happened to my daughter in year 1 and the effect it had on her and many of her classmates was really quite significant. It's not just the quality of the teaching that matters, particularly at that age, it's the continuity, the relationship with a single (or job share) teacher and the stability and security those things give. A new face will teach, but won't know the children. The lessons will often be much drier and more repetitive. ie boring. so kids play up. So newbie teacher with no relationship with the kids gets cross... and so on.

For most of the year, unlike all the other classes, my daughter's class had no owning teacher - no one to call their own. No one they could call 'MY' teacher. That's really important at 7. With my daughter, it was like a rejection over and over again every time a face did not return and it affected her confidence, her happiness and her learning . In the end she simply switched off. And she was far from the only one who felt like that. Even today (yr 4) that class is terrible for any supply who goes in and most parents remember year 1 as the missing year when none of them learned anything.

From my perspective, I didn't know until later on in the year what was happening with the multiple teachers. It then took me a while to understand the effect it was having on my daughter and by then most of the year had gone.

In our case it was a very very unfortunate set of circumstances and the school could not have forseen or mitigated against it. However what they could have done is kept us informed earlier and flagged the sorts of effects all the chopping and changing was likely to be having on the children. It's difficult for a 7 year old to explain feelings of rejection and insecurity and I wish to goodness I'd known earlier

I think YABU about PPA time because that just becomes a regular part of the weekly routine so there is no disruption as its what they become used to.

I don't think YABU about knowing when there is a student taking over the class. You should be told, especially if the regular teacher is going to be leaving the classroom. In the class where I am a TA, the teacher stays around when the student is in, and the class are told exactly why they have another teacher doing some of their lessons with them. They seem to enjoy it because there is another adult around and they still have the security of their usual teachers and TAs with them anyway.

I have felt the same as you when my ds's teacher has been off. His teacher this year was off for a good proportion of the year with a long term illness, and I only knew about it from other parents. Thankfully the replacement teacher was better than the regular one anyway, and she has stuck around for two days a week while the other teacher went part time. As this is Y5, it's not so much of an issue because they are well settled by then. But I would have a problem if it was KS1.

YABU. The tail should not be allowed to wag the dog.

yabu thats just incredably strange

Just wait till they start secondary and then have cover supervisors for 3 days who aren't even qualified teachers and merely cover a class.

I never tell a class (secondary) that the student teacher is a student so they don't make mincemeat out of them so wouldn't want this to go home to parents either.