to expect there to be a teacher in reception?

[AStreetcarNamedBob]

My child is due to start reception soon and I"m trying to get my head around what is happening at the school. It's a tiny island school so things aren't as straightforward on the mainland but I'd still expect a minimum standard.

YR and Y1 are a composite class on paper but I don't think in practice. They're listed as being one year group because there are about 10 children in each year so a class of about 20 overall.

There is one teacher, and one teaching assistant (she has a level 2 NVQ)
There are 2 classrooms. All the children have registration together and break time together and possibly some art activities together. Otherwise they are in separate classrooms down the corridor from each other and the Teacher has Y 1 and the TA has YR

If you ask any of the children in year 1 they say "my teacher is Mrs Teacher" and if you ask a YR child they say "my teacher is Mrs TA"

Surely this isn't allowed? It seems the minimum to expect a teacher for YR! The school just say that the teacher oversees everything and that she's on top of it, and uses the TA under her direction.

I feel sorry for the TA because she's being used as a cheap teacher. I don't however think your dc's education is being compromised, especially with such small numbers. The teacher will be responsible for assessment and planning.

It's against regulation for the school to make the TA take the yrR class, the teaching unions would have a field day with them.

Yes I wondered why she didn't complain but then maybe she doesn't want to rock the boat and be out of a job :(

The problem is that she can be quite mean to the students and there have been a few complaints about her manner with the children. She shouts and scares them (apparently - I don't know her myself as DC hasn't started yet)

I was wondering if they were acting illegally that might be a better angle to take to make them sort the problem.

Give ofsted a call?

We aren't covered by Ofsted unfortunately

It's one of the channel islands, a small one.

I'm sure you definitely need a degree to be a teacher, but then again with small classroom sizes and 'she's under her guidance' crap they might be getting around it somehow. I'd give ofsted a call though, or whoever you talk to about these types of things sorry not much help

It can work but depends entirely on the TA. Certainly common in small schools.
My DC went to a tiny village school in 2000/2002. There were 5 children in reception and about 15 in Y1 and Y2 with one teacher and a TA.
The teacher taught the Y1 and 2 group and the TA taught the reception children. She was well educated and very capable and highly thought of by parents. This was before the national curriculum I think or they just ignored it. Anyway both of my DC were reading fluently within 6 months (and both eventually left school with top grades).
However, the lovely TA left to do teacher training and her replacement nursery nurse was very different and outcomes reflected this.

Just to be clear there were 20 children in total in R/Y1/Y2

We have a small village school with a composite R/Y1 class but in the afternoons the Y2 come in too - in total there can be 22 children. There is 1 teacher and 1 full time TA (although we now have a trainee teacher too) but there is also a SN child who is supposed to have 1 to 1 care.

The teacher works with different groups overseeing but she is not teaching all the children all the time, there are times when she will be working with the older children and reception are with the TA. I just thought that was how it worked and it doesn't seem to cause any concern, the children are all learning and well looked after.

Hopefully it will work ok then. Fingers crossed.