To be fed up that my child is being taught Biology, History, English etc by PE teachers?

[apricotdanish]

I have a child in a grammar school, can't mention name for obvious reasons but an increasingly large amount of subjects are being taught by teachers with no experience at all in the subjects they are teaching and I'm not exaggerating when I say P.E teachers are teaching all of the subjects above, there are also some specialist teachers but clearly not enough. I'm really concerned about how this will affect my child's education long term.
This is not anti teacher at all, quite the opposite, and I'm not underestimating the intelligence of the PE teachers but I don't think it's acceptable for them to be teaching subjects like Physics and Biology that are so specialised when they haven't trained in that specialism. I feel as though I've been sold a bit of lie about how wonderful this school is when this practice is so widespread.
Just wanted some opinions on what others felt about this?

Yes, it is nothing new but it has been made soooo far worse with the new, very restrictive options process. It means that we have a massive surplus of teachers from PE, Art, Music, Drama, Dance, Citizenship, IT, Business and anything else Gove didn't particularly like the sound of.

I wrote to my MP some time ago.

She took 12 days to reply stating that Nicky Morgan was ensuring that teaching remained an attractive career and that there was no recruitment or retention problem.

There are now more qualified teachers outside the profession than employed within it.

The DfE refuses to acknowledge that there is a recruitment crisis in teaching.

If you are concerned about the kinds of issues raised by the MP, PLEASE write to your MP, cc-ing Nicky Morgan and Nick Gibb. Please.

In my case, HormonalHeap, my lack of Geography GCSE means very little because I spend hours planning those lessons. The HOF recently thanked me for having resourced the Geography Department. I don't think I'm to blame for social inequality, although give it a week and Nicky Morgan will add it to the list.

Teaching anything is bloody hardwork and thankless at the moment. I'm 13 years in and it has never been this bad. Trying to get 33 16 year olds to pass a GCSE is easy compared to trying to get them all to respond to my marking in a way that shows progress in the correct colour pen.

Are there no recruitment issues anywhere in Scotland then? An ample supply of Maths teachers all over? Sounds marvellous...

PennyPebbles I apologise as I am not a teacher so have little understanding but lots of sympathy for anyone trying to motivate 33 sixteen year olds as I'm finding it pretty hard to motivate one at the moment..

Hormonal, you have it worse than me. At least I only have to put up with them for 3 hours a week.

Are there no recruitment issues anywhere in Scotland then?

There are. Things are not rosy in Scotland either. Parts of Scotland, anyway.

So what happens if you have a Maths vacancy, if non specialists seen't allowed to teach Maths?

Internal cover for short term, long-term supply, long-term non-specialist supply. In that order of preference.

My department has had 2 vacancies for months now. We are struggling big style. Council are offering relocation packages. Not making any difference. It's getting desperate.

We have been at the stage of rotating classes so that they get specialist teachers at least once a week. Makes life as a teacher ten times harder.

is it legal for teachers in the uk to teach without teaching qualifications?

I teach in a cheap as chips area in NW England, in an OFSTED 'good' school and we can't even get anyone to apply for a maths job, let alone find someone good. Supply fill the gap, then leave after a few weeks because the kids treat supply teachers like lions treat wildebeest.

Not in Scotland, amarmai I don't know about the rest of the UK. Education is a devolved issue in Scotland. Thank goodness.

That's what we do. I wonder if the posters down the thread who were so relieved it couldn't't happen in Scotland are aware that it does...

Suspect not!

I think for posters in the central belt, there are still plenty of teachers. Loads of applicants for jobs.

Academies can employ unqualified teachers.....
Other schools now have some leeway if they cannot get a suitable qualified candidate.
All schools set to be academies soon.

At timetable time last summer I actually had nightmares that Maths would appear on my timetable. I'd have had to go off sick and then resign! Being 'asked' to bring some stability to Geography was a relief, compared to that. Although it does seem to be never ending bloody graphs. Population pyramids with bottom year 8 being a particular low of my teaching career as they looked at the ruler like it was something from outer space.

I've taught about 6 or 7 subjects long-term over the years. In one school, after my term of work in my specialism ended, they kept me on in a different subject because they needed cover for several low ability groups, and I'd already got a good rapport with them.

I work in a subject area where it's common to teaching across the faculty. I was a good all rounder at school, so my comfort zone is quite broad and broader than many colleagues I've worked with.

From my casual supply days, PE was by far my most lucrative subject as few female supply teachers were willing to accept a day on the playing fields. I had a stint involving GCSE theory which overlapped well with my strong GCSE in biology.

A lot depends on the pedegogy of the subject and how close it is to your specialism and background.

PE teachers often did gravitate towards geography and maths for some reason.

See, that's something that wouldn't happen here, as far as I'm aware. I wouldn't get another subject on my timetable that I wasn't qualified for.

In England you are trained to teach with a specialism but once you have QTS can be asked to teach anything.

Free schools and academies can high non teachers to teach there are no restrictions.

I trained 8 years ago and the PE cohort only trained in PE so I think a second subject is no longer a requirement.

Non specialists teaching in your area can increase the specialist teachers workload hugely.

I a a maths specialist so tend to keep my subject but we do have non specialist (PE or IT) teaching as well as cover supervisors teaching (this one is good at maths but no degree).

It will get worse but teachers appear to have zero public support when they try to fight things. I recall the last strike day teachers were vilified on here for daring to strike and cause childcare issues.

As with most strikes we can't strike about government policy just our pay and conditions and the media highlight the pay/pension ones which from most unions were well down the list of complaints.

Some of the so called" unqualified" teachers have " instructor" status. They don't have Qualified Teacher Status, but they are competent and have qualifications in the area that they are " teaching". There are sports instructors, musicians, art,dance etc.
I don't think they are just taking any old person of the streets to stand in front of a class.

My cousin teaches PE in a high school and now has been asked to teach science. He has a EE in his double science GCSE and no further qualifications in the subject.