Primary School Teachers jobsharing

[KittyPerry77]

Out of the 14 classes in my kids' school (2 form entry), 4 classes will now have two class teachers jobsharing instead of one class teacher. I think this will be most unsettling for the children and just not workable at primary level. How can one teacher pick up the maths lesson that someone else has taught the day before? Most impractical I think. And if there is an issue that happened with one teacher you'd need to wait 'til they're working again next week.
Am I being unreasonable?
And if not what can I do? Obviously the head can't change these teachers working conditions now so what criticism can constructively be given to the head? Thankfully my kids are both having one class teacher each this year but I am worried about subsequent years.

Holy thread backfire

My year 6 dd has had 2 teachers doing a job share this year and I was apprenensive this time last year , in fact I think I even started a thread in the education section. As it turns out it has been fine and she has had a fab year. One teacher takes most of the responsibility for planning maths and the other English. They have to follow the curriculum anyway. My dd doesn't seem bothered and has adapted well. Both teachers have very young babies/ toddlers and I'd rather experienced teachers stay in the profession doing part time hours that suit them and their families than leave or try to work full time and struggle. I think it must be very hard being a teacher working ful time with a very young family.

Yabu

My son's class is having this next year. I was a little unsure at first as he is not great with change, but I think it could be positive -!if one teacher is absent for any reason, they have the best possible back up. After all, they are already taught by lots of different people even with one teacher - 4 ta's, students, the head, mixed activities with other classes and teachers - and it makes for a very positive inclusive environment where they feel part of the school, and they are known by and have good relationships with lots of the staff from different areas of the school.

I'm going to wait and see how it works in reality before judging it to be an issue.

not that want to put a downer on it satsuki but if one is absent the other one doesnt just pop up its still their dayy off!

but anyway my dn has had job share teachers and he loves it-sis thought it was odd at first but the kids didnt seem bothered at all

you cant criticise something that hasnt happened to you yet

No problem with two job-sharers. My dd used to go, "Oh good, it's Mrs M today, " or "Oh no, it's Mrs P." It wouldn't have been good if it had been Mrs P all week!

That being said, when I was a governor the head was getting quite fed up with every single teacher after maternity leave (it was a big school) asking to come back for one day a week . She said it was a logistical nightmare and unsettling for the (particularly smaller) pupils. She allowed two to return for one day a week, but this created a tsunami of applications from maternity returners and older teachers who wanted to ease off. Each application had to be considered, of course, but the head understandably couldn't allow kids to be taught by five different teachers a week.

Mine had this for a couple of years, in reception and again later on. It's very, very common in secondary to have more than one teacher for the same subject, too.

I actually think the years he had two class teachers were among his most successful.

YANBU to be concerned, YABU to assume the worst however. Pretty much everyone here has been positive about their own experiences - hopefully you'll take that on board and feel reassured.

YABU. DD had job sharing teachers in year 1, it was great particularly because one of them didn't like parents much even though she was amazing with the kids.

We didn't have problems with duplication or anything, each one played to their strengths - eg one of them loved art so always did that on her days, one was great at outdoor PE so always took that lesson and left indoor PE for the other one etc.

My DDs had this many years ago. Excellent system, they got the best of each of them.

It's a good system. Checks and balances and all that. And not all teachers gel with all children and vice versa.

If they job share but do whole days yabu. It generally works fine. I did have one child whose teachers job shared by one doing mornings and one afternoons. That was not great tbh.

My children have had several job-share teachers over the years.

Some teachers only worked part-time. Other teachers had a second role within the school and so spent their non-teaching days doing that instead.

It's worked out well each time, and the teachers always knew exactly what the other had been doing.

In any case, having a single full-time class teacher doesn't mean that a child will only be taught by one person. The class teacher will have time away from the class for at least one morning or afternoon a week to do their other work (PPA time?).

DD had a job share class in yr1. She found the lack of continuity unsettling, which made her nervous and reluctant to go to school. She also had some difficult issues to address with other children at school caused by overprotective parenting, which inflamed the situation. It was a really stressful time and the teachers were great and helped her through it.

I wrote to the school and asked if she could be put in a class with just one teacher for the next year if possible. And she was. The other class had job share teachers in reception. I did not hear about any other child having issues. So I imagine most children cope just fine. And I know the teachers liaise very well. They use technology to keep up to date with the situation - iPads, email etc. This year she will have a job share and I know she will be just fine.

My DD (reception) has two teachers job sharing and it's brilliant. They're both great teachers, with lots of different skills to offer, and it's worked so well. Plus, there's continuity with TAs etc and it's just managed really well.

There's nothing to worry about. If your DC were in a class where this was happening and there were issues - that's when you'd deal with it.

You'd have kittens in our school, not only a job share BUT combined year groups. In fact next year is going to be 3 teachers teaching across a range of year groups from
Nursery to year 2.

If your child is happy and developing you kind of have to trust the school.

We had a job share last year and I had many of your concerns, especially as my child has autism and I was really worried about how she would cope. It was fine, better than fine in fact, dd thrived and I would say the teachers had more energy and more patience, especially with whiny parents, given that they were not having to do the full week. I'd never have a problem with it now.

YABU. Given the working hours imposed upon teachers these days, it's hardly surprising that many choose to work part time in order to maintain some kind of balance in their lives. And, as many have said, there may be benefits to two, rather than one, teacher.

YABVU
You clearly have no idea about the teaching profession and yet plan to give criticism to the head teacher on matter that does affect you or your children.
Having recently had a dd I plan to go back part time as a job share - otherwise when would I spend time with her? (I'm in school everyday 7.30-5.30 then some marking at home and work approx 5 hours on a Sunday. I'm hoping I can manage a 3 day teaching week into 5 days of the week to save my weekends.

yabu
my dd had job sharing teachers for 2 years. it was great.
one she didn't gel with and the other she did. so it meant that she wasn't stuck with the first one all week.
all the kids managed and were happy and this was a sn school.

I am doing supply teaching at the moment and almost every school I go in to they ask me if I want a job. And not because I am brilliant because I am fairly sure I am not, having returned to the UK after almost a decade. But because there is such a shortage of teachers.

More than a dozen times, i have has a phonecall between nine and ten O'clock begging me to go to a school as they have nobody. Yesterday I said 'I can go to work if I can leave at 3.15 (at a school that doesn't finish till 3.30) and they still sent me in.

I have been to schools where the TA has told me the dc have had ten teachers in a year so the children all just call you 'teacher' all day long because they are so used to having a parade of teachers. Perfectly good middle class schools.

The government is trying to get parents who left teaching to bring up their dc to return to teaching. One of the consequences of this is that many of those people will have young dc of their own who they would never see if they had to work the hours of a full time teacher.

What you could do is train to be a teacher yourself and take on a full time position at your children's school.

I taught job share for years - soon as I had my own dcs I wanted to, yunno, spend time with them and not other people's offspring 5 days a week. Or maybe we should go back to when I was wee and teachers had to leave their job when they left to have babies?

Haha gabsalot I didn't quite mean that - at my sons school this year one of the teachers was signed off with stress and other ill health for a number of weeks - I was thinking of that scenario in that a job share would have allowed some continuity for the children for at least part of the week, instead of everyone over stretched and the children not knowing what to expect. The second teacher would be doing their days regardless and it would be very unlikely to have both incapacitated at the same time.

I think this is a great idea - wish they had this in my DD's school. Always think the teachers are pretty much knackered by the end of the week and perhaps would very much appreciate being able to share the load.

Not rtft but of course you are being very unreasonable, not least because you don't actually have a live complaint. You are complaining essentially about part time workers generically, which is bizarre coming from a female and is potentially discriminatory ( job shares are primarily undertaken by women, who want to work part time due to still being, for the most part, the primary childcarer in their families). In this day and age of equality I am astonished that all women do not embrace this concept as an aid to women returning to the workforce after having children. Step outside your own blinkered existence for one minute and think how this is a good thing for the 50 per cent of the population that possess a uterus.

My daughter's school has 75 per cent of its teaching staff as job shares, including the head teachers. You get two heads and two skill sets for the price of one. You get, as other people have said, a fresh teacher halfway though the week. You get two personalities which can help in appealing to kids' differing personalities and assisting them to engage with learning. You also get two women who are able to both work and spend time with family. WTF would anyone think that was anything other than bloody amazing?