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.

[MissBattleaxe]

Well I think you're having a bit of bashing OP. My DS had job share teachers last year and it was a disaster. I agree with it in principal, but this just didn't work out.

You're entitled to be concerned, and people are entitled to assuage those concerns, but there have been some quite fierce replies that I feel were unwarranted.

[inlovewithhubby]

If someone came on here and said 'all part time work should be eradicated', they would get a bashing.

That is exactly what the op has done, except limited that eradication to the field of teaching. Shame on her.

I'm not a teacher, I just believe that women shouldn't have to choose between work and their children.

[Tatiebee]

My 7 year old DS has had 7 teachers in his three years so far at primary school. As he has ASD I do feel that so may changes to staffing have impacted on his mental health although he doesn't appear to have suffered academically. I'd rather there was more consistency but I understand that teaching when you have a young family must be very difficult and don't blame teachers for requesting more flexible working patterns. I don't think you are being unreasonable but unfortunately I'm my experience we can't do much about it.

[CaptainCrunch]

Not rtft so sorry if I am repeating what anyone else has said, only going on your OP.

I work in a primary school and there is a high proportion of job share posts in my school atm, usually because of mat leave and teachers returning on a pt basis.

Like everything else, it depends on the teachers. It can work very well if they communicate well and support each others' decisions and work practices, it can be an absolute disaster if egos get in the way and they refuse to listen to each other.

Depending on the class, it can be very unsettling for some individuals. Some pupils find having 2 teachers with differing styles very difficult to cope with. I've been in classes where pupils have openly told the current teacher "I don't like you, I prefer Mrs X". Also I have heard pupils say "Mrs X says you did this wrong".

My personal view is that job shares, on the whole, are not a great idea but can't really be avoided these days and are common working practice.

I stress this is a personal view. Others may have had much more positive experience of them.

[LunaLoveg00d]

My kids have had job share teachers and it's worked perfectly - one teacher monday - wednesday, the other thursday and friday. The two teachers work well as a team. It is not beyond the wit of a teacher to leave notes saying "green group need to finish page 6 of the maths book" or even maybe email and text??? Lessons are planned well in advance and not organised the day before.

Personally I think it's worked VERY well, having two teachers with complementary skills and abilities. And yes, as others have said the teachers can cover each other for sickness or training days which is much less disruptive.

[KittyPerry77]

Thanks for the replies. It's good to be able to ask other mums about this without asking those at the school who (clearly from this thread) would then have me down as The Loopy One. Much obliged.

[cannotlogin]

yes, you are clearly that parent....

[BitOutOfPractice]

I know that when my sister was a job sharer for many years she used to spend hours every week handing over to her partner, discussing lessons, individual children etc etc etc. That hours extra of teachers' time your kids are benefitting from. Not to mention the pooled resources, access to twice as much experience and expertise etc etc etc

[BoyFromTheBigBadCity]

I had teachers with a job share in year 4. It worked perfectly fine.

[Onsera3]

IME it's not uncommon for teachers at primary to teach another's plans. Eg one teacher in the year group plans all the numeracy, another all the literacy and so on depending on how many form entry.

The plans are detailed enough that they can be monitored by management and that they could be taught by anyone covering the class.

Sometimes any teacher will be sick, go on course, have PPA time or go in maternity. This is just life.

Job sharing is sometimes the only way to maintain balance if you go back to teaching when you have a family. The needs of the pupils need to be balanced with the needs of the teacher.

They could benefit from diverse teaching styles and having a teacher who is much fresher at the end of the week instead of a teacher who's exhausted from a week juggling their own children as well as a class.

[Isetan]

DD has had only two out of her five years in primary without job sharing teachers. In my experience it's worked really well and both DD and I have built really good relationship with both teachers. The job sharing teachers appeared less knackered at the end of the school year and I'm sure sharing the workload contributed to it.

This year, one of DD's regular teachers was temporarily seconded to teach a more difficult class and she was replaced with a newish teacher. Unfortunately, some of the kids ran rings around her and she had difficulties maintaining discipline. The atmosphere in the class degraded during this teacher's days but having one half of the original job sharing duo for the remaining days, limited the impact on DD. The newbie was replaced by a more experienced teacher soon after and because she was no stranger to many in the class (she had taught DD in previous years, as part of a job share duo), normal service was resumed within days partly because her reputation proceeded her.

Children are really quite adaptable and in my experience, as long as the teacher/s know their stuff, it will be fine.

[zad716]

DS's (year 1) teachers are job share and we've not been impressed at all. It may be because they are both rubbish rather than because they job share. (Or it might be because we were spoilt last year because the NQT he had was absolutely fantastic)

[RhodaBull]

Yes, it does depend on the teachers involved. You could get two great teachers, or two awful ones. Hopefully the head is a good one who makes sure that teachers are paired who complement each other.

[JsOtherHalf]

Ds had 2 years of jobshare teachers for the first 2 years of primary school with no issues.
I really wouldn't worry about it.

[tanfield90]

In my penultimate year at primary school our class was taught by a pair of job-sharing teachers. Mrs W did mornings, Mrs H did afternoons. I don't remember it being an issue (I was eight) and it was probably quite enterprising for 1979.

[feathermucker]

It happens all the time in primary schools the length and breadth of the country.

It isn't impractical; they will communicate with each other and the children may well benefit from the change of faces through the week.

[feathermucker]

What can you do, you ask?! About a situation that doesn't affect you in any way?!

Nothing.

[MargaretCavendish]

Surprised to hear people talk about this as if it were a new thing. I was taught by two teachers job-sharing in primary school, and that was heading on for thirty years ago. It worked fine for us then, and, as most pp have said, I don't see any inherent reason for it not to work just fine now.