To expect a teacher to be qualified?

[Sunnysummer1]

My ds is about to start year 3 in September & I have just found out his teacher is not a qualified teacher. She has been an teaching assistant for a few years & is starting a teaching degree which she will do one afternoon a week. She has a teaching assistant qualification nvq, but nothing else. I have heard that she is a good teaching assistant and my ds likes her. She is supported by the deputy and will have a teaching assistant in the classroom in the morning. I’m trying not to worry but it just doesn’t sit comfortably with me as I thought teachers had to have a degree. She is fairly young; under 30 & doesn’t have children, if that makes any difference. Would it bother you?

Yes this would concern me in principle but i would remain open minded until September

It wouldn't bother me. I'm a TA myself and have far more experience and knowledge than some of the qualified teachers that my school employ. Yes they have degrees but in ridiculous subjects and some have no idea how to maintain class discipline!

This has been happening for a long time, unqualified teachers are 1) so much cheaper and 2) filling the massive gap because we have no where near enough teachers 🤷‍♀️

"there were 22,500 unqualified teachers in primary and secondary schools in England in 2015, with average class sizes of 25.4 pupils.
That means nearly 572,000 kids were taught by staff without the formal qualification."

No, she will work super hard and have the deputy supporting her. The school must really have faith in her if they are putting her through her degree.

At secondary school subjects are frequently taught by teachers with a very tenuous link to a subject. My friend teaches design and also teaches French because her mother is French ( she’s not bilingual) and child development because, you guessed it, she’s had children.

I wouldn’t be concerned.
Hardly difficult to teach primary kids is it?
Not exactly specialist stuff and she’s had lots of experience in the classroom

And yes it would concern me as a parent, but as a teacher I understand why it happens.

Yes it would bother me. Lots of schools are hiring unqualified teachers because they’re cheaper. Unfortunately cheaper isn’t necessarily better.. well it’s better for the budget I suppose but not for the pupils education. As an absolute minimum I’d expect a qualified teacher otherwise I’d look at transferring my child elsewhere.

"Hardly difficult to teach primary kids"

Wow, do you really think that zooblue?

It wouldn't concern me. It's a common programme and the teacher will be well supervised/overseen. I did the equivalent 10 yrs ago and whilst I had my own classes, I had a lot of input from others.

Zoo: Hardly difficult to teach primary kids is it?
Yes, that's exactly right. In fact any old person could do it....

I wouldn't want that for my child.

Hardly difficult to teach primary kids is it?

Wow, really? Is that what you think?

So, ok then. What qualifications do you think teachers should have? If you don’t think they need a teaching qualification or degree? What about A levels? GCSEs?

Could 16 year olds teach?

I totally agree with you, OP-I wouldn’t like it and would move my child to a school to a class with a qualified teacher.

Maybe in reception / year 1 or even year 2 at a push!! But Y3 is when they start moving up levels so I wouldn't be happy...

To be honest, if she is an experienced TA she has way more actual knowledge of life in the classroom than a fresh out of University NQT, and if school is suporting her through her degree they must think she is worth it (said as a degree educated TA who has worked may years with good and not very good primary teachers)

I'd be cautiously optimistic! I've known a few TAs go this route and they are usually very good because they are going into it with their eyes open!

Can I ask why being under 30 with no children makes a difference?

Yes, it should bother you. Teachers do actually learn stuff during their training that is different to being a TA and that can’t simply be picked up by osmosis.

But teaching is being so devalued as a profession that some people think it’s something that some people can just do.

I've been at school. The teachers just stood at the front and talked and drank tea. How had can it be?

I am a teacher and it wouldn't bother me at all. I know qualified teachers that are shockingly bad, and unqualified teachers that are the best in the school. Give her a chance, she will prove you wrong.

What age does the school finish (when do they go up to the next school)

Oh, and I am under 30 with no children. Does that make me a worse teacher? Hmmm....

If she’s doing her PGCE then that’s why she’s unqualified- thousands do it every year in practically every school. I don’t see anything wrong with it

A good TA is better than an average teacher so give her a chance. You do not learn the magical art of management of behavior on a teaching course- that is learned on the ground and many TAs can be very accomplished at this.

is the deputy going to be supporting from afar or mentoring properly as that would change my perception

I remember moving from teaching Y6 to Y2.
Various supportive parents offered to go and complain to the head and governors as ‘You are far too clever to teach Y2’
Because I knew all my times tables and could tie my own shoelaces.

This is what happens when teachers are accused of whinging and people like Zoobluebabypink's blatant fuckwittery is believed.