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?

SmileEachDay

I don't want a mumsnet like button but that post would have been good for one

So, in the absence of the OP are we assuming that they are not returning and the shock horror idea of ‘NVQ level 3 teaching my child’ is a fantasy not warranting 300 replies?!

@fedup21 I reckon OP is either the TA herself or another member of staff who is horrified at the plan and gathering outraged evidence in order to object.

I hope that if the OP is the TA then they’ve realised that no, the school hasn’t identified her shining talent and is willing to cut a few corners to get her in the classroom ASAP.

Rather it has identified a cheap body to stick in front of the class and is fervently hoping that it doesn’t go too badly.

It may have concerned me before I worked in a school and understood the Heads motivation; and it's not money.

Home-growing a teacher that has given loyal quality service as a TA has many benefits to the school. She is a known quantity, the school will likely be part-funding her degree which ensures they'll want to give her every support and she knows she's got more to prove.

Year 3 is a low risk year compared to 2 or 6.

If you're genuinely a parent OP I think you have less to worry about than you think, but you can always have a meeting with the teachers line manager.

If by chance though you are a teacher trying to muster an argument, then I should warn you that Heads aren't usually won over by a conversation that starts with "Mumsnet says..."

It may have concerned me before I worked in a school and understood the Heads motivation; and it's not money.

I doubt that.

You can fed but since I asked him directly I'm fairly confident in stating that. We didn't go through a polygraph though

I could understand that if the Head were putting a graduate TA through Schools Direct, but something that’s going to take 6+ years? That’s a pretty long view to be taking a gamble on.

I mean, most heads don’t last that long.

I can't get over that poster saying "it can't be that difficult can it?" No amount of money would tempt me and anyone who does it has my utmost respect and admiration.

So, do we actually think this is real then?

A head somewhere in the country has decided to put someone in charge of teaching a year 3 class from September who only has an NVQ3?

If it’s not directly true, I think this thread is certainly testing the waters.

Entirely coincidentally I’m sure, the DfE are looking at how to get TAs to become teachers, because hey, they’re already in the classroom.

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-looks-tas-help-solve-teacher-shortages

Interesting

The DfE research needs to be finished by April, according to the DfE document, sent out just before Christmas.

Has this research been released? This article was January 2019.

The entry routes still require a degree as it says here, at least. If that is scrapped, it will be a disaster.

www.tes.com/news/teaching-assistant-to-teacher-route

The entry routes still require a degree as it says here, at least. If that is scrapped, it will be a disaster.

They can’t scrap it. Can you imagine? I’m not sure who would read The Sign Of Four and incorporate GCSE AOs and build on KS3 teaching, making thematic and content links and defining the scope of historical and social content and setting assessments, if not someone with a degree.

I shudder to think what we would end up with. Probably the teachers with degrees bailing out those without for a bit, until the poor staff who were in over their heads got fired.

I agree.

I’m hoping then that this thread is fictitious and there aren’t 30 year 3 pupils out there without a graduate teaching them in September.

I’m taking the radio silence from the OP as confirmation of this!

Yes, I think we've been taken in by this first time poster. Luckily no one said it happens so no shock horror headlines in the DM tomorrow.

Don’t forget that this has come up before in the form of teaching apprenticeships - schools need to hire apprentices to claim back their apprenticeship levy so they were looking to create yet another route into teaching.

People were generally horrified at the prospect of an 18 year old apprentice teacher doing their degree and teaching at the same time.

This is another way to spin it.

Ah, interesting. I don’t remember hearing anything about a teaching apprenticeship-was this recently?

I know there are Post grad ones, but those aren’t any different really to scitt etc, I guess.

It was around the time the political agenda was trying to force all ITE into schools, not universities (presuming so that trainees can get programmed into the model of their schools rather than develop critical thinking skills). The idea was that nobody really needed a degree and ITE to teach and you learn as you go.

Or as it was rightly called out as: trying to staff schools on the cheap

Amusingly, the private schools that gave us all the political elite somehow are still bothered by academic credentials.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/a2712438-Plan-for-18-year-olds-to-become-teachers-with-on-the-job-training

Apparently schools were desperate for this to become a thing.

And I clearly had a crystal ball in 2016 when I posted this:

I've been trying to think why on earth schools would be wanting this, and the only thing I can think of is that they've got some teaching assistants who want to be teachers, who haven't got degrees so can't do Schools Direct.

Disclaimer - haven't read the whole thread yet, so might be repeating myself.
Firstly, teaching in a primary is NOT easy. I'm a TA and have seen a number of teachers who decided to switch from secondary to primary because they thought it would be easier. Only one made it further than the end of their first term. They found it harder because they have to teach everything, regardless of their degree subject. And they are set targets for all subjects, not just their degree subject. Most of them very quickly went back to secondary school jobs.
As for @MonstranceClock

Year 3? That wouldn't bother me. I dont think you need to know too much to teach that age. Secondary school physics teach for example, I would expect to have a masters in physics and a teaching qualification.

I laughed. When DC did their pgce to teach physics, in both placement schools, not only was their Mphys the highest physical S qualification among the teachers, it was the ONLY one! The other physics teachers had completed a ske to allow them to teach physics.

The recruitment risks is real and it affects all schools, from primary right through. And I suspect that may be partially why OP's school is doing this.

Interesting article and thread from 2016, @noblegiraffe!

You were spot on there.

I’m hoping we can take it as a good sign that article was written 3 years ago, and non-graduate teaching apprenticeships haven’t yet become a thing.