AIBU to think this is a potential way for primary school kids to catch up?

[Crunchymum]

Current teachers move up with their year group?

So mine will be going into Y3 and Y1, their current teachers remain with them. In effect teaching them for 4.5 terms as opposed to 3.

These teachers will be best placed to know where the children are lacking, how best to support them. They know where the are at with their home schooling. They know where they could / should be.

Obvious issues are teachers tend to remain within their KS. So a KS1 teachers may not be equipped to move to KS2? Same with EY moving to KS1 But they can be trained over the summer?

New teachers for reception class

Year 6 teachers provide extra support for SATs years

Our school is a double intake (so 2 classes for each year) and there is always movement with the teachers. Mainly EY moving to KS1 from what I've seen.

Is this idea feasible at all?

We could have all the money in the world- even offer £10k golden handshakes- there still wouldn't be enough non-working KS1 teachers out there to recruit! (Clue- you'd need at least 20,000 Reception teachers)
There has been a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching for twenty years now.

I'm a teacher (who has taught Y1/Y4 and Y6 as well as nursery so we do exist) and I don't think this is a terrible idea and at some places would work (I'm in Y6 now and could happily and easily go in to YR)but not everywhere and the recruiting extra teachers possibly not money wise. I know at my work we are planning that September-half term we reinforce the key summer term topics that were missed and then start the new years curriculum in October. I have taught several kids who have missed 1-2 terms before due to illness or family moving abroad for work. The generally do catch up x

Ok so current Y5 teachers will become Y6 teachers. Current Y6 will support the (new) Y2 and Y6 who are the SATs year groups. They will not be expected to go into R.

It won't work for those schools that don't have have R-Y6 on the same premises. So not feasible for Infant / junior type set up.

Teachers will be paid for any training, and it wont be a full on schedule, as teachers can teach any discipline. It could just be a refresher for any teacher moving KS, if they feel they need it?

The government have thrown money at most other sectors, let them bloody well financially support our kids catching up.

TA should move too. So kids will have their same TA and teacher for 4.5 terms.

Leavers and new recruits will have to transition anyway so if someone is leaving to teach Y4 somewhere else, they are now teaching Y5.

I realise it is a very "blanket / one size fits all" idea but it's more than Boris has!!!

Wouldn’t starting with the old teacher and then switching after a few weeks be more disruptive.

I would have thought a thorough handover and teachers familiar with the curriculum and expectations of the year group they are teaching would be better.

There are already really good handover procedures in most schools so the actual teacher moving up isn’t necessary.

Yes aragog many schools near me are separate infant and junior schools too. Though maybe it would be easier to cycle within just a three or four year banding like that?

Ok do it's the recruiting of more teachers that is the issue. Fair enough. And no I cant offer any potential solution for that?

Final year teacher trainees coming in to fill some gaps?

My DS is year 5 and going back for part time school at the end of the month, but wont be with his teacher as she is pregnant and not teaching in school, and obviously she wont be back in September.

Why don't you contact the department of education and suggest it? I'm sure theyd be grateful.

“Final year trainees”... sigh.

Loads of people enter the teaching profession through post-graduate courses... those ARE only one year!

I don't think it's necessary tbh. At primary level, the English curriculum runs over two years anyway for 3-4 and 5-6 so they get two years to acquire the skills and cover the curriculum. Maths builds upon prior learning very sequentially, and often teachers find themselves recapping the year or two beforehand's content prior to teaching the current content because some kids will need reminding. So it may take a bit longer than usual but won't be too far outside the norm. Geography, history and the rest of the foundation subjects in general have curricula by key stage, not year by year, so they've got two years to cover it in KS1 and four in KS2. Science does have prescribed content year by year which will need covering at some point, but good hand-overs between outgoing and new teacher should make clear which topics will need to be taught next year. The KS2 kids will catch up over time. The KS1 kids may need phonics and reading interventions, but there are always some kids who need this anyway and teachers will pitch their autumn lessons at a lower level than they would ordinarily in line with the requirements of the cohort.

You may see a drop in SATS attainment but that's of no concern to the kids' life chances and overall learning anyway. Trust the teachers. They've got this.

@Saucery

In normal times I agree. But kids have missed half an academic year. How do you hand that over?

Not to mention no academic reasons. Kids will be scared and anxious when they go back. They need familiarity, and consistency.

I don't think this is a bad idea OP - and I do think that there will be a lot of teachers moving up with their classes. In our school we know where we're going now, and in the upper school (KS2) about half of us are moving up with our existing group.As teachers we should all be skilled enough to move a year group or two without major re-training (doing a big jump, like Y1 to Y5 is a different matter of course!)
Sadly I'm not moving up with mine.
I'm a Y5 teacher, I'll be inheriting a class that has missed half of their Y4 time. And of that class a good chunk of them were not working at Y4 level in March. So in September I'll inherit a Y5 class that needs to be taught the Y3, 4 & 5 curriculum (and some Y2 probably). Of course I've had to use it before in class, but never to this extent.
This summer I will be swotting!
I'd like to think that the Government will take in to account the huge load that this will place on teachers for assessing and planning next year, and help us resource for that.

Yeah, of course lots of people do a conversion course. Scrap that idea.

Number 1- I am not using my Summer to be 'retrained' for a different year group
Number 2- teachers can talk to other teachers and give a great handover of abilities , strengths and weaknesses - it may surprise some but teachers are very good at that!
Number 3- my class are a nightmare this year - don't really want another year of them
Number 4- I don't want to move classrooms- as that will take at least 3 days so sort
Number 5- as much as it's great hearing all these ideas - as a teacher I prefer to hear ideas from other teachers - not parents who come up with these ideas. (If parents think they know better- become a teacher and change the world)
Number 6- may work in some schools - however very low percentage (thought I'd add a positive point )
Number 7- just no

I'm shattered and I don't think many teachers have the energy for all this speculation at the moment!

@Bigearringsbigsmile

I guess you are being ironic. I assume this is already being considered if it is feasible or has been rejected. I am aware there are lots of very clever people, planning this on a country wide level.

Also I think a lot of parents underestimate how fab children (not all) but the majority are with change- I've had 23 of my 28 year 1s back and not one issue- they're happy and loving it! Children are very adaptable to change!

For us, personally, that would be a disaster for our 7 year old, who’s teacher has been intent and single minded in my lo learning her 2,5 and 10 times tables - all year.

The only problem is, lo knows all times tables (and division) to 20, with instant recall as opposed to by rote.

I’d tear my hair out with another year of that.

On the other hand my 10 year old’s teacher seems to know and understand my dd individually and academically so I wouldn’t be opposed to that for her.

@WoWsers16

Number 1- I am not using my Summer to be 'retrained' for a different year group Number 2- teachers can talk to other teachers and give a great handover of abilities , strengths and weaknesses - it may surprise some but teachers are very good at that! Number 3- my class are a nightmare this year - don't really want another year of them Number 4- I don't want to move classrooms- as that will take at least 3 days so sort Number 5- as much as it's great hearing all these ideas - as a teacher I prefer to hear ideas from other teachers - not parents who come up with these ideas. (If parents think they know better- become a teacher and change the world) Number 6- may work in some schools - however very low percentage (thought I'd add a positive point ) Number 7- just no

I'm shattered and I don't think many teachers have the energy for all this speculation at the moment!

100%

Especially point 3 and 4!

In 2019 there were 12,482 people joining ITT for primary. (Target for recruitment was 13,003, and only 354 we're Early Years)
Obviously some of those are KS2 not KS1/EYFS.
However, many teachers will also be retiring in July.

Maybe ditch SATs next year to allow teachers the freedom to catch up on the curriculum rather than teaching how to pass a test.

There’s no need for all of this panic about catch up. Teachers will ‘catch children up’ when everyone is safe to be back in school. There are children who arrive from abroad with no or little English well into the school years who do extremely well in our school system.

In a school with two form entry, this would leave two former Y6 teachers without a class of their own and add around £40-45K to the wages bill. It would be nice if the government would agree to fund it, but highly unlikely. Then the question arises what would happen at the end of the year - do schools continue to function with two (or more) floating teachers or do they have to make redundancies?

How would that work for small rural schools where we have mixed tear groups? We have YrR/1, Yr1/2, Yr3/4, Yr4/5 and a Yr5/6 class at our school.

A very town/city large school centric idea OP

The government just need to find some cash to pay for extra tutors to give some small group tuition for the next academic year and it should be ok.