4 different teachers!

[1234cakes]

My 8yr old child has had 4 different sub teachers since September, my child is quite anxious and takes awhile to adjust to new changes, I understand things are difficult with the pandemic and her actual teacher may have health issues which she is unable to return so that is totally understandable, I just feel it is unfair on her class to keep chopping and changing the teachers, do you think I would be being unreasonable if I emailed the school and asked them to take that into account for next September and try to ensure they have a permanent sub or a teacher that has a good track record for attending?

At least the school should ensure there's consistency with the TA and support for your daughter.

There's nothing anyone can do to guarantee a long term teacher though, things happen.

You can’t always guarantee consistency with TA either.

Of course you can't predict life circumstances, but you can at least plan for a long-term solution.

Some schools don't have a set TA per class in principle.

@PyjamaFan

Is it a tough school or class?

I ask because I used to work as a supply teacher. I was once booked for a term but only lasted 5 weeks due to a variety of issues.

Did that include dealing with parents with unrealistic expectations?

I'm interested to know what people think can be done to 'guarantee consistency' with a teacher or TA. Even great staff who are willing to work and have been at the school for years can become ill / fall pregnant / reach retirement age / have unexpected family issues etc etc etc. That doesn't mean they aren't committed to the profession - it means they are human. Not to mention this has been an exceptional year with covid / long covid and additional stress.

Many schools may struggle to have TAs after budgets have been hammered this year.

You won't be the only one either but if no-one makes noise, they don't need to give it the focus they should

With respect, unless the school is unusually bad, they will be focused on it. I’m secondary, but had a member of my dept off long term at the start of this year. It was a total nightmare and only worked because other members of the dept gave up PPA time to support the supply teachers.I bet that’s happening at the primary - except it’s worse because of the way PPAs are often distributed there.

I think it’s reasonable to email explaining that your child is struggling with the changes - but honestly? There may not be a solution.

Have you otherwise been happy with the school?

You have my sympathy OP as we have had the same previously with one of my DC’s class. It was a tough class not helped by some parents who actually bullied the cover teachers, gave them cruel nicknames they passed on to their child to use in class and constant accusations of the teacher lying about letting them have drinks/toilet breaks. It was awful.
The head acknowledged this and ensured consistency was in place for the next year although then a maternity leave happened.
Teaching is tough at the moment, our primary had 3 teachers leave the profession at Christmas.

This happened to my son when he was in y5 (not Covid times) He was not a particularly sensitive child but he hated the instability.
The parents got together and asked the school to get a teacher for the whole summer term because they had 1.5 terms of 3 subs on rotation and the kids didn't know if they were coming or going. The subs would work 2/3 days in a row max and there were lots of stories among the parents about how behaviour had gone out the window.
The summer term was great because they had the continuity of one teacher. Does it cost schools more to hire one teacher for a term than several subs in rotation?

The communication with school was terrible. The head listened to parental concern but didn't say anything until they started looking for the summer term teacher.

@RedGoldAndGreene

This happened to my son when he was in y5 (not Covid times) He was not a particularly sensitive child but he hated the instability. The parents got together and asked the school to get a teacher for the whole summer term because they had 1.5 terms of 3 subs on rotation and the kids didn't know if they were coming or going. The subs would work 2/3 days in a row max and there were lots of stories among the parents about how behaviour had gone out the window. The summer term was great because they had the continuity of one teacher. Does it cost schools more to hire one teacher for a term than several subs in rotation?

Fairly sure that the ‘solution’ had nothing to do with the parents ganging up.

Does it cost schools more to hire one teacher for a term than several subs in rotation?

Most of the time you either can’t find someone or you don’t know if the class teacher will be back.

No - hiring supply teachers on a day to day basis is very expensive. No scholl does that through choice. It is much better for all involved if the school take take someone one for a fixed term eg one term, two terms.

The issue is that no one has a crystl ball. If a teacher is off sick it os often updated on a two week or so basis - based on sick notes. You can't give someone else a fixed term job if you don't know when the original teacher will be returning.

Trust me, the stress and workload of having someone off sick impacts the other teachers as well as the kids. But, it can't be helped - people get ill, emergencies happen, covid happened.

You should absolutely contact the school with your suggestion, because they won’t have thought of it - and will be grateful for your suggestion.

I get it, OP, that you are worried for your child and naturally want the best for them but I do agree with many on here that it would be better to email/get in contact with the school, about more support to help your DD adjust to these changes, rather than focus on September and teachers ‘with a better attendance record’.

This is mainly because the school will already be forward planning this anyway (the school have already been good and paid extra for qualified teachers for example-my DD recently only had the class TA and trainee in class for two weeks whilst the class teacher was off(and why they were off was none of my business)) and even then in September, you never know when a teacher will get ill, move, have a baby (if a female teacher) or get a new job/promotion elsewhere.

Therefore, it is definitely better to focus on helping your child as much as possible, utilise and practise strategies so that she deals with these changes in a way that causes her less stress.

You will get support on the SEND board here if you need it.

It will also be good to think about this in terms of Secondary school and the constant changes there as well, so the sooner both you as a parent and the staff at her school, deal with your child’s specific needs, the better in the long run.

My child’s class teacher has been off all year. Theyve had the same supply teacher all year. Ds lives the supply teacher.

My question would be why are the supply staff not staying? Id be looking carefully at SLT at this point.

Sounds like your child will benefit from learning that she can in fact cope with change.

Have you got her a therapist to work on this anxiety with her?

I'm interested to know what people think can be done to 'guarantee consistency' with a teacher or TA.

It would have helped in my son's case if there was a pattern with substitutes so he knew on Wednesdays he could expect Mr W and on Fridays he could expect Miss B. That way it would be as if he was in a class with teachers who were job sharing rather than feeling like being in limbo.

I realise that nobody plans to be unable to work and nobody can predict how long they might need off with illness.

Yes you would be unreasonable. My ds 7 has had the same this year, and he is the most anxious wee soul about going to school, and takes a long time to get used to things. He sometimes having 2/3 different teachers in one day. The school have to do what they have to do, so you will just have to get over it.

@RachelRavenRoth

My child’s class teacher has been off all year. Theyve had the same supply teacher all year. Ds lives the supply teacher.

My question would be why are the supply staff not staying? Id be looking carefully at SLT at this point.

I wouldnimagine because some teachers are only off for a short period of time for isolation

I wouldnimagine because some teachers are only off for a short period of time for isolation hmm

Nothing in the op suggests that there have been four supply teschers and no class teacher due to covid isolation.

Nothing to suggest it isn't.

This kind of whataboutery is one of a million reasons why teachers are leaving what has become a rotten profession where they are treated like dog shit.

Sounds like your child needs extra help.
Maybe concentrate on that rather than deflecting it onto schools which have been butt fucked for years.

I don't think it's unreasonable. A school can't help having bad luck, but they should try to take it into account (as far as they can) when picking the next year's teaching and recruiting.

My son had multiple teachers in year 3, then the perm yr4 teacher resigned straightaway and he had multiple teachers again. I had a meeting with the head, hoping to be reassured, but instead I heard several teachers had resigned that year, they had struggled to recruit, and while they had got some perm teachers, they were not giving one of them to my son's class, which had had more disruption than any other class in the school. I changed his school.

I was prepared for a year or so of disruption, but when they did recruit and still didn't prioritise my son's class I reached my limit.

No one is saying it is unreasonable to be concerned.
What is unreasonable is for the OP to email in some "helpful tips" to the Head as to how they should do their job.