To think most parents would be unhappy with their child being taught by a 19yo apprentice?

[Postapocalypticcowgirl]

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-developing-teaching-apprenticeship-for-non-graduates/

The DfE are developing an apprentice scheme for teaching for people without degrees.

I think there are some serious problems with this idea, but this isn't about those, really.

I'm just thinking about the attitude that some posters have towards NQTs (IE they don't want their child taught by them) and I'm curious as to what posters think.

In terms of voting, I'd like people to vote not on whether they think it's a good idea overall, but just on whether they would be happy with their child being taught by a 19yo apprentice who's just left college/sixth form.

YABU - I would be happy with this for my children.
YANBU- I would not be happy with this for my children.

I do assume at least at the start, it would be under the supervision of an experienced teacher, hopefully with them in the classroom full time. But to make it viable for schools the apprentice would likely have to be unsupervised at least some of the time pretty quickly. I do think it would be much more involved than initial placements on primary teaching degrees AND this specifically targeting secondary level.

I also think a teacher trained through an apprenticeship is likely to make a better teacher than one who did a media studies degree and a PGCE.

There’s nothing wrong with a media studies degree, it could be argued that it’s more relevant to education today than traditional Eng Lit.

I think we are approaching a situation where classes, and perhaps whole schools, are unable to open simply because they haven't got enough teachers.
This is a temporary solution.
It will be another government's problem later down the road.
As some have said, we need to make it harder to be a teacher, much better pay. Make teaching a desirable role like it is in many other countries. But that is harder than this solution.

This isn't a solution, it wouldn't solve anything. Take-up would be minuscule.

@Hobbi I resent your assertion that I am patronising primary teachers. I have done 3 years of it and I take my hat off to anyone doing it long-term as it's exhausting. However, my point was that a well-educated 19 year old could do a good job in a primary classroom as their knowledge/skills are considerably beyond the children they are teaching. You appear to have ignored or misunderstood it completely so I'm out

I'm absolutely not OK with it. I don't think the average 19 year old has the maturity to deal with stuff that happens in a school classroom.

Can’t see why anyone so freshly out of the trainwreck that is a large number of secondary schools would want to go back in there as a zookeeper. Teaching isn’t an attractive career prospect. You’re not going to make it attractive by consistently lowering the bar for people to get into it.

Why isn’t the government looking at why there’s such an issue with retention of existing teachers, and doing something about that?

The worrying thing is that at the same time as they are discussing this nonsense that won’t happen, they are actually closing down training providers and training routes for people who do actually have a degree.

It’s madness.

This is not driven by cost-cutting. At all. No. Not at all.

Good grief don't tell the OP about nurse apprenticeships.

This is what used to happen in the past. My Great Aunt became a pupil teacher at 16, this was in the 1900s. She then became infant teacher at another village school until she retired in the 1940s.

You do realise that in Primary English uour child will have been taught, and expected to be using, ALL aspects of grammar. Secondary schools do NOT teach any new grammar topics, they may reinforce .
My friend taught a level English in a 6th form approx 8-10yrs ago and she didn't teach some of what y6 kids now know.
Same for maths. Topics which were normally taught in y8/9 are now taught in y5/6.

in the past.

The past being the operative term? How many children were in school 'in the 1900s'? How many people proceeded to university?? What educational expectations did we have for children being taught?

Teaching isn’t an attractive career prospect. You’re not going to make it attractive by consistently lowering the bar for people to get into it

This is key. What we need is better pay, clear and fair progression, and a competitive edge to getting accepted into ITT.

Instead we have lower and lower pay, progression stagnated because schools cannot afford to reward success, younger and younger SLT with sod all life experience and ability to manage young people effectively, consequent worsening behaviour, bigger class sizes and therefore worsening working conditions and the need to drag in anyone off the street as a warm body in front of clases hence apprenticeships.

None of this is rocket science yet 12 years in, this Government insists on making it worse.

This government isn't interested in keeping existing teachers in education. That would require putting a reasonable level of investment into education, properly managing the workload and paying a comparable graduate wage. They don't want to do any of that.

Instead, they are focused on making it as easy as possible to become a teacher (or even just to fill the classroom). They believe that it doesn't matter if experienced people are leaving, or even if the drop out rate of new people is high: if you can throw enough bodies at the wheel to keep it turning, it's all good.

It honestly is a crime what this government has done to education in the 13 years they've been in power.

We have lost a couple of very experienced teachers. They were told there was no money in the budget for a pay increase. Then it became apparent that their replacements had been paid significantly more and were less experienced. Heads won’t pay more unless they absolutely have to. It’s shit.