To ask if parents of secondary school students are aware…

[Curtainsblue]

I’ve seen some posts about the impact of lack of teachers on primary schools and also some discussion about impact on exam classes, but I wonder if parents of KS3 students are fully aware of the situation schools are currently in.

My friend is a science teacher in an oversubscribed, high achieving comprehensive school and has told me that from September around a third of KS3 science lessons will be being taught/supervised by cover teachers.

Maths are losing curriculum time (so fewer lessons every week) in KS3 as there simply aren’t the staff to teach them. He’s said this is a common picture throughout local schools, with maths and science departments in particular being impacted- he knows of 1 school in the areas that are fully staffed in these subjects.

A colleague of his at a different school has said they are preparing for it to become common place for students to be in ‘super-cover’ classes, where if there are staff absences, students will be sitting in exam style venues in groups of 60-90 working silently and independently while being supervised by a senior member of staff.

This isn’t being communicated to parents. I spoke to a teacher at my sons school and she said she doesn’t know what’s happening there yet but they are also incredibly understaffed from September.

Are you aware of staffing levels at your children’s secondary school and how this is going to impact them?

DS has just left full time education and this has been my experience since year 7, it's not a new thing.

To answer the question, yes, I was aware. Absolutely nothing I could do about it though

Well I don't know what ks3 is as I'm in Scotland but yes I'm aware about half of my son's classes are taught by cover teachers. There's many subjects that have no permanent teacher and some subjects are not available. Been like this since he started high school 3 years ago. Not ideal but what are we meant to do about it? It seems every single sector has serious staff shortages at the moment.

Its the will of the people.

Yes, please support striking teachers!

It also feels like campaigning has started already !

The dept for education has an initiative running to recruit qualified stem teachers from overseas because of the shortage.

Most schools are struggling to recruit sufficient science, maths and MFL teachers. It's been that way for a while.

Yes & most of the cover is done by (much cheaper to employ) teaching assistants who have no more than a basic knowledge of the subjects they are covering.
It's happening everywhere & has been for years.

and yet many headteachers do not value their staff. Staff are told that if they don't like decisions to resign. Staff are not supported when students misbehave. They are often told it's their fault. I think many school leaders have not yet joined the dots and realised that the stream of NQTs / ECTs are no longer available to replace the experienced staff. They need to wise up and start supporting their existing staff.

There was a headline in the Guardian recently that head teachers are striking too. I will try to find it.

Yes, I am aware of staff shortages. DD left full time ed recently. Looking back she had no maths teacher in the run up to G.C.S.E in A levels one of her subject teacher posts was completely empty. So fifty per cent she taught herself and the rest...

‘Desperate and angry’ headteachers in England ready to join strikes in autumn | Teaching | The Guardian

Yes of course. Apart from supporting the strikes and voting carefully the I'm not sure what I can be expected to do about it though.

See Quote:
Dan Hansen, head of Hazel Community primary school in one of the most deprived areas of Leicester, said: “How can I hire the support staff we need or transport our kids to the swimming lessons that really matter to them if I might be hit with an unfunded £60,000 staff bill over the holidays?”
Hansen is not a union member but said he would join NAHT in order to strike in September.

He told the Observer: “I have written making it clear to parents that we support our striking teachers. I’m not afraid to tell them education is being underfunded and none of this is our doing.”

Yes, staff retention is horrendous these days. Same as in so many public sector jobs. Also the kids don't respect their teachers, the parents are unreasonable, morale is low and the hours demandes are inhumane. Most people are aware.

Yes I agree with PP who have said there’s nothing us as parents or schools can really do (apart from supporting strike). I suppose that’s why schools aren’t telling parents.

I was aware of shortages, but I think being told the specifics of what is actually happening in schools really brought home the scale of how much children’s education is going to be impacted across the board.

It has been the case in my DD's outstanding comp in an affluent north London borough since she started in Year 7 last year. We are looking at private school options after the summer. DH and I were both state educated, and believed that any bright, supported child would do well in state too. But I don't see how that is possible now, with supervision rather than teaching, lots of behaviour issues and missing out on days of teaching due to strikes. The state education system we have now is not the same as the one I grew up with, or even the same as ten years ago.

A lot of secondary schools glahrdly communicate with parents so I’m not sure why they would communicate that they’re failing to provide. There needs to be more funding but also accountability for that money. Schools should all be under LA control again, the academy experiment just hasn’t worked

@MintJulia I have seen this too. They are offering a 10k relocation payment. Surely that could be better spent on funding schools better so they can retain the teachers they've got.

@BungleandGeorge this is true. If a school advertised these problems they would lose students and therefore even more funding.

My year 9 has had a string of covers for loads of classes. He's demotivated and can't see the point. I'm hoping that as he enters yr 10 the meagre resources will be diverted to him.

Yes, I am aware.

Strikes - year 8 and 9 stay home.
Snow days - ditto
Covid lack of staff - ditto
Flu lack of staff - ditto

I get they have to give resources to yr 7 and the GCSE years, but if you are that year 8 or 9 kid then they have been told time after time that that matter less.

DD’s school aren’t offering Computer Science as a GCSE or A level from next year because they can’t find a teacher to teach it (Welsh medium school).

I did 11 GCSEs, 9 of them with long term supply teachers and no text books. That was nearly 30 years ago. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is not a new thing and limited to ks3.
My experience is that your child can be in an exam year but have cover teachers for whole terms. The cover teachers don't even always teach that subject.

I totally ‘agree’. The mantra of good kids doing well anywhere is not applicable to a school system without teachers!

Yeah it’s shit. I had a senior school teacher friend. HT asked her is she could speak French. She said No. he said, ‘ can you learn over the summer hols as we have no French teacher’.

She left teaching pretty quickly.