To send college an email after no teacher for a year?

[Mnetter11]

My DD 17 attends college and will be taking her 3 A levels in 60 days. She is very upset as she is currently getting D’s in one of her subjects (background: she is achieving A’s in her other two and was achieving A’s in this subject last year.) This subject has had no teacher for the whole second year and have had around 10 supply/agency teachers. She is very disheartened as her dream universities and apprenticeships are now out the window.

We’ve both made many complaints throughout the year to the head of year who has promised there would be a permanent teacher soon. I’m not in a financial position to pay for private tutor but feel very sorry for DD and not sure what to do next.

AIBU to contact the college about emailing somebody higher to put in another complaint (I am worried the college will turn on DD if I do this as they’ve been no help previously) ?

Is there any educational boards I can put in a complaint too?

Look on the college website for the specification they are covering, then look on the exam board website for past papers, marks schemes and the important one is examiner reports. This report will show you examples of answers, and what has been done well/badly...
If you want to message me the spec code from the college website I'll have a dog around for you

Uni students will be home for Easter next week-why not put on your local Facebook page and see if there is an economics student coming home and would they like to earn some cash for tutoring?

Ah! Economics. Huge teacher shortage.

She needs to get herself onto the Tutor2u website and buy some revision resources for the right board. She could also book onto one of their "Grade Booster" events in April.

www.tutor2u.net/economics/store/student-resources?search=&level=3000&board=&sort=recent

If you dm me, I have a discount code.

Hi everyone, thank you for all the advice. I understand that there is a struggle to recruit teachers but DD is the second year of the college offering a levels which I don’t think it should offer the course if there is no long term plan of a teacher
They will have had a plan, but that doesn't mean they're guaranteed a teacher.
No school would have a string of supply teachers if they had a better option.

If they cut the course after a year, the students would have nothing to show for Year 12 unless their college chose to enter them for AS as a standalone qualification. The students would also have to learn a whole A level in under a year to give them 3 A levels for university applications. If all students in the class picked a new third subject that is a much bigger timetabling and teaching issue than having supply and doing their best to get the cohort through.

I'm surprised you've left it this close to the exams to seek advice though OP given the situation sounds long term.

If the main issue is exam technique not content, you and the families of some other students clubbed together you might be able to arrange some group tuition on exam technique with a private tutor. Private tutors often examine their subjects too so will be able to share good exam tips.

This is what a critical shortage of teachers looks like.

Please do contact your MP - explain how unacceptable the situation is and the impact on your child, and ask for your complaint to be forwarded to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, and Bridget Philipson, Shadow Secretary. You should then get a response from the DfE. They won’t be able to do anything, but the more parents kick off about the state of education the higher up the list of priorities it will be come election time.

My school also has A-level students without teachers and this got put on the additional info section of the UCAS form.

It sounds like the alternative to letting the course run with supply teachers while trying to recruit was to cancel the course half way through. Neither of these are good options. We cancelled a course after a year and it really screwed those who needed it for uni.

Absolutely complain but also help your daughter to teach herself. She should have textbooks, the course details and past papers are online, she's clearly bright. There's probably also plenty of teaching materials online.

I had to do this myself for A levels when we had no English teacher for a year and a half. At the Christmas mocks I hadn't read most of the materials and guessed answers then pulled my socks up, read frantically and read commentaries, got an A so it is possible.

Good luck