Should my child's class have a qualified teacher everyday?

[Jap26]

Aibu to expect that my year 5 child has a qualified teacher everyday at school. Teachers have been announced for the next school year and the year 5 teacher is part time doing 4 days a week, no teaching cover has been arranged and the plan is for various TA's to cover the 5th day. The school have confirmed that with ppa time for the class teacher they will only have an actual teacher 3.5 days a week. None of the TA's have any relevant qualifications. As an ad hoc arrangement to cover sickness I think this is fine but they are planning do to this every week. Before I complain I just want a reality check on if this is standard practice

"...more knowledge"? Unlikely. Who reads the inches thick stuff that the government sends to schools, the constantly changing curriculum requirements, etc, etc, unless they have to? Teachers have to. TAs don't.

Teachers have done 3-4 years study and practice covering all the curriculum areas, teaching, learning, behaviour management, child psychology, effective questioning, time managment (pacing a lesson is really hard), classroom management, etc, etc. Teaching isn't just a general knowledge quiz.

I'd want my child taught by a teacher OP but it might not be possible. There are just not enough people who want to do the job any more.

I know several TAs have been qualified teachers but have chosen to work as a TA after having a family. Just saying!

This thread just demonstrates how little idea most parents have about what a teacher's job entails and what a TA's entails. Which is understandable to a degree (how many of us DO understand someone else's job fully?) But I wish they didn't assume that they do know ours.

I valued my TA teams hugely. A few years into retirement, it's my TAs that I keep in contact with and catch up with regularly, not my teaching colleagues. We spent pretty much every minute of the day together, in a difficult area of education, supporting each other constantly. My various teams always had my back and I had theirs.

But they'd be the first to say that my role was massively different from theirs. That's why they had my back. They got it. They saw the stress and workload I was under, and they wouldn't have had my job for quids.

When they forged a relationship with a particularly complex child, I was thrilled. It was massively beneficial for the child, and it helped me. That child (if they were verbal) would have said they liked her better than me. But if the parent thought that that TA could have done everything I had to do as a teacher, better than me, the TA would be the first to tell them they were wrong. It's an entirely different responsibility and role.

So when the next poster (while ignoring the many who've already said the same thing during this thread) says that their child's TA could do a better job (in every area) of teaching the class than the teacher, in afraid they're almost certainly wrong (unless you're talking about the very very small number of teachers who've become TAs... and for the record I've never done across one, apart from in this thread)

I used to be a foundation phase teacher. This is the norm in most schools . Retention is crap and money is tight, but also just the way the foundation class is structured, the TA or HLTA is teaching kids most of the day anyway . It’s likely that the teacher has planned and set work for the TA to do anyway, so it’s not like the kids aren’t benefitting from the teacher’s qualifications and experience when the teacher isn’t there.

id say that’s a perfectly reasonable amount of time to have a class teacher. In fact, I’d welcome it because you know the days your kid has their teacher , they’re well rested and able to do their best for your kid.

I would say while it is not ideal, you need to know what is happening those days. You may have valid concerns, but you seem to be going on "a TA is not able to teach my child". The truth is this might be true or it might not be and you have no idea if it is or not.

1. Are key subjects being taught and if so, how much other teaching of these does your child get in a week? (For example. if half/most of their maths say was taught by a TA, I'd be concerned, if one lesson out of 5 lessons were, I wouldn't)

2. Are the subjects taught on those days working to the TAs strengths? (If the TA is being given a random subject that they know nothing about, I'd expect them to struggle more than a trained teacher. If they are teaching French because they are bilingual English/French; and art because they have an art degree, they may well be better able to teach those subjects than your child's class teacher who majored in Maths and then did a PGCE, has no talent in art and gave up foreign languages aged 16.)

3. Will there be another TA in the class while the TA is teaching? If the TA is being left to the whole class including those with SEN needs, on their own, while the teacher has a TA with them, then this seems rough.

4. How involved is the teacher in what is being taught? If the TA is being left to "babysit" class alone while the teacher is away, teaching a little bit that they haven't really planned for and don't know much about, that's acceptable for a day or two on a tiny number of occasions in the year. If they are teaching subjects they know well, have lesson plans that they have formed with the teacher, are being supported in the classes by another TA, and supported properly by the teacher to mark work etc, then in a climate where schools are desperately underfunded, that is acceptable.

I don't think the school should move your child, neither should you ask for this. They can't move the whole class. If the teaching is really unacceptable then the parents need to be pushing the school to get proper supply teachers and report to the DFEE and OFSTED if needed.

I'm amazed at the responses here. Back in the 1960s and 1970s when I was at primary school, on the one hand there were huge class sizes and no teaching assistants, but on the other hand every single teacher was qualified and taught the whole week. Why are we all just sitting back and accepting that things have gone so badly wrong in UK education that children are not entitled to be taught by a qualified teacher every day, every hour of the school week? If there aren't enough teachers to go around, why is that and what is the government doing to change things? I hope things take a turn for the better after the election, but it won't be a quick fix from the sound of it.

I have NRTFT but I’m a teacher and absolutely there are teacher shortages. Also though, there are really crap trusts lead by absolute donkeys who will do anything to save pennies (while spending thousands on nonsense). I literally had this conversation earlier with a friend who is a TA, who is being paid as a TA, but is expected to plan and teach and mark as a teacher two days a week next year. That is 100% because the CEO of her trust is a penny pinching horror of a human being who absolutely hasn’t advertised and has chosen instead to take advantage of his TAs. I would absolutely raise it. Just do it calmly and supportively and ask the right questions. Have you advertised for a teacher? Where did you advertise? Will the TA get training and additional pay for their additional responsibilities? How can you reassure me that the TA will provide the same standard of teaching as the teacher? Also, I imagine not voting for the Tories on the 4th will help 😉

YANBU, I wouldn’t mind as a one off but not weekly. Not really sure there is a solution though. I also wouldn’t want my DC moving classes away from their friends (probably not an option anyway).

Yes this happens and usually the teacher who is part time is planning for the fifth day and not actually being paid for it. Where I work it’s common for HLTAs to cover long term absence though we are three form entry so they are supported by colleagues in same year group.

In my opinion all primary school children should be taught by a B.Ed.

No not usual at my school. HLTA covers PPA or absence due to sickness or training but not an additional day every single week.

You could contact Ofsted op.

Ofsted would like parents to stop contacting them about crap that isn't their responsibility.

I don’t think it’s ‘crap’ if a school is neglecting its duties. What else are they not doing ?

Staffing isn't something Ofsted involve themselves in.

I don’t think people realise what you actually are meant to contact OFSTED about.

People need to contact their MP after Thursday rather than OFSTED and complain about school funding

Although I can absolutely see your point, I would also be more concerned about having various TAs cover the role and not just one. I also hope they are paying the TA accordingly, as their pay is already low for the work they do.
Presumably the teacher will plan all lessons, which is no different really from the TAs leading interventions.
How well this works will depend on the TA, but I wouldn't rule it out just because they aren't a qualified teacher. If I were you, I'd give it until Christmas and then approach the school if your child is not making expected progress.

Teacher vacancies have increased by 20% to 2,800 in November 2023 from 2,300 in November 2022, and more than doubled in the last three years from 1,100 in November 2020. Temporarily filled posts also increased; from 2,100 to 3,700 over three years.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england

My DS is due to finish yr 6 and I have seen huge changes in the way that has school has been staffed, many for the worse.

Education has been gradually defunded over many years. But, teachers and schools are meant to do more, ofren with children with more complex needs. And the system hasn't changed, so they still have the same pressures such as ofsted without the resources.

Every child should have a qualified teacher in their classroom, as a basic standard.

This is coupled with the cost of living crisis. This means parents can't contribute towards 'special days' and in my DS's school less exciting stuff happening. Now, my DS school has a small food bank.

Parents should ge shouting from the rafters about the state of our schools, but I think we are all just too worn down abd exhausted too.

Also, it feels helpless, because it's not the schools fault it has no money.

TAs may not not necessarily have a degree, but we are well trained in most areas. I’ve been a TA for 17 years. I have an NVQ as a Teaching Assistant .I have been on numerous trainings over the years, alongside teachers. I have to regularly update my training. I have learned a lot ‘on the job’, as well. The days of TA’s being ‘paint-pot washers’ are long gone…If anything, it will provide your child’s class with continuity, because the TA will know and understand the class, and they will know him/her. It’s one day a week; they will follow the planning left for them by the teacher. They will more than likely have ‘drop ins’ from SLT checking in on them.

Vote. Them. Out. 🌹🌹🌹

The recruitment crisis in teaching is so big now that there are many people teaching children in schools who aren’t qualified on a full time basis. I work in secondary and we have people on apprenticeships teaching the children, people who are doing their degree at the same time and even one doing GCSEs still. There are many from over seas who barely have gotten to grips with the UK system (and the often poor behaviour from British schools).

The system is an underfunded, overworked and therefore understaffed mess. More than a decade of Tory rule. I hope people remember this at the ballot box tomorrow.

It’s bad . Even teaching students with bad grammar are passing teaching degrees.