DC’s teacher didn’t go to university.

[RabbitWedge]

Two of my DC’s are at the same secondary private school. It’s a small private school, not a well known name, but costs a small fortune nonetheless. An interaction with one of my DC’s English teachers at the end of term has made me feel uncomfortable.

‘Mrs Jones’ has worked at the school for a number of years. She is a very well liked English teacher; the children love her and she’s given high praise on the parents WhatsApp group. At the end of term, I was having a casual chit chat with ‘Mrs Jones’ and the topic of university came up. I asked ‘Mrs Jones’ where she went to university, and she stated that she had not gone and didn’t have a degree. I must have looked very taken aback, as she quickly added that she had an impeccable educational record (apparently all A’s and A*’s), she’d been tutoring for a number of years and working as a TA, at which point the school promoted her to teach English. I didn’t ask for this explanation, but she perhaps felt the need to justify her teaching.

I was under the impression that all teachers had to have degrees at the very least, and whilst I don’t doubt her popularity and delivery of her English lessons, I am concerned. I was aware that teachers in the private system didn’t need to be qualified teachers, but to not even have attended university seems unsuitable.

Would you raise this with the school in my position?

How can you be undereducated to be a teacher.

I haven’t got any qualifications and taught ds for a few years and put him through his Gcses
I pulled him out of school because he really wasn’t being taught anything

I want my children taught by teachers who are well educated. Being a TA is a hard job, but it is not the same as being a teacher and does not require a higher standard of education.

It wouldn't concern me, it's a private school, you're not paying for the best education, you're paying for the soft skills they instill and the privilege.

On average they only give pupils a half a grade boost and that disappears by the time they graduate.

I’d be incredibly concerned re a secondary English teacher not having an English degree. And if I was paying for it I’d be livid.

Yes, it would bother me. I'd expect any teacher to have QTS and have perhaps done School Centered Training (SCITT). If she started out as a TA and then did a SCITT that's fine but to just promote her without training or full understanding of the syllabus strikes me as a poor move.

Too many students sit GCSE without actually understanding the papers because their teacher clearly doesn't. And of course this means they miss out on the grades they deserve.

Oh.... Check your child doing GCSE understands about Language and Structure.

Focus, Flashback, DAFOREST, Foreboding, Foreshadowing

The obvious...and polysyndeton, asyndetic listing, sibilance, plosive, lexical/semantic fields and tricolon...

You need this for both Lit and Lang.

She may get good results but I've found students who understand Lang often get a grade or two higher than predicted. It certainly should be the same as Lit and not lower.

My primary age daughter is going into a class next year where her teacher will be an ECT (modern equivalent of NQT in old money). He is just 21 years old, and does not have a degree. Rather, he has worked as a TA since leaving school, and, as I understand it, has at the same time completed a course of part-time study alongside in order to gain his qualification.

It seems that, alongside other professions such as law, traditional routes of access in are being widened up to increase diversity and appeal and reduce barriers to entry, so that what would once have been the only way to qualify into a particular profession is supplemented by alternative routes which are deemed by the regulator of the profession in question to produce equivalent outcomes.

I can’t comment on the teaching access routes as I don’t know enough about them. But this chap is ace and my daughter is lucky to have him. This is a state school.

@LilySLE you are confused. ECTs are qualified teachers who are still early in their career.

Teachers never used to need a degree. After 'A' levels they went to teacher training college to become teachers. Nurses never used to need a degree. Most of their training was practical, and done on the wards. Requiring a degree for every profession you can think of was unheard of.

Surely before “paying a small fortune” to send your children private you would have looked at things like this? What do you expect to happen if you went to the head, they employed them and know full well what their staff need to hold in order to teach.

What difference would a degree make? You're saying she's an incredible teacher but she didn't do three years at uni, instead she got practical experience. It's weird you're so focused on this honestly.

So she’s a well loved teacher who regularly receives high praise. What’s your issue exactly? Is it windy up there on your high horse?

I have a degree in English and also worked as a teacher for a year. Absolutely nothing in my Yeats, Middle English, Comparative Italian Lit papers (you get the gist) helped me in anyway to plan KS2 and 3 lessons, the content for which you simply lifted from the govt websites or the GCSE exam syllabuses/syllabi.

I’d say that I think you need a degree to teach A Level, though, just as you’d expect Undergraduate lecturers to have an MA (Minimum). But, no, for primary school a subject degree is utterly useless.

You need empathetic adults who understand what they are teaching

Sorry, I’m not sure I understand you. Yes, he will be a qualified teacher by the time he teaches my daughter in September. Despite only being 21. Because he has qualified via another route. Which did not involve going to university.
Hence he will be a qualified teacher who did not go to university. Which I thought was the point of the thread. Apologies if I have misunderstood.

School is obviously very happy with the teacher and know she doesn’t have a degree.
Other parents are happy too
Results are good
Whats the problem?

If you feel that strongly about your child’s teacher having a degree then go to another school. The school aren’t going to stop her teaching just because you don’t approve

They've done it because they think she's a talented teacher and because legally they can. Surely you knew this was a risk with private schools? I've been aware of it since I was in my early twenties and a friend was employed by a local private school by virtue of her sporting talent, not her qualifications. It's not uncommon for teachers to be just one stage ahead of their pupils particularly when you get into FE and HE, but you need to ask yourself if you're willing to pay a premium for that. It might come down to whether or not you agree she is a talented teacher and that benefits your children. Personally I'd be asking the school for an assurance that she is working towards a qualification at least.

I personally don't think you need a degree to teach English at GCSE level, possibly even at A Level.
I got very good grades in GCSE English language and A level English Literature.
I have tutored people and my students did very well. I know what examiners are looking for etc
Then I went on to do a degree in Early years and Education.
It did not make me better in teaching GCSE English language at all. Why would it?

Utter snob. She's good at what she does. Do you want her sacked? If I was the head I'd tell you to find another school if you are not happy.

If you're not happy the local state school will be full of teachers with degrees.
What exactly will you achieve by "running to tell" .Do you want to stir up a bit of drama?
The school already know. Private schools have different rules.
Why don't you know this?
Get over yourself or change schools!!!!

Some people can have endless qualifications, doesn't mean to say they can impart that successfully. Sounds like she's a great teacher so any qualification that may have been achieved would be out of date anyway.

I know someone with a level 5 adult learner certificate (I don’t think a full level 5 as it only took a few months) who is teaching at a specialist provision for kids with autism. I’d be really cross as a parent having fought to get my DC into a specialist school if I found out that not only did they not have a proper teaching qualification, but also no real experience teaching groups of kids with additional needs. They’ve only ever taught functional skills at college and not for years.

I was surprised it was allowed, but I think it’s a private school that state funded kids can get funding to attend. So maybe the same rules don’t apply.

That's ridiculous.

Someone with a degree in physics can teach science and maths to GCSE.

This! But I'd be annoyed if I'm paying top dollar for teachers that don't even have a degree

There is a very strange attitude her about a parent discussing concerns about teaching staff. Adult conversations like this happen - it’s not telling tales

i Do think this comes down to immaturity.

I had immature parents who thought the school could do no wrong and who didn’t feel able to have a conversation when my teacher was struggling with the the subject at A level. I got a lower grade because this teacher taught some parts of the course incorrectly. I went on to do a degree and masters in the subject, and this lady should have been nowhere near a classroom.

her degree was in geography and she was teaching economics. It’s okay to raise concerns. It’s not telling tales or being ‘that parent’.

@RabbitWedge I’m amazed that you enrolled your child and until now have been happily paying a small fortune for them to attend without having looked into this.